Psychological Theories which
Impact on Service Provision in
Residential Care
Milgram (& Hoffling) - Obedience
Asch – Conformity
Seligman – Learned Helplessness
Festinger – Attitude Change
Goffman – Institutionalisation
Zimbardo - Deindividuation
Milgram - Obedience
• Milgram performed an experiment to see whether people
obey others.
• He told people to administer life-threatening electric shocks
to another person, simply because a man in a white coat
told them to.
• He thought that only 1 tenth of 1% would administer the
shocks, but found that over 50% did!
• Who might obey in residential care?
Click here
to see
Derren
Brown recreating the
experiment.
Does Obedience explain the gas chambers at Auswich.?
Asch - Conformity
Asche performed experiments
to see whether people would
conform to the group norm,
even though they knew what
they were saying was wrong.
Click here to
see the
experiment
He found that in most cases
people did conform.
Who might conform in
residential care?
Haut de la Garenne in St Martin
Seligman – Learned Helplessness
• If people don’t feel
they have any control
or power they tend to
‘give up’ and feel
depressed.
• They even stop doing
things they are
capable of and start
relying on others to do
things for them
• When might learned
helplessness happen in
residential care?
“Nurse, would you pass
me my water?”
Festinger – Attitude Change
• By now you should know the theory of Cognitive
Dissonance, click here if you don’t!
• When might cognitive dissonance happen in
residential care?
“Give the
patient this
treatment”
I don’t
agree with
this
treatment
Goffman – Institutionalisation
Read AP08 & AP10
Broadly speaking,
Institutionalisation occurs when
people sleep, play and work within
the confines of an institution.
Even if they don’t at first like the
institution, they come to RELY on the
rules and regulations until in the end
they are afraid to leave.
They are completely
institutionalised.
Quote from ‘The ShawShank Redemption’ by Stephen King:
• RED: Heywood, enough. Ain't nothing wrong with Brooksie.
He's just institutionalized, that's all.
• HEYWOOD: Institutionalized, my ass.
• RED: Man's been here fifty years. This place is all he knows. In
here, he's an important man, an educated man. A librarian.
Out there, he's nothing but a used-up old con with arthritis in
both hands. Couldn't even get a library card if he applied.
You see what I'm saying?
• FLOYD: Red, I do believe you're talking out of your ass.
• RED: Believe what you want. These walls are funny. First you
hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. After long enough, you
get so you depend on 'em. That's "institutionalized."
• JIGGER: Shit. I could never get that way.
• ERNIE: Say that when you been inside as long as Brooks has.
Zimbardo - Deindividuation
• Read AP12
• Deindividuation is a theory of
‘devolved responsibility’. This means
that people don’t take full
responsibility for their actions.
• It is usually happens when people are
dressed the same (eg in uniform).
• It usually explains negative
behaviour, eg police brutality, but
can also explain caring behaviours,
eg when medical staff put their
uniform and put their ‘caring head’
on.
• When might deindividuation happen
in residential care, both positively and
negatively?
An example of
police brutality