Obedience Experiment

(1961/1963)
• Holocaust in Europe.
• Why good people do horrible things
to innocent people?
• He said that it will be a memory and
learning experiment.
• Yale University
• 20-50 ages, all male,
differing education
levels/occupations.
 Obedience Experiment
(1961/1963)
• There was not a random assignment.
• The participant thought that there
is random assignment.
• Participant >>> teacher
• Confederate >>> learner/student
• Who is a confederate?
• The participant was told that for
every answer that the confederate
got wrong, the participant had to
administer a shock to the
confederate.
• No real shocks, the confederate
screamed and shouted as if he was
being shocked, so that the
participant really thought he was
hurting someone.
• In fact, it is all tape-recorded.
 Obedience Experiment
(1961/1963)
• Many of the participants felt really
bad about it; some of them even
began to shake or show other types
of discomfort.
 Ethics
• Deception
• Protection of participants
• Right to withdraw
 Right to Withdraw
1. Please continue.
2. The experiment requires you to
continue.
3. It is absolutely essential that you
continue.
4. You have no other choice but to
continue.
 Random Selection &
Random Assignment
• Random selection refers to the
process of randomly selecting
individuals from a population to be
involved in a study.
• Random assignment refers to the
process of randomly assigning the
individuals in a study to either a
treatment group or a control group.
 Social Norm
• A social norm is the accepted
behaviour that an individual is
expected to conform to in a
particular group, community, or
culture.
• Allow you to expect the events
that will occur in a particular
setting.
 Deviance
• Any behaviour that does not conform
to the social norms that are
expected by a culture or group is
considered deviance.
 Deviance
• Any behavior that differs
significantly from what is considered
appropriate or typical for a social
group is called deviance.
STIGMA
 Stigma
• Stigma is an attribute or
characteristic that marks a person
as different from others and that
extensively discredits his or her
identity.
• Social/Public stigma
• Self stigma
 Stigma
• Stigma is the negative social
attitude attached to a
characteristic of an individual that
may be regarded as a mental,
physical, or social deficiency.
• A stigma implies social
disapproval and can lead unfairly
to discrimination against and
exclusion of the individual.
 Stigma
• Stigma is a mark of disgrace that
sets a person apart from others.
When a person is labeled, they are
no longer seen as an individual but as
part of a stereotyped group.
 Stigma
• Negative attitudes and beliefs
toward this group create prejudice
which leads to negative actions and
discrimination. It is called stigma.
 Stigma
• Stigma = stereotyping prejudice
discrimination.
 Mental Health Stigma
• People are not supportive and can
make things considerably worse.
• People didn't believe in mental
health problems, as if mental health
problems are a myth that they could
choose not to believe in.
 Mental Health Stigma
• Lazy and selfish.
• Just a weak, flawed person.
• The person’s fault.
 Weight Stigma
• Weight stigma, based on a person’s
weight.
• Weight stigma can increase body
dissatisfaction, a leading risk factor
in the development of eating
disorders. The best-known
environmental contributor to the
development of eating disorders is
the sociocultural idealization of
thinness.
BEHAVIOUR IN
GROUPS
 Groups
• Groups: just two people – or very
large.
• Lewin (1948): Interdependence.
 Groups
• Groups: People who are
interdependent and have mutual
influence on each other.
 Groups
• Do individuals behave differently in
groups than they would on their own?
How do group dynamics affect our
decision-making skills?
 Group Polarization
• Group polarization focuses on how
groups usually make decisions that
are more extreme than the original
thoughts and views of the individual
team members.
• Risky decisions
• Conservative/Cautious decisions
 Risky Shift
• Everyone has personal opinions that
may stand apart from the norm in
some cases. However, in group
settings, the opinions of group
members may change to be far more
extreme than any individual group
member. Upon leaving the group,
these opinions may remain.
 Risky Shift
• Risky shift refers to a change in
group attitude that raises the
chance for negative consequences.
• Form of group polarization.
• e.g. Outdoor Recreationists
 GROUPTHINK
• Groupthink: A group makes faulty or
ineffective decisions for the sake of
reaching a consensus. It is an
unhealthy decision making procedure.
• Avoiding conflict and maintaining
harmony.
• Not carefully consider
alternatives or risks.
GROUPTHINK
Space Shuttle Challenger
Disaster (1986)

üüüü
• Dangerous conformity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjP22DpY
Yh8

• Milgram:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DxSKTS
oA_E

• RA & RS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3Em-
dka2Vc
• Stigma: https
://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eio-I8PbdDk