gender

• Gender affecting obedience - women = more obedient

  • Sheridan and Kings (1972) participants were ordered to give real electric shocks to a live puppy
  • they found that 100% of female participants were fully obedient and only 54% of males
  • the women showed distress and sobbing
  • males in this study were more defiant when asked to shock a puppy that in Milgram's study who were asked to shock a human being
• Gender affecting obedience - men = more obedient

  • Kilham and Mann (1974) replicated Milgram's study in Australia and found a low obedience rate of 28%
  • 40% of males were fully obedient and only 16% of females were
• Gender affecting obedience - moral reasoning

  • Gilligan (1982) suggested that moral decision-making is guided by differing principles in men and women
  • the 'ethic of justice' is the principle more commonly seen in males - pertains to values of equality and fairness and requires a detached outlook to avoid bias.
  • Claimed that females use the 'ethic of care' to guide their decision making. This principle related to interpersonal relationships and nurturing and supporting those in need.
  • in terms of destructive obedience, one might expect males to be more obedient due to their feelings of obligation to an authority figure, whereas females may be less obedient due to their desire to support the person being harmed
  • in Milgram's study, males may be more swayed by the apparent scientific goals of the research which was supposedly for the 'greater good' - whereas females may have been more concerned about the learner.
• Evaluation of Gilligan - moral reasoning

  • strength = support from qualitative research (Gilligan and attanucci 1988)
  • male and female participants were interviewed about real-life moral dilemmas and, although most participants used both the ethic of justice and care in their moral reasoning, overall men favoured justice orientation and women favoured a care orientation.
  • these gender differences were highly significant
  • suggests that there are quite important gender differences in moral orientations which may affect decision-making in situations relating to destructive obedience
• Evaluation of gender affecting obedience

  • weakness = many studies find no differences
  • Blass (1999) summarised the findings of nine Milgram-style studies that included both male and female participants
  • in all but one case there was no significant difference in the observed levels of obedience between men and women
  • this suggests that gender does not affect obedience
• Gender differences - Developmental psychology

  • Experiences in childhood may be responsible for the differences between males and females with regard to obedience. Social learning theory explains that boys and girls are rewarded for different kinds of behaviour. Eg, boys are more likely to be rewarded for being dominant and independent than girls
• Issues and debates

  • the issue of gender is relevant. Milgram's Original research was andocentric as he only studied men
  • Gilligan raised awareness that women may see the world differently from men and behave differently as a consequence. This said, research has found no consistent gender difference
  • this shows that, whilst it is important to combat andocentrism, it is also important that psychologists do not overlook the similarities between men and women.