Tomasz Andrykowski
Solomon Asch conformity experiment
Solomon Asch’s experiment was supposed to show what effect will the pressure from other people have on someone’s view without them actually discussing it.
During the 1950’s Solomon Asch did a lot of experiments like this conformity one, people even today re-create his experiments to get a lot of psychological knowledge from it.
In the experiment 75% of the participants gave right answers which means they conformed because they felt the pressure from the others and because then they did not know what to say they just said the same wrong answer as the rest just because the rest said that answer. and 25% succeeded because they gave a right answer, this means that they did not feel the pressure from the others to say the same answer as the rest of the people tested.
Throughout doing these experiments during one of the test Asch gave the normal person (not told to give wrong answer) a partner who was also a normal person who didn’t know of the real experiment or a actor who was told to give the correct answer, for this the level of conformity goes down by a lot but Asch removed partner half way through experiment to see what would happen and he discovered that the level of conformity had go up dramatically.
Asch also at one point asked the participants to write down their answers, this has drastically dropped the results to 5% conformity just because the people were not scared of a conflict because of the different answers to the rest of the team.
A criticism of this experiment is that it does not relate to a real life situation, unlike the Milgram experiment and the Stanford prison experiment.
Conformity is very important in the public services because everyone has to do what they are supposed to do, otherwise they would just do whatever they like for example police could break the law also like Bloody Sunday man with radio said that he couldn’t see anyone but when he went to give his statement he lied because all his comrades had told him to and they had all lied telling the same thing.
Milgram’s obedience experiment
The test was to see if people will give other people deadly electric shock by simply following orders from a man that was dressed smart, because he was wearing clothes like a scientist, everyone assumed that he knows what he’s doing. The man giving the orders did not say even once that they HAVE to continue with the experiment.
The test was to see if people would obey the commands when they were told to give someone a light electric shocks and then keep on rising the voltage until it got up to 450v. 220v is enough to kill you, therefore 450v would kill you instantly.
The experiment has came out with drastic results, most of the people where rising the voltage up to the maximum point which was 450v, this voltage in real life situation would kill a human instantly therefore it’s very difficult to understand why did the people go up to the 450v point. The people have trusted the “scientist” just because he was dressed smartly they assumed that he knows what he’s doing so he will not let the people get any harm.
Some of the people did not want to go anymore above a certain voltage because they were afraid to harm the volunteer getting electrocuted as they could hear them screaming and shouting for help which was just a tape really but the people did not know about it. Although some people did not obey the commands from the scientist that was only a minor percentage of all the people tested.
Obedience is very important in the public services because everyone has to follow orders so the task can get done and then everything will go smoothly, sometimes it’s very important that people in public services don’t obey the commands they were given as sometimes it may lead to unnecessary causalities and other problems like on ‘Bloody Sunday’.
Zimbardo Prison Experiment
Zimbardo’s prison experiment was made to see if power will change normal people’s way of thinking and if it will make them act different to the way they used to be. The results of this experiment were really bad considering that the prison guards where over using their power over the prisoners, normally they wouldn’t do some things to other people but because they could now because they had the power they did it.
Each day as the experiment carried on the prisoners were breaking down mentally because of the punishment they were getting from the prison guards. After couple of days Phillip Zimbardo has cancelled the experiment because his wife has said that it has even changed the way he was acting and how he felt about the experiment, she said how could you do such a thing I don’t know who you are.
This links to public services because for example if there is as someone in an army who has a higher rank he might give the lower rank punishment or not treat them correctly just because he has more power over the lower rank soldier.
Hofling’s Hospital Experiment
Hofling’s hospital experiment is to do with obedience just like Milgram’s but better as the night nurses who were unaware of this experiment they were taking part of, a false doctor would ask if they had any astroten, the nurse can see that the maximum dosage of this drug is 10mg, the doctor would tell them to administer 20mg of this to a Mr Jones and that he would fill out any paper work later when he comes down.
The nurses were watched to see what they would do the drug was fake but the nurses didn’t know.
3 things done wrong already are:
1. They are not allowed to accept instructions over the phone.
2. The dose was double the maximum limit stated on the box.
3. The medicine itself as unauthorized, i.e. not on the ward stock list.
21 out of 22 nurses were easily influenced to do this.
This proves that when someone of authority tells someone else to do something it is normally carried out with no questions, this has to be understood as if a person is told to do something that is not to be done and they do it a lot of bad things could happen.
andryk