Obedience

• What is obedience?

  A direct form of social influence where the individual follows a direct order. The individual has a choice to comply / defy the order. However people may comply with orders to avoid punishment
• Differences between conformity and obedience?


  Conformity - Behaviour changes without being directly told, for the favour of a group, influenced by peers who act in the way we want to be like, negative

  Obedience - There is a direct request to change our behaviour, from one person of higher status that does not act in the same way are us, positive
• Describe in detail what happened in the Mai Lai Massacre

  • In March, US Lieutenant Calley‘s platoon encountered heavy arms fire for several weeks, many soldiers were killed or badly wounded
  • The village of Mai Lai was suspected of being a hideout for North Vietnamese soldiers
  • Soldiers brutally slaughtered 500 innocent Vietnamese ranging from 1-82 years using machine guns whilst none of them initiated combat
  • Calley insisted he was merely taking orders from his superiors and did not take responsibility for the massacre
• What happened in the Nazis

  • Six million innocent people were systematically slaughtered on command during Hitler’s regime
  • The defence of many of the war criminals was that they were only following orders
• How did historians explain why the Nazis committed such horrific crimes?

  Historians believed the destruction of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and many others were made possible because of a character defect that makes Germans more obedient
• ‘The Germans are different’ hypothesis

  • States that German‘s have a basic character deficit which means they have a readiness to obey people in authority regardless of the act they are being asked to carry out
  • Dispositional explanation
• What did Milgram argue against ’The Germans are different’ hypothesis?

  He argued that people who commit atrocities if required to do so by an authority figure, situational explanation
• How did Milgram conduct his study

  • Advertisement for male volunteers in Yale University
  • Fixed draw, p was teacher and confederate was learner (electrodes attached to arm)
  • Pairs of words read, electric shock given ranging from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 volts (XXX), increasing the voltage each time
• How did the learner react to different voltages?

  • 180 volts - shouted he couldn’t stand the pain
  • 300 volts - begged to be released
  • >315 volts - silence
• What were the 4 prods given by experimenter if participant struggles?

  Prod 1: ‘Please continue’ or ‘Please go on’

  Prod 2: ’The experiment requires that you continue’

  Prod 3: ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’

  Prod 4: ’You have no other choice, you must go on’

  Prods were made in sequence, if participant continued to disobey after prod 4, the experiment was terminated
• What was the results of Milgram’s study?

  Prediction before the study: 2% of people would shock to the highest level, most people who quit early on

  Actual results: all participants shocked up to 300V and 65% of participants shocked all the way up to 450V
• Why was a volunteer sample a methodology issue?

  Because perhaps people that would volunteer to take part in an experiment are naturally more obedient people
• What effect does participants being paid have on the level of obedience?

  They are more likely to obey as they feel obligated to follow to receive the money from Milgram
• How did Milgram make the experiment as realistic as possible?

  • Fixed draw of teacher and learner role
  • Learner had electrodes attached to their arm before teacher went to different room
  • Recording of painful noises were convincing
  • Environment is suitable
  • Teacher tried a real shock - convinced the equipment was real
• What were visible signs of participants being distressed?

  Nervous laughter, shaking, sweating, trembling, uncontrollable seizures
• What were arguments of Milgram’s study and how were they defended?

  Arguments: Ethical concerns, psychological harm to participants, validity of results, unrepresentative, deception, lack of ecological validity Defense: Debriefing, informed consent, follow-up interviews, contribution to understanding obedience
• What percentage of people believed they were giving real shocks?

  70%
• How did Milgram follow up on distressed levels and what did he find?

  Follow up questionnaire a year later - 84% said they were glad to have taken part, 74% felt they had learnt something
• What show supported Milgram’s study?

  • Le Jeu de la Mort (The Game of Death) replica of the Milgram study
  • Up to 460V
  • 80% obedience (higher rate)
  • Nervous laughter / nail biting
  • Unconscious man
• What did Orne and Holland (1968) say about Milgram’s study?

  • Critical of the validity
  • Didn’t believe the set up, they thought it was like ‘play acting’
  • Perry - believed about half the tapes thought the shocks were real
• Whose experiment went against Orne & Holland’s argument?

