Social Psychology

1
Social Psychology

• Social Influence
• Obedience to Authority, Conformity, Persuasion

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Social Influence

• Kurt Lewin Father of Modern Social Psych
• Fundamental Attribution Error (Ross, 1977) When
  explaining the behavior of others, people
  typically overestimate the role of personal
  factors (e.g. personality traits, IQ) and
  underestimate the role of situations.
• Conformity the tendency to alter ones opinion
  or behavior in ways that are consistent with
  group norms. Solomon Asch

3
Stanley Milgram (1963)

• Obedience to authority
• Teacher/Learner
• Shock Generator
• 15 45 75 105 135 165 195 225
• 225 285 315 345 375 405 435 450

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Results

• 26/40 men 65 450 volts
• 26/40 women 65 450 volts
• Not ordered?
• 1/40 2.5 450 volts
• Most stopped at 75 volts
• Other people have a profound impact on our
  behavior

5
Nurses studyHofling, Brotzman, Dalrymple,
Graves, Pierce, 1966

• Late shift, Ohio Hospital
• Call from Dr. Hanford wants patient to have some
  medication
• Violates hospital policy need written order
• Astroten, 5 mg. capsules, usual dose 5 mg,
  maximum dose 10 mg.
• Please give Mr. Carson a stat dose of 20
  milligrams

6
Nurses, cont.

• How many nurses would obey the doctors orders
  and give the patient twice the maximum daily
  dose, all at once?
• When asked, 10 of 12 experienced nurses said they
  would refuse. Nursing students? 21 of 21 said
  they would refuse.
• Of the 22 nurses who received a call from Dr.
  Hanford,

7
Nurses results

• 21 of them obeyed (95)
• (They were intercepted on the way to administer
  the medications by one of the experimenters)

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Reasons for Destructive Obedience

• Belief in legitimate authority
• Gradual Commitment (a foot-in-the-door effect)
• Lack of Personal Responsibility
• Lack of dissent

9
Disobedient Role Models

• When the study of nurses obedience was changed
  so that other nurses were present when the doctor
  gave the illegitimate telephone medication order,
  only 11 obeyed (Rank Jacobson, 1977).
  Obedience went from 95 to 11
• Milgram (1965b) when participant saw other
  teachers challenge the orders, only 10 of them
  continued to the 450 volt level

10

• So..the next time you find yourself in a group
  that is being swept along toward a decision with
  which you disagree, Speak UP!. It is likely
  that you will embolden someone else to speak up
  also.

11
Stanford Prison Experiment

• Lord Acton Power corrupts and absolute power
  corrupts absolutely.
• Guards told they could make the rules but not
  inflict punishment
• They abused their power. They taunted the
  prisoners. The humiliation grew the longer they
  were there. They made prisoners beg for the
  privilege of visiting the mens room they
  punished rebellious statements or attitudes by
  denying food, blankets, and toilet privileges.
  The study had to be called off after only 6 days.

12
Training Torturers

• The prison study both guards and prisoners were
  normal, well-adjusted young men, yet the
  situation and an arbitrarily assigned label made
  them behave in deplorable ways.
• Similarly, the 1967-1974 Greek military regime
  had great success in taking ordinary civilians
  and making them into official torturers
  (Haritos-Fatouros, 1988, p. 1116)

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• The military junta selected stable, well-adjusted
  fishermen, farmers, carpenters, civil servants,
  shoemakers, cooks, lorry drivers, and small
  businessmen for special training. During their
  training, the men were gradually introduced to
  brutality. At the end of the grueling
  trainingwhich involved brutality-- the
  apprentice torturers had to swear on their knees
  their undying allegiance and obedience to the
  military rulers. Then they watched more
  experienced torturers and then gradually joined
  in unbelievably sadistic torture of citizens who
  were suspected of being disloyal to the ruling
  junta. Through these carefully orchestrated
  indoctrination procedures, ordinary citizens were
  turned into torturers for dictators. (Haritos
  Fatourous).