Social Approach: The Key Issue
- Created by: charlotte0197
- Created on: 02-05-15 10:02
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- Social Approach: Key Issue
- Blind obedience to authority in a prison setting
- More specifically: Abu Ghraib where the US military dehumanised Iraqi prisoners
- Soldiers argued that they were taking orders from authority to "break the prisoners down for interrogation"
- More specifically: Abu Ghraib where the US military dehumanised Iraqi prisoners
- Supports soldiers plead: Blind Obedience
- Milgram's Agency Theory
- Soldiers will have acted in an agentic state, obeying orders from authority who will take responsibility for their actions and consequences
- Learned aspect supports the idea that soldiers are allocated jobs on a hierarchical system. Disciplined to take orders
- 1 soldier (Joe Darby) did not engage in the mistreatment by making the private photos of the abuse public.
- There was room for autonomous action even in high-pressure setting of a prison during war
- Very little evidence that there were direct orders to mistreat the prisoners in this way
- Soldiers will have acted in an agentic state, obeying orders from authority who will take responsibility for their actions and consequences
- Milgram's 1963 study of obedience
- 100% of participants obeyed orders from a scientist and gave harmful shocks to others for answering word pairs incorrectly
- 65% of those participants continued to 450V electric shocks even after being unsure whether the learner was even alive
- Milgram's variation of the study of obedience
- When obedient allies were involved in procedure the obedience increased to 72.5% of participants obeying to give the 450v shock
- Explains why there was only Joe Darby who acted on free will - other soldiers influenced by their allies to continue taking orders
- When obedient allies were involved in procedure the obedience increased to 72.5% of participants obeying to give the 450v shock
- Hofling et al (1966)
- More ecologically valid results to support as this is a field experiment of nurses in a hospital setting
- Whilst 21/21 student nurses and 10/12 graduate nurses claimed they would not take orders over the phone from an unfamiliar Dr...
- 21/22 nurses obeyed orders from a Dr Smith and gave patients a placebo of 20mg which exceeded the daily dosage
- 11 of those nurses claimed they did not see the dosage discrepancy
- 21/22 nurses obeyed orders from a Dr Smith and gave patients a placebo of 20mg which exceeded the daily dosage
- Meeus and Raaijmaker (1986)
- Taking orders to give psychological harm
- 92% of participants obeyed orders to give verbal insults
- Not the same type of abuse as Abu Ghraib but supports the idea of humans acting in the agentic state, behaving in a way which they know to be wrong
- Participants reported they "intensely disliked" giving stress remarks
- Milgram's Agency Theory
- Goes against soldiers plead: Prejudice and Discrimination
- Tajfel's Social Identity Theory (1970)
- Social Categorisation: Soldiers aware that them and the Iraqi's were of different groups
- Social Identification: Soldiers possessed in-group characteristics such as being of the same nationality, wearing the same police uniform, etc
- Social Comparison: As a result of being distinctive groups the soldiers boosted their in-group identity by abusing the out-group (Iraqi prisoners
- Supported by Tajfel's 1971 study
- Schoolboys allocated into one of two groups in a fake art task and asked to allocate a point to other boys
- Boys typically awarded more points to members of their in-group - in-group favouritism
- In a war situation where the out-group is a known enemy this effect would be magnified and the behaviour towards out-group would be much worse
- Boys typically awarded more points to members of their in-group - in-group favouritism
- Schoolboys allocated into one of two groups in a fake art task and asked to allocate a point to other boys
- Sherif et al Robber's Cave (1961)
- Based on realistic conflict theory - applies more to Abu Ghraib setting
- When competition and common goals in an in-group was introduced, participants showed intense dislike towards out-group
- 93% of boys said their best-friend was in their in-group in in-group relations friction stage
- Observers noted boys getting close to physical violence
- Tajfel's Social Identity Theory (1970)
- Blind obedience to authority in a prison setting
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