  Sheridan and King (1972)

  • Participants had to give real shocks to puppy
  • 54% of men and 100% of women went to the maximum level (fatal supposedly)
  • Supports Milgram’s study - participants are genuine (shocks were real)
• Social identity theory

  People obey when they identify with the aims of the study
• What did Haslam (2014) find in relation to Milgram’s prods and the social identity theory?

  • He found people disobey at Milgram’s 4th prod because it was not linked to the scientific aspect of the experiment. People were solely told to obey.
  • Milgram is wrong because he believed people would obey for any reason
• What were some variations on Milgram’s study and how did that change the level of obedience?

  Original experiment: 65%

  Variations:

  • Location (seedy offices) - 47.5%
  • Same room - 40%
  • Force learner’s hand on plate - 30%
  • Others disobey (social support) - 10%
  • Experimenter left the room - 21%
  • Assistant turned the switches - 92.5%
  • Experimenter did not wear white coat - 20%
• Why does location have an effect on obedience?

  Because a prestigious school give the impression of authority and p’s feel they are helping a scientific discovery
• Why does the proximity between the teacher and learner have an effect on conformity?

  Because they can see their pain and feel responsible for the learner’s pain
• Why does social support have such a big effect on obedience?

  Because it is easier for people to disobey the authority when they have support from others
• Why does the absence of a physical authority figure lower obedience?

  People feel less pressure to obey the authority as they aren’t pressured directly by them closely
• Why does having an assistant give shocks have such a big impact on obedience?

  There is less personal responsibility and participants feel less liable for their wrong decision
• What does a white coat symbolise?

  Uniform - visible signs of authority
• What did Sheridan and King (1972) discover about obedience in humans with puppies?

  • Students trained a puppy to learn by punishing it with increasingly severe real electric shocks whenever it made an error
  • Participants could hear and see the puppy squealing
  • An odourless anaesthetic was released into the puppy's cage, causing it to fall asleep
  • Participants showed signs of discomfort (e.g. crying) but still obeyed
  • RESULT: 75% of participants delivered the maximum shock possible, all females went to maximum but only 54% of males did
  • This supports Milgram (real-life example of obedience)
• What did Hofling (1966) discover about obedient nurses?

  • Drug called Astrofen had a maximum dose of 10mg labelled on the box but phone call from Dr Smith instructed 20mg to be given, and that he would sign the drug authorisation form when he came to see the patient in 10 minutes
  • Rules broken: Exceeding maximum daily dose, authorisation needed before any drug was given, confirmation of doctor identity
  • 21 out of 22 nurses complied without hesitation
  • Questionnaire: Most nurses said they would not obey such order (Contradiction)
  • Supports Milgram (higher obedience irl 95%)
• How did Rank and Jacobson (1977) oppose the Hofling experiment?

  Methodological concerns

  • They thought the nurses had no knowledge of the fake drug involved and no opportunity to seek advice from anyone
  • Replicated Hofling's experiment but instructed to administer Valium at 3 times the recommended level, phone from real, known doctor, nurses consulted with others
  • RESULT: only 2 out of 18 nurses prepared the medication
• Bickman (1974) on the power of uniforms

  • Three male researchers gave orders to 153 randomly selected pedestrians in New York, dressed in a suit and tie (civilian), as a milkman or a guard
  • Orders involved picking up a bag on the street or giving a confederate a dime for park
  • He found participants were more likely to obey orders of researcher dressed as a guard (80%) than the milkman or civilian (40%)

  This shows that we can't criticise Milgram for high rates of obedience on the basis of it being a lab study
• The effect of culture and gender on obedience levels

  There is a variance but not much difference, some show more obedience but culture and gender does not affect obedience levels drastically on average
• What are two explanations of obedience?

  • Situational factors
  • Dispositional factors
• What are situational factors?

  External circumstances influencing behaviour (environmental factors such as location / clothing)
• What are dispositional factors?

  Internal traits or characteristics that influence an individual's behaviour or actions (e.g. personality)
• How do we know that personality factors influence the participant's behaviour?

  Because not everyone obeys under the same stimulus
• What is the agentic theory?

  Milgram argued that when people obey orders they do not feel responsible for their actions, seeing themselves as 'agents' for what they perceive as person with legitimate authority