Lesson 5 - Obedience To Authority

Question 1

What is Obedience?

Answer 1

Behaving as instructed by an authority figure

Question 2

What is an authority figure?

Answer 2

They have status or power over others

Question 3

Who conducted this experiment and when?

Answer 3

Milgram (1963)

Question 4

What was Milgram’s Procedure? (Background and Introduction)

Answer 4

• Placed an advert in the newspaper for male participants
• They were told they were taking part in how the effect of punishment affects learning
• 40 participants were invited to Yale
• Participants met the experimenter, dressed in a white lab coat
• Participants were introduced to Mr Wallace (old man + weak heart)
• Participants were always teachers and Mr W was always the learner
• Mr W was told to memorise pairs of words
• Teacher was told to shock Mr Wallace every time he made a mistake, increasing the voltage every time.

Question 5

What was Milgram’s Procedure? (what happened in lab)

Answer 5

• Teacher was in an adjoining room to the Learner
• Teacher had to administer shocks when Learner made a mistake
• Switches were labelled with voltage ratings, starting with 15V and ending at 450V
• Each group of switches were labelled e.g ‘XXX’ and ‘Severe Shock’
• As shocks became severe, Mr W demanded to be released, screamed, complained about his weak heart and eventually went quiet.
• Experimenter ensured that the teacher continued, even after the teacher became reluctant; the teacher was prompted to continue even saying ‘you have no choice, you must continue’

Question 6

What were the findings of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 6

• 100% of participants gave shocks up to 300V (Mr W stopped answering)
• 65% of participants gave shocks to maximum voltage: 450V
• Participants felt and showed a high level of stress during the experiment
• Most were obedient and willing to inflict lethal shocks on an old man w/heart problems

Question 7

Evaluation of Milgram (1963) Ethics: Pros and Cons

Answer 7

• Deception: Participants were deceived about the true nature of the experiment
• Lack of Informed Consent: Led to believe they were administering real shocks and didn’t not agree to do so explicitly
• Psychological Harm: Participants were extremely distressed and were anxious (thought they had killed Mr W). This harm was not anticipated.
• No right to withdraw: Participants were not allowed to leaved and were forced to continue
• No Demand Characteristics: increases validity of study

Question 8

Evaluation of Milgram (1963) Cost Benefit Analysis

Answer 8

• Study was worthwhile
• People take more responsibility
• People will not blindly follow orders
• Participants did not suffer any long term emotional disturbances
• 84% participants were happy to take part

Question 9

Evaluation of Milgram (1963) Sample

Answer 9

• Gender Bias: Only men chosen
• Cultural Bias: Only white people chosen

Data is unrepresentative and cannot be generalised to women or people of other cultures