Bocchiaro

• Background of Bocchario's study example answer

  
• What was Bocchiaro inspired by

  inspired by Milgram's findings that illustrated the main response to an authority figure in a prestigious environment is obedience however he doesn't enhance our understanding of:

  • other responses to authority such as disobedience + whistleblowing to unjust authority
  • the individual characteristics of those who disobey + what leads people to whistleblow against a legitimate authority figure
  • the responses to authority figures in both men + women
• What is a whistle blower

  someone who reports unethical or immoral behaviour in organisations/institutions to a higher authority after observing the behaviour take place

  unethical behaviour can include abuse, abuse of power, not following policy

  this is a response to an authority figure as they are going against an authority figure
• What else was Bocchiro's research inspired by

  inspired by research into social roles + social power. social power refers to the influence an individual has to change anothers' thoughts, feelings or behaviour (presence of others - authority figure)

  individuals in authority have social power to influence those with lesser power or status. previous research incl Milgram has shown its difficult to defy authority figures suggesting there are more than situational explanations responsible
• Main aim of the study

  to investigate the rates of obedience, disobedience and whistleblowing in a situation where the request was ethically wrong
• Secondary aims of the study

  1. to investigate the accuracy of peoples estimations of other peoples responses to authority; obedience, disobedience + whistleblowing
  2. to investigate the role of dispositional factors in obedience, disobedience + whistle blowing
• What was the research method

  • conducted a 'scenario study' in a lab
  • took place in a laboratory at the UV University in Amsterdam so conditions could be controlled. 2 specially prepared rooms were used
• Sample


  -149 undergraduate students

  -96 women, 53 men (no gender bias)

  -mean age 20.8

  -from VU University in Amsterdam
• Issues with the sample

  Ethnocentric ->all from one uni (UV) in one western culture

  -> their response to authority may differ e.g less obedient due to more freedom in Amsterdam

  Only students -> may be more obedient due to being more socialised to obey authority figures e.g teachers/lecturers

  -> higher IQ so may be less obedient
• Sampling method


  • given 7 euros or course credit for their participation
  • volunteer sampling via flyers posted in the canteen asking for volunteers
• Sampling example Q

  
• Comparison group

  
• Procedure

  
• Why were 8 pilot studies conducted


  to ensure the fake cover story on sensory deprivation was believable, credible and morally acceptable
• Qualitative findings (from the personality inventories)


  • no significant differences were found in any of the Ps responses to authority in terms of their gender, their background etc
  • however there was a trend that those who whistleblew tended to have a faith (moral obligation/duty to do what's right)
• Quantitative findings

  
• Quantitative findings


  Actual Ps:

  obey = 77%

  disobey = 14%

  blow the whistle = 9%

  Comparison group answer for themselves:

  obey = 4%

  Comparison group answer for other students

  obey = 19%
• Outline one comparison finding from Bocchario's study

  only 4% of the comparison groups said they would obey and write the recommendation letter for the unethical sensory deprivation study whereas 77% of the actual Ps obeyed the unethical request and recommended 3 friends
• Conclusions


  1. people tend to obey authority figures, even if the authority is unjust
  2. what people say they and others will do in a given situation often differs from what they actually do e.g people tend to think they will blow the whistle but in the actual situation, they don't
• Evaluation

  
• Approach question

  
• Key theme question: Explain how Bocchiaro links to the key theme responses to people in authority (4) - what, who + how

  • WHAT = main aim was to investigate the rates of obedience, disobedience + whistleblowing in response to an unethical request
  • WHO = 149 undergraduate students (96 women, 53 men) from VU university Amsterdam
  • HOW = gave all Ps a fake cover story abt study into sensory deprivation + they were tasked with deciding to obey by recommending 3 friends for unethical study, disobey by doing nothing or whistleblow by reporting ethical violations of study to research committee
• Key theme question - finding + link

  • FINDING = found that 77% of Ps obeyed, 14% disobeyed + 9% blew the whistle
  • LINK = links to key theme as the main response to authority figures is to obey them, even if the request is unethical, due to the social power + presence of those in authority positions, leading to very few people whistleblowing against them
• Debates Bocchairo links to

  • holism = looks at the effect of indv diffs (by having Ps complete personality test -> Hexaco, SVO) + situational factors (stern, Dutch authority figure)
  • determinism = behaviour predetermined by presence of stern Dutch authority figure leading to 77% obedience