Evaluation of Hofling study

Question 1

Ecological validity?

Answer 1

Method chosen was high because it was natural behavior been observed in a field experiment

Question 2

Validity?

Answer 2

• High population validity for nurses but not to generalize to other professions
• Demonstrates how people actually act and not how they think they would act

Question 3

Supporting evidence?

Answer 3

-Milgram and Meeus and Raaijmaker also demonstrating high levels of obedience to authority figures.

Question 4

Refuting evidence?

Answer 4

-Rank and Jacobson found that when a drug was familiar to the nurses only 2/18 obeyed showing it was not just the authority figure that affected obedience.

Question 5

Application?

Answer 5

Highlights the need to provide training that does not encourage automatic obedience in all situations and that nurses should be trained to think through their actions.

Question 6

Reliability?

Answer 6

• Very highly controlled (identical boxes)
• However it was carried out in the field making it impossible to control all the variables (Nurses could have been distracted by a particular patient)

Question 7

Ethics?

Answer 7

• no informed consent
• nurses were not aware they could withdraw
• Nurses were deceived
• Nurses were debriefed
• However the study was carried out before ethical guidelines were introduced