Obediance notes

Obedience

• Obedience is a type of social influence where someone acts because of an order or instruction

• Research into obedience – Milgram, 1963

  • Tested the hypothesis of 'Germans are different'

  • He tested 40 male participants at Yale university using confederates

  • Milgram fixed the situation so then the real participant would be the teacher and the confederate would be the learner

  • The teacher was instructed to punish the learner with a electric shock for each incorrect answer they give. This shock increased by 15V each time up to 450V

  • Milgram found that all participants continued to 300V with 65% going to 450V! This disproved the hypothesis that 'Germans are different'

• Evaluation

• Laboratory experiment → No extraneous variables → High internal validity

• Artificial setting and task → Cannot be generalised to real life → Lacks ecological validity

• Deception → So has a lack of informed consent → Ethical issues

• Why do people obey?

  • Dehumanisation – If someone can distance themselves from the harm they are causing then they are more likely to continue to inflict pain

    • The variation of Milgram's experiment where the…