Aim
Whether ppl would be obedient to authority even if it meant hurting others.
Research method and design
Lab experiment, Independent measures design
Stooges
Mr William- the experimenter was a stooge. He was a 31-year-old male school biology teacher in a coat called ‘Mr William’. He wore a grey technician coat and had a stern manner.
Mr Wallace — He was a confederate/stooge, an accountant who pretended to be another participant. He was 47 years old and he played the role of ‘learner’.
Sample
Volunteer sample thru a newspaper advert, 40 men bw ages of 20-50 years old with variety of backgrounds and occupations in New Haven.
Verbal prods
Please go on, please continue, the experiment requires that u continue, it is absolutely essential that u continue, you have no choice: u must go on.
Results
65%(26) of 40 participants went up to 450, 14 stopped early, mean voltage was 368v and mean estimate of pain of the 450v shock was 13.42 b/w a range of 0 and 14.
Conclusion(situational factors)
- legitimacy of the study, feeling of financial obligation, proximity of authority figure and victim, authority figure appearance.
Conclusion
Individuals r much more obedient to authority. People find that carrying out destructive acts triggers feelings of stress. This is due to a conflict between 2 important social phenomena:
i) obeying authority, and
ii) the need to avoid harming others.
Strengths
- Controlled observations meaning extraneous variables were controlled.
- Reliability as procedure was standardized
- Ecological validity (machine, authority figure, shocks)
- Internal Validity
Weakness
- Ethical issues
- Low external validity
Application of the study
- Administrative offices - to stand up to unjust requests of bosses
- Educational institutes
- Hospitals have whistle-blowing policies to encourage the reporting of mistakes made by doctors to protect patients.
