Introduction/Overview
The Obedience Study
The Prison Study
The Power of Roles
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Introduction/Overview (p 298)
INTRODUCTION
Our behavior is influenced by two powerful social forces: norms and roles
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
...Norms: The "cobweb of social constraints."
- Rules about how we are suppose to act.
- Norms are enforced by threats of punishment and promises of reward.
- Norms make everyday interactions predictable and acceptable.
- Ex: "Hold the door open for the next person walking through."
- Ex: "Do not pick your nose in a crowded elevator."
- Proper behavior for certain positions we hold in society.
- Roles regulated by norms
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- We are usually not consciously aware of the roles we play.
- Violations of roles:
- Feel discomfort.
- We are regarded by others in a negative way.
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norms (social) | |
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role |
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The Obedience Study (p 299)
INTRODUCTION
One of the most chilling and famous experiments in psychology. Under the right circumstances, most of us can be pressured to do some pretty despicable things.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
Imagine that you have volunteered to participate in the following study:
- Once in the laboratory, you believe that you have been randomly selected to play
the role of "teacher" in an experiment on the effects of punishment on
learning.
- The "learner," who seems to be another volunteer in the study, is strapped
to a machine that will administer varying levels of electric shock.
- Everytime the "learner" makes an error reciting a list of word pairs
he was supposed to have memorized, you are instructed by the experimenter to press
a switch that will give him a shock.
- With each succeeding error, the voltage is increased by 15 volts, starting at
0 volts and going all the way to 450 volts.
- As the level of the voltage increases to 150 volts, the "learner" cries
in pain and pleads to be released.
- The experimenter tells you that while the shocks may be painful, they are not
harmful and you should continue.
- Point of the study: How many people would obey the authority figure and continue to increase the shock levels/
How would you react?
- Psychiatrists, students , and middle-class adults believe that most people would
not go beyond the point when the "learner" first complains (150 volts),
and only the emotionally disturbed (1 in a thousand) would go all the way. (What
are our assumptions about human
behavior?)
- Everyone says that they would personally disobey if they were in the study.
- Everyone administers some shock.
- About 2/3 obeyed to the fullest extent.
- The "teachers" were very upset about what they were doing, but continued
to obey the experimenter.
- The study has been replicated with many subjects and in different countries.
Factors that Increase the Likelihood the "Teacher"
will not Obey.
- Authority figure distant - when the experimenter leaves the room, "teachers'
are less cooperative.
- Proximity of the victim - when the victim was in the same room, the teacher is
more likely to disobey (30% still did, however).
- Disagreement among authorities - when two experimenters gave conflicting orders,
non one continued to administer shocks.
- Orders given by a non-authority figure - when another "volunteer", rather than the experimenter gives the order, the "teachers" disobey and do not administer additional shocks.
Conclusion Drawn from the Study
People are schmucks.
Distorted personalities are the cause.
- Obedience is more a function of the situation than the personality.
- Ethical Issues
- Subjects were not informed about the true nature of the experiment (deceived).
- "Teachers" suffered emotional anguish by participating.
- Subjects were not informed about the true nature of the experiment (deceived).
- Some personality traits (e.g. hostility and authoritarianism) do predict obedience
in real life situations.
- The laboratory did not create the same situation as where real life atrocities
are committed (e.g. Nazi concentration camps).
- Defining characteristic: Commits atrocities without supervision of authority, without external pressure, and without feelings of anguish.
LINKS About the Milgram study
of Obedience to Authority
- www link: Ethical issues and Milgram's defense
- www link: More recent reviews on the Obedience Studies.
- www link: Stanley Milgram Website
- www link: Conscience and obedience - the ethics connection.
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The Prison Study [p. 301]
INTRODUCTION
You agree to play the role of guard or prisoner in a two week simulation of a prison. What do you think happens when ordinary college students take on these roles?
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- Students were randomly assigned to guard or prisoner role.
- No instructions about how to act.
- Prisoners
- Soon develop strong emotional symptoms, some anxious, some apathetic, some very
rebellious.
- Soon develop strong emotional symptoms, some anxious, some apathetic, some very
rebellious.
- Guards
- A third of the guards become tyrannical and choose to be abusive to the prisoners.
- A third of the guards become tyrannical and choose to be abusive to the prisoners.
- Researcher (Philip Zimbardo) had to end the study after only 6 days becomes things had deteriorated so quickly.
Criticism of study
- Too artificial and volunteers already knew rules from watching t.v.
Zimbardo's Conclusion of the Study
- It illustrates the power of roles in transforming people in a way that no laboratory experience can.
LINKS about the "Stanford Prison Experiment"
The Power of Roles [p. 302]
INTRODUCTION
Obedience, by the way, is not bad. It usually is very constructive in society, but it has its dark side. There are a number of factors that cause people to obey even though they would rather not.
KEY CONCEPTS EXPLAINED
- People follow orders is because of the consequences if they disobey -- some kind
of punishment.
- Legitimization of the authority
- allows us to absolve ourselves of accountability for our actions.
- Routinization - transforms the activity to a series
of routine duties for which there is little reason or opportunity to raise ethical
issues.
- Rules of good manners - trap people further
into obedience by the social conventions of being nice to experts and authority figures.
- Entrapment - is a way to get people to increase
their commitment to a course of action in order to justify their investment in it.
- One small step leads to another.
- In the Milgram study, once the first few 15 volt increases had been administered with no pain or complaints from the "teacher," the "learner" was committed to the experiment.
GLOSSARY
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entrapment |
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