4.1.1 - Obedience

Question 1

Who carried out research on obedience

Answer 1

Milligram(1963)

Question 2

Define obedience

Answer 2

A type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person. usually the person the order had power or authority.

Question 3

What is the aim of milligrams research

Answer 3

To discover why such a large proportion of German people supported Hitlers regime and why many of the Nazi party carried out inhumane actions just because they were “following orders”

Question 4

What was the procedure of Milgrams investigation

Answer 4

• conduced a lab study on 40 men (age 20-50) recruited via a volunteer sample
• when the ppts arrived they participated in a rigged draw to receive their role for what the thought was a memory test
• all ppts were assigned the role of the teacher
• each time the student(actor) answers a question wrong, the teacher was instructed to give them an electric shock (was fake) by the experimenter( actor)
• the shock increased in intensity as the investigation went on.
• once the shocks reaches 300v the student showed signs of extreme pain and distress
• when the teacher asked to leave the experiment the examiner replied with prompts: 1) please continue. 2) the experiment requires that you continue 3) it is absolutely essential that you continue 4) you have no other choice you must go on

Question 5

What were milgrams findings

Answer 5

• no ppts stopped below 300v
• 12.5% ppts stopped at 300v
• 65% continued to 450v
• the ppts showed extreme levels of distress and anxiety ( sweat, trembling, biting lips, digging their nails into their hands)

Question 6

Milgram A03 - internal validity

Answer 6

· Because the ppts were willing to give strong shocks, they must have believed the task was real.
↳ Almost 70% of the ppts believed the set up to be real.
· Milgram said that the experiments do follow similar rules to social situations, so therefore are true to life.
· milgram informed the ppts that they could leave, and would be payed anyway, so they didn’t stay with the experiment just for the money.

However: Because the ppts were payed for taking part, they are entering a contract so his findings are evidence of obedience in a contract, not obedience in real life

Question 7

Milgram A03- ethical issues

Answer 7

· Milgram used deception throught his study- he led ppts to believe that the allocation of roles was random when it was not. The ppts were also led to believe that the shocks were real.
·ppts didn’t have the right to withdraw as when asked to leave, they were not immediatley let out.
· Milgram also caused the ppts to feel stressed which puts them in a situation with a higher risk of psychological harm than in everyday life - so ppts were not protected from harm

Question 8

Milgram A03 - external validity

Answer 8

Hofling(1966)
· supported milgrams claim that his study has good external validity, because despite the lab environment, the centeral feature of the situation was the relationship between the authority figure and
the ppts was accuratley reflected like it would be in real life.
· Hofling studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that level of obedience to unjustified demands from the doctors was very high as 21/22 nurses obeyed.
·The findings suggest that milgrams study can be generalised to other real-life situations.

Question 9

Milgram A03 - demand characteristics

Answer 9

orne and hollland(1968)

·argued that the ppts behaved how they did because they didn’t believe the set-up, eg: guessed the electric shocks weren’t real
· Therefore the study Wouldve lacked internal validity which contradicts milgrams claim.

Question 10

What was the purpose of milgrams variations (situational variables)

Answer 10

To discover if features of the situation would have made obedience more or less likely

Question 11

What were the 3 variations

Answer 11

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 12

How was proximity investigated

Answer 12

-When the student is in the same room as the teacher, obedience fell from 65% to 40%

Question 13

How was location investigated

Answer 13

• Milgram changed location of the study to a run-down office block rather than Yale university
• this assumes that the uni gave the experiment more authority
  Obedience fell from 65% to 48%

Question 14

How did Milgram change the uniform of the study

Answer 14

In the original study the experimentor wore a lab coat which symbolised his authority
- Milgram carried out this variation by making the authoritative experimenter being called away at the beginning of the investigation
- the role of the experimentor was taken over by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ in everyday clothing
- obedience dropped from 65% to 20%

Question 15

Situational variables A03 - high control

Answer 15

• Milgram systematically changes only one variable at a time in each variation to see the direct effects it will have on obedience
• all other variables were kept the same meaning the experiment was repeated accurately for over 1000ppts
• high reliability

Question 16

Situational variables A03 - culturally bound

Answer 16

• study was repeated in germany and in Australia
• only 16% of ppts went to 450v in Australia however in Germany 85% of ppts did
• means there could be other factors that affect levels of obedience, not just the variables that were investigated ( not just situational factors)
• the study therefore lacks cultural validity and overall generalisability

Question 17

Situational variables A03 - research support

Answer 17

Bickman(1974)
- in NYC bickman had 3 confederated dressed in 3 different outfits:
-> jacket and tie
-> milkman outfit
-> security guard
- the confederated stood in the street and asked ppts to perform various tasks (eg. Picking up litter, lending them a coin)
- ppts were twice as likely to obey the confederate in the security uniform than the jacket and the tie
- supports milgram’s theory about uniform so increases the external validity