SOCPSY 1Z03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Abu Ghraib, Random Assignment, Thomas Theorem

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Social Psychology
• Course: SOCPSY 1Z03
• Professor: Paul Galvin

Document Summary

Shows that obedience to authority is a lot more common than we think: shaped by: These shape the level of perceived responsibility. Power of a role contingent on the consensus about its associated rights. Personal responsibility is diminished under orders and legitimacy: depends on the proximity and visibility of consequences. Illustrates the power of the situation over personality and other factors: give too much weight to individual dispositions. Personality can be held constant and can view how compliance differs in situations. Practical significance: can understand the atrocities of wwii. Implications for ethics regarding how we conduct research. 24 healthy participants randomly assigned to guard or prisoner role; spent 6 days in mock prison: participants selected to exclude those with criminal background or psychological problems. Participants adapted to roles (cid:449)ell (cid:271)e(cid:455)o(cid:374)d zi(cid:373)(cid:271)ardo"s e(cid:454)pe(cid:272)tatio(cid:374)s: the study had to be shut down. The study consisted of random assignment to the roles.