Lesson 5- obedience to authority

Question 1

obedience

Answer 1

behaving as instructed to by an authority figure, authority figures have status and/or power over others

Question 2

Milgram (1963) procedures

Answer 2

-advert in a newspaper asking for male participants to take part in a study about punishment on learning
-40 participants invited to the Psych department at Yale Uni, met by a man in a white lab coat, really a confederate
-introduced to 47 year old man, they were told was Mr Wallace, another participant, but really a confederate pretending to have a weak heart
-asked to pick notes out of a hat to determine their role, either teacher or learner, set up so that Mr Wallace was always the learner and naive participant was always teacher, told role was to punish leaner if they made a mistake by administering an electric shock, increasing voltage each time
-learner taken to a room and hooked up to electric shock machine, teacher placed in adjoining room with (fake) electric shock machine and experimenter
-to administer shocks the teacher pressed switches on the electric shock machine controls, each switch was labelled with a voltage rating, starting at 15 volts, and rising in increments of 15 volts to a level of 450 volts, each group of four switches labelled with text ‘slight shock, moderate shock, danger:severe shock, XXX’
-as shocks became more severe Mr Wallace demanded to be released from the experiment, screamed, kicked the wall, complained about his weak heart, refused to answer the questions and finally went silent
-experimenter ensured the teacher continued with experiment, when the teacher showed reluctance the experimenter prompted him to continue using one of four statements ‘please continue, the experiment requires that you continue, it is absolutely essential that you continue, you have no choice you must continue’
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Question 3

Milgram findings

Answer 3

-100% of participants gave shocks up to 300 volts (when mr Wallace banged on the wall and stopped answering)
-65% gave shocks all the way to max 450 volts
-participants felt high levels of stress during the experiments, they showed symptoms including sweating, trembling, in some cases, anxious and hysterical laughter
-despite this most were obedient and willing to inflict potentially lethal shocks on a man with a weak heart

Question 4

evaluation (4 weaknesses 1 strength)

Answer 4

-unethical, deceived about true nature of experiment, means they did not give informed consent, also led to believe shocks were real and Mr Wallace really had a weak heart
-however necessary to avoid demand characteristics so increases validity
-psychological harm, participants became extremely distressed, some hysterical, and may have thought they killed Mr Wallace, however Milgram could not have anticipated it as did not know participants would obey
-several participants asked to leave the experiment but were told that they were not allowed, violates their right to withdraw from the experiment
-sample is unrepresentative as all participants were white American males, therefore results can just be generalised to women or other cultures, however study has been replicated with women and obedience rates were not significantly different
-despite ethical issues many psychologists feel that after conducting a cost-benefit analysis the study was worthwhile, we know most people could potentially do the same thing leading to people taking more responsibility and not blindly following orders, participants did not suffer any true long term emotional disturbances and most (84%) said they were happy to have taken part and they had learnt something important from the experience