EDEXCEL AS Social Psychology. 

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  • Obedience
    • Key terms
      • Conformity- Doing something to fit in with the behaviours of others.
      • Complying- conforming without agreement.
      • Internalising- conforming in agreement.
    • Milgram 1963
      • Aims
        • To test the idea that the Nazis were somehow different from other people
        • To see if volunteers would obey orders to shock someone 'innocent' .
      • Procedure
        • Advertised for male participants for a ''learning'' experiment from which 40 participants were chosen.
        • Fake lots were drawn, a debrief of the fake experiment given and a test shock of 45 volts.
        • Participants sat in front of a 15-450 volt machine, were given standardised instructions that they had to go up 15 volts for every wrong answer.
        • There were roughly one right answer for every three wrong answer. The responses were set. At 300 volts, the confederate stopped responding.
        • The absence of a response was treated as a wrong answer and a shock was given. If the participants protested at any point, standardised verbal prods were given.
        • The experiment terminated when all the prods were given or the person gave all of the shocks and gave no indication of stopping.
      • Background
        • Nazi prosecution of the Jews- were the Nazis different?
          • The case of Adlolf Eichmann who said he was 'just following orders'
        • Research Question: Why do people obey in extreme conditions?
      • Hypothesis
        • The participants will refuse to go up to 450 volts.
        • He thought the experiment would have to have been modified.
        • Popular opinion said 2-3% would go to the end.
      • Results
        • 26/40 (65%) obeyed to 450 volts.
        • 14 participants stopped before 450 volts.
        • 100% obeyed to 300 volts
        • Participants thought it was real- the average pain rating they thought was being given was 13.42/15.
      • Ethics
        • Participants
          • 14/40 showed nervous laughter
          • were decieved
          • Showed signs of nervousness (trembling, stuttering, groaning)
          • Right to withdraw?
        • Debrief after
        • Consent?
      • Evaluation
        • Controlls
          • Standardised- reliable
          • Cause and effect
        • Ethical implications
        • Lacks validity
          • Prestige
          • Obligation
          • Artificial
    • Milgram Variations
      • Aimed to alter the variables to test for reliability and validity.
      • The level of obedience was highest in the basic study- setting had the least effect, the order of the experimentrs had the most.
        • Evidence that obedience is most effected by the authority of a figure over other variables like setting.
      • Experiment 7: Telephonic Instructions
        • Aim: to see if the distance of the experimenter had an effect on obedience
          • ie. Looking at if participants felt bound to the experimenter.
        • Procedure: The same as experiment 1 except the experimenter gace instructions over the phone after the initial introduction.
        • Results: only 9 obeyed to the end (22.5%)
          • It is easier not to obey when the experimenter is not with you.
          • Many participants lied and said they were obeying when they were not.
        • Same procedure gives valid results. But was an artificial situation.
          • Participants may not have thought it was real.
      • Experiment 10: Run-down office block
        • Aim:effect of situsiton
          • Controlls
        • Sam procedure, different setting
          • Less artificial
            • validity
        • 47.5% obeyed
        • More doubt
        • Milgram thought it was not a big enough link but it does seem like it.
          • Could have trusted science not setting
      • Experiment 13: Ordinary man
        • Aim: to consider Authority
        • Procedure: experimenter leaves and ordinary man thought to be record keeper gives instructions.
          • 13a) ordinary man takes over
        • 16/20 broke away, 20% gave all shocks.
        • Evaluation
          • Participant thought it was an ordinary man.
          • Artificial, not credible, still a sense of authority, lack of validity.
          • Participants were not convinced it was real.
    • Other studies to consider:
      • Meeus and Raaijmakers 1986
        • Replication of Milgram using psychological harm
        • Dilemma for participants was if scientific research should effect someone's career.
        • Job applicants had stress remarks made to them and protested.
        • 91.7% were obedient to make all stress remarks (22/24)
      • Slater et al 2006
        • replication of Milgram using an immersive virtual environment.
        • exactly the same procedure as Milgram except even more ethical
        • 11/11 in hidden gave all shocks; 117/23 in hidden
        • 12/23 thought of stopping
    • The Agency Theory
      • Milgram
        • Moral strain- participants knew what they were doing was wrong but they did it anyway even though it made them uncofortable
        • Agentic state- participants seemed to do anything they were told because they felt bound to the experimenter and so obeyed the them.
        • It appeared that our social system led to obedience- e.g. agentic state avoids aggression with those of a higher power and so is beneficial (Evolution theory)
        • Responsibility appears to be shifted from the person to the authority(Gupata 1983- obedient males only accepted 27.6% of responsibility)
        • Social influence could explain some social orders being learned.
      • Evaluation
        • It explains the different levels of obedience in different studies.
        • Helps explain the issue of obedience in places like war
        • There are other explanations for obedience- such as social power (French and Raven 1959)
        • Agency theory is more of a description of how society works than an explanations. Agency just explains.
    • Social Impact Theory
      • Key Features
        • Group polarisation- a group tending to have more extreme ideas and attitudes than the actual views of the individuals in the group.
        • Links to Milgram's work since he wanted to bring in social desirability into his 'two peers rebel condition' where he saw the difference in behaviour.
        • The social impact theory can generate laws of behaviour based on how individuals affect one another, the number of people, immediacy and strength of the impact.
        • mathematical model: i = f(S/N) where i is the magnitude of impact, f is a function, s is the strength i is immediacy and N the number of sources.
      • Evaluation
        • The formula can help make predictions that  can help control society and help predict possible disobedience.
        • There is high reliability in the theory and the theory is generalisable to all cultures.
        • Is supported by Milgram and some other studies.
        • Because it is a statistic theory , it does not take into account reciprocal effects and personal differences
        • The interaction could be said to be too complexx to be reduced to a formula.
    • Other features
      • Situation
        • Milgram's variations (including the run down office block) helped to show how situation affects obedience.
          • Slater at and  Meeus and raijmakers
          • these were not reliable because of the lack of ecological validity.
      • Culture
        • Variations were done over different cultures including Meeus and Raijmakers (dutch), slater et al (UK), Burger (US), Shanab and Yahya (Jordan), Kilham and Mann (australia)
      • Personality
        • RWA refers to those with an external locus of control and are more likely to obey,
          • Elms 1998
        • Locus of controll- internal means less obedience because they are more autonomuos- expernal means more because they rely on others.
      • Gender
        • Milgram did not really look at other genders, however, any that did use different gener showed no difference.

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