Introduction to Social Psychology

Introduction to Social Psychology Obedience The norm of obedience z z z Obedience: changing behavior in response to a command from an authority fig...
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Introduction to Social Psychology Obedience

The norm of obedience z

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Obedience: changing behavior in response to a command from an authority figure Obedience is normally functional, constructive Obedience can be destructive z z z z z

My Lai Holocaust Khmer Rouge Abu Ghraib McDonald’s Hoax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_prank_call_scam

Milgram’s Obedience Experiments: The Set Up • Participant ostensibly randomly assigned the role of teacher in a “learning experiment” • The learner (50 year-old man, who reveals he has a heart condition), is strapped down with electrodes attached • The participant (i.e., the teacher) is to punish the learner every time he makes a mistake on a word-pair task. • Punishment is administered via a shock generator. Shocks range from 15 - 450 volts (30 switches, 15 volt increments). • Severity of punishment to increase with each mistake. • The Learner starts to make errors, and the participant starts to administer the shocks

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Milgram’s Obedience Experiments: The Set Up z

Soon there are protests and cries of pain and agony z

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That’s all! Get me out of here. . . . My heart’s starting to bother me now . . . I can’t stand the pain! . . .I refuse to go on! . . .

The experimenter instructs the teacher that a nonresponse p is to be treated as an error and punished p with the next shock level At 350 volts, the learner falls deadly silent Whenever the teacher hesitates, experimenter says z

Please continue,” then “The experiment requires that you continue,” then “It is absolutely essential that you go on,” and finally, “You have no other choice, you must go on!”

Predictions by laypersons and Psychiatrists z

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The scenario was described to college students, middleclass adults, and psychiatrists All said they would stop at around 35 volts Not one person thought they would go beyond 300 volts. Psychiatrists predicted that only 1 person out of a thousand would obey to the full extent

Actual Results of initial experiment 65% of the subjects continued to administer shocks to the full extent (450 volts) Follow-up studies found the same, basic pattern when college students and women served as participants (Milgram, 1974).

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Were they sadists? Sickos? z

No – no abnormalities of personality. They did not enjoy the experience. It was highly distressing. Quotes: z

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“ That guy is hollering in there. There’s a lot of them here. He’s liable to have heart condition. You want me to go?” He can’t stand it! I’m not going to kill that man in there! You hear him hollering? He’s hollering. He can’t stand it. What if something happens to him? . . . I’m not going to get that man sick in there. He’s hollering in there. Y know You k what h t I mean? ? I mean I refuse f to t take t k the th responsibility. ibilit H He’s ’ getting hurt in there. He’s in there hollering. Too many left here. Geez, if he gets them wrong. There’s too many of them left. I mean who is going to take responsibility if anything happens to that gentleman?” [ The experimenter accepts responsibility]: “ All right.” “ Aw no. You mean I’ve got to keep going up with the scale? No sir. I’m not going to kill that man! I’m not going to give him 450 volts

http://www.learner.org/resources/series138.html

see program 19 for footage of Milgram’s

experiment

I observed a mature and initially poised businessman enter the laboratory smiling and confident. Within 20 minutes he was reduced to a twitching, shuddering wreck, who was rapidly approaching nervous collapse. He constantly pulled on his ear lobe, and twisted his hands. At one point he pushed his fist into his forehead and muttered ‘Oh God, lets stop it’. An yet he continued to respond to every word of the experimenter, and obeyed to the end. -- Milgram

Milgram’s variations z

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Institutional Prestige: Move study to run-down building in Bridgeport: 48% fully obey Status of the authority figure: Undergraduate “Clerk” gives order: 20% fully obey Social learning: After Observing obedient models: 75% fully obey; after observing disobedient models: 10% fully obey Less direct role: Participant administers test, while another person does the actual shocking: 93% fully obey Proximity of the learner: When learner is near teacher: 40% fully obey; When teacher must hold learner’s hand down with force: 30% fully obey

KEY POINT: Change the situation, change the rate of obedience

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Hofling et al. (1966) Nurse Study z

