Describe Stanley Milgram's classic research on obedience to authority. What was the setup of the study? What were the results? What are the implications?

What will be an ideal response?


a) Setup:
i) Word association task (ostensible study about the effect of punishment on learning)
ii) Learner and teacher; ostensible random assignment to conditions
iii) Exposition of the shock machine; trial shock; revelation of learner's heart condition
iv) Increasing shock levels required across learner errors; machine marked "Danger" and "XXX"
v) Participant can hear learner howling and begging for release from the study; learner goes dead silent and refuses to answer after a certain point (from the participant's point of view, he might have died or passed out).
b) Results:
i) 62.5% "went all the way" despite clear signs of distress and concern for the learner
c) Implications:
i) It should be noted that these results were completely unexpected by psychiatrists who, before the study began, were asked to predict its outcome. And virtually no one who is asked even today indicates that they would "go all the way" in such a scenario. So a key point here is that people are far more willing to obey authority figures—even when they have serious concerns about harm that they might be inflicting—than they realize. That said, the general tendency of people to obey authority is much more often than not played out for prosocial (or at least not explicitly harmful) outcomes.

Psychology

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Ruth-Ann just graduated from high school and is going to try out for the soccer team at the college she will attend in the fall. She knows it will be more competitive than her high school team, but she believes in her ability to succeed and plans to practice all summer. Bandura would say that Ruth might have an edge over some competitors simply because she has __________.

A. high self-efficacy B. self-actualization C. set aside the time to practice D. an external locus of control

Psychology

Like vasopressin, ____ constricts the blood vessels, compensating for the drop in blood pressure

a. angiotensin I b. angiotensin II c. renin d. sodium

Psychology

Chart the major ideas and historical figures in the history of treating the mentally ill, from the era of witchcraft in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries through the rise of the Reform Movement in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

What will be an ideal response?

Psychology

If you want to improve your memory, your best bet would be to

a. use herbs, such as Ginkgo biloba. b. take large doses of Vitamin E. c. use meaning-based strategies to improve encoding retrieval. d. receive electroconvulsive shocks (ECS) to improve long-term memory storage.

Psychology