Obedience (Chapter 12)

What are some forces that could effect the participants in Milgram's study?

1) a previously well-established mental framework to obey 2) The situation or context in which the obedience occurred 3) the gradual repetitive escalation of the task 4) the experimenters behavior and reassurances

What was the Stanford Prison Experiment?

24 male students were randomly assigned to be either prisoners or prison guards but it got out of hand for after the firs 36 hours prisoners started having emotional breakdowns and the guards became abusive, was suppose to be 2 weeks but the experiment ended after 6 days.

Even the participants that defied the experimenter not one of them stopped before _____________.

300 volt level

______________ percent of the participants on the Game of Death game show obeyed and socked the people who got the question wrong.

81

When a participant saw that two people were defying an authority they also defied the authority ___________ percent of the time.

90

When teachers were allowed to act as their own authority and freely choose the shock level _______________ percent of them did not venture beyond 150 volts (first point at which the learner protested).

95

Unlike with the Milgram experiment the Game of Death game show had to deal with what?

An immediate international outcry about the ethics of putting unwritting participants in such a situation.

Stanley Milgram is best known for what?

His experimental investigations of obedience.

What did Philip Zimbardo find that worked to make people obey other then explicit orders?

Implied social norms and roles can be just as powerful as explicit orders

What is obedience?

It is the performance of a behavior in response to a direct command.

Can you find out if someone will conform or obey in a situation like the Milgram experiment or the Stanford Prison Experiment.

No, for there is not a specific personality trait that predicts conformity or obedience in experimental situations.

Were female subjects any less likely to inflict pain on a stranger in Milgram's experiment?

No, it was the same as the men

When people are uncomfortable in front of an authority figure what can happen?

Our judgment and perceptions can be distorted and we may act in ways that violate our conscience.

The psychiatrists, college students and middle class adults that Milgram asked to predict if the subjects would refuse or obey predicted what?

That all of his subjects would refuse to obey at some point and that most subjects would refuse at the 150 volt level which is when the learner first protested and that only a rare few would go as far as 300 and that none would go to the full 450

What did the Milgram experiment show?

That even ordinary citizens will obey an authority figure and commit acts of destructive obedience.

What was the TV game show called Game of Death based on?

The Milgram experiment

What was Zambardo's experiment called?

The Stanford Prison Experiment

True or False Confidence that the learner was actually receiving shocks was a force that influenced the participants in the Milgram study?

True

What is a normative social influence?

When people are not certain what to do they tend to rely on cues provided by others and to conform their behavior to that of those in their immediate group.

When were people more likely to muster up the courage to defy an authority?

When they saw others defying an authority.

Is the physical and psychological separation form the learner a force that influences the participants in Milgram's study?

Yes

Stanley Milgram was on of the most _____________.

creative and influential researchers that social psychology has known

Obedience and conformity are not complete bad for they are needed to help instill behavior into use as children, what matters is _______________.

if the order we conform to reflects values that respect the rights, well being and dignity of others

While the Milgram experiment showed the effects of direct authority pressure, the Stanford Prison Experiment demonstrated the powerful influence of ________________.

situational roles and conformity to implied social rules and norms

How many of Milgram's participants went to full 450 volts

two-thirds (26 out of 40)

Being at odds with the majority or with authority figures is _______________________.

very uncomfortable for most people.