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This study examined how nurses complied with orders of medical doctors, even if they broke rules of the hospital. In this study, a medical doctor who was on the staff list, but not known personally to a nurse, called her when she was alone l in i her h wardd in i the th evening; i he h says over the th telephone: t l h “This is Dr. Smith, from Psychiatry, calling. I was asked to see Mr. Jones this morning, and I‘m going to have to see him again tonight – I don‘t have a lot of time, and I‘d like him to have had some medication by the time I get to the ward. Will you please check your medicine cabinet and see if you have some Astroten? That‘s A-S-T-R-O-T-E-N.“

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The nurse looks in the medication cupboard and finds a pillbox with the following label from the hospital:

ASTROTEN 5 mg capsules Usual dose: 5 mg Maximum daily dose: 10 mg

Hofling et al. (1966) Nurse Study z

After the nurse returned to the phone, the doctor said: z

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“You have it? Fine. Now will you please give Mr. Jones a stat dose of 20 mg – that‘s four capsules – of Astroten. I‘ll be up within ten minutes, and I‘ll sign the order then, but I‘d like the drug to have started taking effect.“

By giving Astroten, Astroten a nurse would violate several hospital rules: z z z

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The ordered dose was higher than the maximum daily dose Medication orders should not be given by phone It was not permitted to give a medication that was not on the hospital stock list and cleared for use The order was given by an unfamiliar voice; the nurse had no chance to verify the true identity of Doctor Smith

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Hofling et al. (1966) Nurse Study z

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Astroten does not exist as a real medication, and the capsules were harmless placebos. The nurses were observed by a medical doctor, who interrupted them at the moment they wanted to give the medication. Wh t ddo you thi What think: k How H many off the th 22 nurses who h were tested would have given Astroten? 21 of the 22 nurses studied (95%) obeyed the order of Doctor Smith and began with the administration of the medication, until the observing doctor interrupted them.

Hofling et al. (1966) Nurse Study z

12 other nurses and 21 student nurses were given a detailed description of the experiment and asked what they would have done. z

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10 (95%) of the 12 nurses said that they would NOT have given the medication All 21 student nurses (100%) said that they would NOT have given the medication.

This is in line with Milgram‘s finding that people (laypersons or professionals) could not predict how others would act in an obedience situation.

Another replication Sheridan & King (1972) z Replicated Milgram exactly, except that (a) participants were male & female college students, (b) victim was a "cute, fluffy, puppy," and (c) the shocks were real. z Participants instructed to deliver a shock each time the puppy failed to learn a discrimination task, which was actually unsolvable z Results 20 of 26 fully obeyed

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Milgram’s findings have been replicated in US and other countries (Blass 2000)

Reference Smith, P. B., & Bond, M. H. (1994). Social psychology across cultures: Analysis and perspectives. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Would Milgram find less obedience if he conducted his experiments today?

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Thomas Blass (1999)Examined Milgram studies and replications during a 25-year period from 1961 to 1985. Correlated year of publication and the amount of obedience. No significant correlation. P ti l replication Partial li ti iin 2006 b by JJerry B Burger http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2769000

Ethical Issues •

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Milgram‘s obedience studies (1963, 1965) elicited a heated debate about ethics in psychological research, and resulted in a number of major changes. Contemporary ethical guidelines are very strict Could one arrive at the same results without exposing participants to such intimidating situations? Scenario studies and role-playing studies indicate that the answer is NO. Such methods do not yeild good estimates of actual behavior.

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Conclusions The behavior revealed in the experiments reported here is normal human behavior but revealed under conditions that show with particular clarity the danger to human survival inherent in our make- up. And what is it we have seen? Not aggression, for there is no anger, vindictiveness, or hatred in those who shocked the victim. Men do become angry; they do act hatefully and explode in rage against others. But not here. Something far more dangerous is revealed: the capacity for man to abandon his humanity, indeed, the inevitability that he does so, as he merges his unique personality into larger institutional structures. This is a fatal flaw nature has designed into us, and which in the long run gives our species only a modest chance of survival. (Milgram 1974, p. 188) I hold it that a little rebellion now and then, is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. . . . It is a medicine for the sound health of government. Thomas Jefferson, U. S. president, 1743– 1826

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