Situational factors affecting Obedience

• Psychology

Review

Conformity to Social Roles

Zimbardo used which type of sample

1. random
2. stratified
3. volunteer
4. systematic

Zimbardo sample size was

1. 20
2. 24
3. 28
4. 30

Zimbardo identified 3 types of guards

1. tall, dark and handsome
2. sadistic, mean and kind
3. sadistic, bossy and kind
4. sadistic, harsh but fair and kind

The main difference in the BBC study

1. the guards were well trained
2. the guards had larger numbers
3. the guards were given no clear instructions
4. the guards chose to be guards

BBC Findings

1. the guards were ineffective and the prisoners took control
2. the guards were all very menacing
3. the prisoners were very passive
4. the prisoners became issolated

The main ethical issues

1. harm, informed consent, right to withdraw
2. informed consent, right to withdraw
3. harm, right to withdraw
4. confidentiality, harm, informed consent, right to withdraw

Demand Characteristics may have been powerful

1. as the guards had a uniform they felt they used act like guards
2. as Zimbardo gave the guards to much instruction
3. (A plus) they may have guessed the motive
4. (B plus) they may have guessed the purpose

Role conformity is automatic

1. all guards acted the same
2. it is not automatic all guards acted differently
3. its is not automatic there were three types
4. its is not automatic there were three types + the BBC was very different

Abu Ghraib and Validity

1. supports ecological validity
2. supports temporal validity
3. supports ecological and temporal validity
4. refutes validity

Situational Factors and Obedience

Situational Factors and Obedience

Milgram ad

40 pps

all male / USA

How many participants were in the study

1. 30
2. 40
3. 50
4. 60

What sort of sampling was used

1. Opportunity
2. Volunteer
3. Systematic
4. Random

Shocks

15-450v

15 volt increments

Every time a wrong answer was received

Overall findings ______ went to 300v, ________ went all the way

1. 100% and 55%
2. 80% and 55%
3. 80% and 45%
4. 100% % 65%

Proximity when the teacher and learner were in the same room & instructor game instructions by the phone, and forcing hand onto shock plate

1. 30% and 20% & 30%
2. 40% & 21% & 30%
3. 20% and 25% & 30%
4. 10% and 20% and 30%

Location - when moved to a run down office

1. 40%
2. 47%
3. 48%
4. 46%

Uniform - when the psychologist changes his lab coat for normal clothes

1. 10%
2. 20%
3. 30%
4. 40%

Key variations

Proximity

closeness of the experimenter to you or you to the victim 

Uniform

Offical looking uniform v normal clothes

Location

Prestigious institution v run down office

Power of uniform

Bickman

What do Bickmans findings do in relation to Milgram's study

1. Increase the reliability
2. Increase the population validity
3. Increase the ecological validity
4. Increase the temporal validity

Bickman

(MALES)

Secuity Guard 89%

Milkman 57%

Civilian 33%

Bushman

(FEMALES)

Uniform 72%

Executive 48%

Beggar 52%

Complete Goformative

Questions 1 & 4, 5 and 6

Complete the validity worksheets

Eval 1 - Lack of internal validity

 Orne and Holland claim that the pps did not feel that the experiment was real. Therefore, the pps gave shocks safe in the knowledge that there was no possibility of anyone actually getting hurt. The test was therefore a meaningless test in terms of obedience. Milgram disputes such claims stating that the pps believed they were real and this can be evidenced by nervous laughter and other non-verbal forms of communication. The stress levels experienced by the pps certainly seemed genuine as evidenced by the film footage of the experiment. 

Eval 2 - External Validity

A further weakness of Milgram’s study seems to be the lack of external validity Mandel challenges the relevance of the research. It is suggested that the pps were told little harm would be inflicted and the shocks may in fact be beneficial so it has little to say about the behaviour of Nazi guards. He also points out that in 1942 the men of a reserve police battalion were ordered to carry out a mass murder of Jews. The officer in charge offered them a way out if they did not feel up to the job. However, despite variables that should increase defiance; such close proximity to victims and disobedient peers, the majority of men still carried out the killing. This suggests that Milgram’s findings have little application outside of the lab setting.

Eval 3:  Research Support

Despite these criticisms there is research support for the role of uniform from field studies. Bickman’s study found that obedience to security guards 89% was higher than to milkmen 57% and civilians 33% . Participants were asked to complete tasks such as picking up litter or paying for expired parking meters. It was clear that due to the perceived authority of the security guard, obedience levels were higher. This highlights that uniform is a key component in legitimising authority.

Eval 4: Ethics

There are also considerable ethical concerns regarding Milgrams’ work. Baumrind states that Milgram deceived his pps tricking them in terms of the teacher and learner roles, the true nature of the experiment and the shocks being fake. He also told them that it was an experiment into learning so they could not have given informed consent. Milgram defends this by claiming informed consent would of course have been impractical but he did obtain presumptive consent from psychiatrists. Milgram also prevented pps from withdrawing from the experiment. However, Milgram did provide a debrief and also followed up pps with questionnaires and a psychiatrist check-up after a year.

Eval 5: Individual differences (gender)

Another perceived limitation with Milgram’s work is that he disregarded the importance of individual differences. A commonly held assumption is that women are more susceptible to social influence than men. So we may have seen different obedience levels between males and females. Milgram did however carry out one female condition and found that their rates of obedience were exactly the same across genders. Blass also found that in 8/9 replications the gender levels of obedience were comparable. This suggests that there are no gender differences in terms of obedience.

Goformative

Complete the remaining questions

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