Obedience

• Who studied obedience using a teacher and learner experiment and electric shocks?

  Milgram
• What was the maximum voltage of shocks that the learner could receive?

  450 volts
• What method did Milgram use to trick participants into believing the study?

  Deception
• What is the name of the 4 instructions that the 'experimenter' used when the participant questioned the procedure?

  Four standard prods
• What percentage of participants reached up to 450 volts?

  65%
• What percentage of participants that would reach up to 450 volts had psychology students predicted prior to the experiment?

  3%
• How did Milgram deal with the ethical issue of deception after the experiment?

  He fully debriefed participants
• What were the strengths of Milgram's study?

  • Controlled lab environment
  • Standardised instructions - 4 standard prods
  • Random sample
  • Research support - Le Jeu de la Mort
  • Good external validity - represents relationship with an authority figure
• What were the limitations of Milgram's study?

  • Ethical issues - participants having seizures
  • Reductionist sample - all male and volunteer sample
  • Methodology issue - offering participants money to take part
  • Demand characteristics
• What are the 3 situational factors that can influence levels of obedience?

  • Proximity
  • Location
  • Uniform
• What are the 2 social-psychological factors explaining obedience?

  • Agentic state - feeling powerless to disobey
  • Legitimacy of authority - e.g. teachers, police officers
• What are strengths of the social-psychological factors explaining obedience?

  • Research support - Milgram
  • Real-life evidence with authorities - Abu Ghraib
• What are the limitations of the social psychological factors explaining obedience?

  • Socially sensitive - Holocaust doctors and their permanent shift in personality
  • Unfalsifiable - agentic state
• What does the dispositional explanation for obedience test and who studies it?

  Authoritarian personality by Adorno
• What test did Adorno create to determine an authoritarian personality?

  The F-scale
• What did Adorno find about the authoritarian personality?

  People with this personality were more likely to obey authorities as they had greater respect for those with higher status
• How did authoritarian people tend to view others?

  They categorised them and held strong stereotypes against groups
• What are the strengths of the dispositional factors (Adorno) explaining obedience?

  • Research support from Milgram
• What are the limitations of the dispositional factors explaining obedience?

  • Milgram’s research only shows a correlation between the F-scale and obedience
  • Temporal validity - more stereotypes previously
  • Self report method - F-scale is a questionnaire
  • Sample issue - 2000 white Americans
  • Psychodynamic approach - unfalsifiable