Milgrim's Study into Obedience Flashcards

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1
Q

What is obedience?

A

A form of social influence, in which an individual follows a direct order from a percieved authority figure.

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2
Q

What year did Milgram do his study?

A

1963

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3
Q

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

A

Whether ordinary people (not just German soldiers in WWII) would obey an authority figure, even when the figure was ‘unjust’ and they were required to injure another person.

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4
Q

What was the procedure BEFORE Milgram’s study?

A
  • 40 male ppts volunteered for study of how punishment affects learning
  • To take place at Yale University
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5
Q

What was the procedure DURING Milgram’s study?

A
  • Two confederates: an experimenter (authority figure) and a ‘learner’.
  • The genuine ppt acted as ‘teacher’ + was told that he must administer increasingly strong electric shocks to the learner each time he made a mistake on a learning task.
  • The ‘learner’ sitting in another room, gave mainly wrong answers and recieved (fake) electric shocks starting at 15v and going up in 15volt steps until 450volts.
  • If teacher felt unsure about continuing, experimenter used a sequence of verbal ‘prods’ such as “please continue” and “the experiment requires that you continue”
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6
Q

What were Milgram’s findings?

A
  • 65% of ppts obeyed the experimenter to highest level of 450v
  • ppts showed signs of extreme tension; many seen to ‘sweat’ and ‘tremble’
  • 3 ppts even passed out
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7
Q

How many ppl passed out during Milgram’s study?

A

3

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8
Q

What was Milgram’s conclusion?

A

Ordinary ppl will obey authority even when they know that what they are doing is wrong

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9
Q

What r the two evaluations of Milgram’s study?

A
  • Lacks internal validity
  • Has several ethical concerns
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10
Q

Limitation of Milgram’s research - may lack internal validity

A

Orne and Holland (1968) argued ppts were ‘going along w the act’ when administering electric shocks. Ppts did not rlly believe in the set-up + guessed the shcoks were not real = demonstrating unnatural behaviour bc they knew the electric shocks weren’t real.
Thus, contrary to Milgram’s claims - his ppts were not acc obeying - instead showing demand characteristics and co-operating w/ the study.
Indicates - Milgram’s study not measuring obedience as he intended to.
Challenging validity of study and its conclusions

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11
Q

Limitation of Milgram’s study - has several ethical concerns

A

Study included deception bc ppts were told aim of study was to investigate effect of punishment on learning, when true aim was to investigate obedience to authority. - Means ppts unable to provide fully informed consent prior to study. Furthermore, right to withdraw was not provided - ppts given verbal prods to make them stay even when they wanted to stop the study. Also - ppts subjected to psychological harm - exposed to extremely stressful situations. These ethical concerns question credibility

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