Sociology 2234E Lecture Notes - Social Proof, Complement Factor B, Self-Justification
28 Mar 2012
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Conformity in response to the commands of authority figures. Under strong social pressure, individuals will conform to authority, even when this means doing something immoral. Milgram"s studies are an excellent example of the experimental method. Psychological realism: how real the study felt to the participants: everyone believed the study (effects of punishment on learning, ability of the study to examine the effect of authority. Mundane realism: the extent that the experiment is similar to everyday life: not a good example, need to obey certain authorities on a daily basis but not to this extreme. Experimenter effects: said the same things to each participant must continue, etc. Randomization: different age range and educational backgrounds, mostly men but some women as well. Design and causality: 3x more likely to shock when experimenter was present, legitimacy of authority figure increased likelihood of shocks. 70% of the base condition participants continued with the next time on the test.
