Social Psychology: Obedience

1
Social Psychology Obedience

• Key Study Milgram (1963)

2
Everyday Examples of Obedience

• Student sitting still and quiet in class when
  teacher is present.
• Following the orders given to you by a parent.
• Doing what your boss tells you to do.

3
What do all of these have in common?

• The use of authority that is based in power.
• Without power authority usually has little
  influence, and therefore the authority figure is
  of low standing.

4
Power Some ideas

• Weber 3 sources of power -
• Charismatic (such as a popular leader may have)
• Traditional (such as parents and elders in a
  society have)
• Rational-Legal (such as police officers have)

5
MilgramsAgency Theory

• People need to be able to switch between two
  states - Agentic and Autonomous - in modern
  organisations and groupings.
• We are trained in these two states from early
  socialisation.
• Thus the imperatives about the rightness of
  obedience are created.

6
The Agentic State

• When in the Agentic State we redefine the meaning
  of the situation.
• It is created through the use of a social bond.
  This occurs through -
• The sequential nature of the action.
• The use of an implicit social contract.
• Feelings of anxiety if we break the bond.

7
Why do we not obey?

• Past experience
• Being in an Autonomous State
• Disregard for the authority source
• Disregard for the authority figure
• Questioning the motives of authority figure
• Exposure to disobedient models

8
The Procedure

• The participant was paired with a colleague of
  Milgram (the stooge)
• Thought they were taking part in an experiment
  on Memory / Learning
• Electric Shock machine
• slight/severe/danger severe shock
• Volts ranged between 15 - 450 volts

9
The Procedure

• The participant (teacher) given a mild electric
  shock
• Then stooge wired up to the electric shock
  machine in next room
• The experiment began

10
The TASK

• Teacher read series of word pairs
• e.g. blue sky, green grass, red balloon
• Learner had to memorise these
• Teacher then reads out one word
• e.g. Green ..
• Learner to respond with the pair match

11
If a mistake was made

• Teacher told to give electric shock to learner
• Rising by 15 volts each mistake from 15 volts
  to 450 volts

12
What happened?

• The participants shook, trembled, and sweated
• They were pressed to continue
• You must go on
• The experiment is important
• Please continue

FOR MORE INFO...
Read this up in any general text e.g. R Gross,
The Science of Mind Behaviour
13
What happened?

• The learner shouted and yelled
• He could be heard through the wall
• He remained silent after 300 volts

14
How many went to 450 volts?

• 65 of participants went to 450 volts!
• They would have followed orders
• and
• Killed the stooge for making too many mistakes!

15
Remembering Methodology .

• What was the dependent variable?
• The DV
• The level of shock the participant stopped at!

16
Was this experiment ethical?

• What do you think?
• IF YOU WERE A MEMBER OF THE ETHICS COMMITTEE
• Would you let Milgram do it again?

17
Did the ends justify the means?

• Was the knowledge gained worth the pain of the
  participants?
• How can we decide this question?

18
Why did Ps Obey?

• Location of study.
• Worthy purpose of study.
• Leaner had volunteered.
• P made social bond with E.
• Payment.
• Ps told that shocks were not painful.

19
Concerns

• Ethics (deception, harm to Ps, informed consent)
• Ecological Validity (does the study tell us
  anything about obedience in everyday life?)
• Social Determinism (the social environment
  creates obedience in the P)