Lesson3-Obedience_Milgram

See Revision Guide
pages 76-79
PSYA2 – Social Influence
Obedience
BATs
A01 - Explain why people obey inc situational and
personality factors (C)
- Outline how psychologists have investigated obedience
in lab and field experiments. (D)
A02 - Evaluate ethical and other criticisms of research into
obedience. (B)
“More hideous crimes have
been committed in the name
of obedience than in the name
of rebellion”
C P Snow
• In groups: think of examples of where social influence
has had a dramatic effect on individuals’ behaviour
Obedience in action…
At least 3 million people killed in Nazi
concentration camps as a result of Nazi
propaganda
The Jonestown massacre: in 1978,
over 900 women, men and children
died after being ordered to drink
cyanide by cult leader Jim Jones
9/11: nearly 3,000 people killed by
suicide bombers acting for Al-Qaeda
Research into Obedience
• The atrocities of the Holocaust and
the Nuremburg Trials of those
working at the Death Camps,
prompted Psychologists to find out
what makes people obey.
• http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/videos/view/20215/
• http://www.psychexchange.co.uk/videos/view/20444/
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How far will people go?
100
75
Actual
Predicted
North
50
25
0
15-60
75-120 135-180 195-240 255-300 315-350 375-420 435-450
Level of Shock (Volts)
How far will people go?
100
75
50
Actual
Predicted
North
25
0
15-60
75-120 135-180 195-240 255-300 315-350 375-420 435-450
Level of Shock (Volts)
Milgram’s (1963) studies:
obedience to authority
• Participants were assigned the role of “teacher” in a
“learning experiment” - supposedly at random
• “Teachers” were asked to administer negative
reinforcements in the form of electric shocks to a
“learner” (a confederate of experimenter) in an adjacent
room.
• Shock level increased at each mistake with 15 volts, from
15 (marked on the machine as “slight shock”) to 450 volts
(marked on the machine as “danger: severe shock”).
• As the shocks get worse, the learner protests more and
more, then refuses to answer.
• The experimenter orders the learner to continue
administering shocks: “you have no other choice, you must
continue”.
The experimental setup
Watch the
video clip
Over to you ...
• Look at the worksheet ‘Milgram’s
Variations’.
• Predict what % obeyed in each case
• Cut out the studies and mark them
on the ‘Obedience Barometer’.
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Variations to the procedure affected
obedience: Milgram (1974)
•
Immediacy of the victim:
– If the victim could only be heard, 65% of teachers went to the limit. If they had
visual contact, that number declined. However, even when the teacher had to
keep the learner’s hand on a “shock plate” himself, 30% continued to administer
shocks up to 450V.
•
Immediacy/ proximity of authority figure:
– When the experimenter delivered instructions by phone, only 20.5% continued to
obey.
•
Legitimacy of authority:
– When the experiment was conducted in a run down office building obedience
dropped to 48%.
•
Social influences:
– If a second teacher was present who complied, obedience soared to 92% full
compliance. If the other refused, only 10% of participants went up to 450V.
The variations showed that different
situational factors affected obedience
The research suggest that in
certain situations we ignore moral
codes and our disposition
(Personality) in order to obey
Authority. (more on this later!!)
Criticisms: low internal validity
Orne & Holland said participants knew the situation
wasn't real but went along with it anyway (demand
characteristics)
Milgram said:
“I
observed a mature and initially poised businessman enter the
laboratory smiling and confident. Within 20 minutes he was
reduced to a twitching, shuddering wreck, who was rapidly
approaching nervous collapse. He constantly pulled on his ear
lobe, and twisted his hands. At one point he pushed his fist
into his forehead and muttered ‘Oh God, lets stop it’. And
yet he continued to respond to every word of the
experimenter, and obeyed to the end.”
Criticisms: low external validity
• Maybe Milgram’s findings would only apply to a
specific laboratory situation
What other
criticisms
about
validity
were there?
Criticism: unethical!
• Baumrind (1964) attacked Milgram's study
for the distress it caused participants.
• What other ethical issues are raised by this
research?
Reflecting on Milgram’s
contribution
• Milgram’s experiments are powerful because they were very
simple, very real, and very disturbing.
• This research is very typical for 1970s research in its
emphasis on the darker side of human nature:
– It paints a very bleak picture of what people are like.
– Social influence is equated with something that is negative +
extreme.
– Individualism is celebrated.
• Milgram’s experiments also contributed to the end of high
impact social psychological research because of the ethical
issues they raised.
SBL - do
Hofling (1966) or
Bickman 1974
Your task
Working in groups of two or three, you need to make your own handout, or a
poster explaining the research by Stanley Milgram (1963).
Include:
•
Aims – what did the researcher want to find out and why?
•
Procedures – what did the researcher do to carry out the study?
•
Findings – what did the researcher find out (give figures if available)?
•
Conclusions – what do the results mean?
You should also include
•
Criticisms – is there anything wrong with the study (for example, does it raise
any ethical issues, are there problems with its validity?)?
•
Variations of the research (situations, different gender, culture) and the
effect on findings
Guidelines:
•
Work in groups of three
•
Keep it simple
•
Think & plan before putting pen to paper
Pages 163-169
(EP) or 156-7
(CC)will help!!
Plus various
worksheets
Present your work!!
Evaluate each other’s work
Rate it for the following..
Accuracy
All points covered – expt, variations,
criticisms of ethics and validity
Justify your evaluation
Why do we obey?
• Based on Milgram, Hofling and Bickman’s research
brainstorm all the factors that might make someone
more likely to obey.
Legitimate Authority is giving the orders - uni professor/
doctor/guard, in a lab/hospital, wearing a uniform
Agentic State - carry out the order because they pass
responsibility for the consequences onto the Legitimate
Authority (professor, doctor, guard e.t.c)
Social Isolation - obedience higher when Teacher on their
own.
Presence of allies - obedience lower when 2 confederate
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teachers disobeyed.
Why do we obey?
• Based on Milgram, Hofling and Bickman’s research
brainstorm all the factors that might make someone
more likely to obey.
Gradual Commitment - once the teacher gave a low
shock, more difficult to refuse to give a bigger shock
Role of Buffers - learner in other room, doctor at other end
of the phone - protects ʻteacher/nurseʼ from witnessing
results.
These are all examples of Situational Factors, but it is
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thought that a personʼs personality is also important.
Dispositional (Personality) Factors
• Adorno et al (1950) believed that some
people are more obedient because they
have what he called an Authoritarian
personality.
• He used the F(Fascism) Scale to rate
how obedient people were
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The Authoritarian Personality ...
• had often had a strict upbringing
• were inflexible (conventional ideas of right
and wrong, good and evil)
• were bigoted and prejudiced against people
of lower status or other cultures
• couldn’t deal with ambiguity about how to
behave
• willing to be bossed
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Homework
Either .. Outline and evaluate research
into obedience to authority. (6+6) (Evaluate
Milgramʼs research in terms of validity, and ethical issues)
OR ... Discuss why people obey. (6+6)
(use research by Milgram, Bickman and Hofling to back up
the theory)
Plenary
• Use the worksheets to help you
plan the essay question
• You could work together to build
up a bank of material to include in
your essay
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