1 / 15

Obedience to Authority: The Milgram Experiment

Obedience to Authority: The Milgram Experiment. AP PSYCH CH 14. How far would you go to obey an authority figure?. Would you hurt someone? Would you kill someone? Would you break the law? It is easy to say we would not, but studies in Social Psych say otherwise.

joanne
Download Presentation

Obedience to Authority: The Milgram Experiment

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Obedience to Authority:The Milgram Experiment AP PSYCH CH 14

  2. How far would you go to obey an authority figure? • Would you hurt someone? • Would you kill someone? • Would you break the law? • It is easy to say we would not, but studies in Social Psych say otherwise.

  3. How and why do rational people obey? • Adolph Hitler in Germany • Benito Mussolini in Italy • Jim Jones , “Peoples Temple” • Waco, Texas • Suicide bombers

  4. Stanley Milgram (1965, 1974) • Yale University • Goal: Examine the role of social influence, conformity • Became: Study on obedience to authority figures • Led subjects to believe experiment was studying the effect of punishment on learning. • Learner = a confederate, acting, did not really get shocked • Teacher = the volunteer being studied • Instructed to “shock” learner when they made an error • Shock level increased every time answered wrong

  5. Experiment Design • Independent Variable – (varied) physical proximity of authority figure (white-coated experimenter) • Dependent Variable – the teacher’s response, measured by level of shock they would go to before quitting

  6. Before experiment began, each teacher given a real, low voltage shock • No shocks were really administered, but teacher thought they were. • Teacher thought learner was to memorize pairs of words. • Learners followed an experimental script • At 75 volts – moan and grunt • At 150 volts – demanded to stop • At 180 volts – cried out “cannot take it any longer” • At 375 volts – loud scream, then thud, then silence

  7. If teacher hesitated or protested about administering the shock, the experimenter said “you must continue” “please continue” • Experiment ended when teacher refused or 450 volt max reached

  8. Results • Nearly 2/3 delivered the maximum 450 volts to the learner. • Those who refused, obeyed until reaching 300 colts. • If a person got within 5 switches to the end, they went all the way. • Most verbally dissented, but behaviorally obeyed.

  9. What does it mean? • Challenged myth that only sadistic people would blindly follow orders and harm someone. • Obedience results from situational variables and not personality variables. • Man in white coat was also a hired actor. Perceived authority as powerful as actual authority.

  10. When do we Obey Authority? • When a peer modeled obedience • When the victim was remote from the teacher • When the teacher was under direct surveillance of the authority figure • When the authority figure was labeled a “professor” or “doctor”

  11. When we DO NOT obey • Only 10% of participants administered extreme shocks if they saw a peer refusing before hand.

  12. Ethical? • By today’s standard, no • Potential mental harm and stress on subjects • Felt like the could not quit

  13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOYLCy5PVgM • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr5cjyokVUs

More Related