Milgram (1963) - Obedience Flashcards
What is the definition of obedience?
Is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming
What was the aim of milgrams (1963) study?
Was to test obedience in people and the extent to which people conform in the form of obedience.
How many volunteers were there?
40 volunteers
What was the method of milgram’s Study?
Naive participants were always the teachers and always saw the confederates being strapped into their chairs with wired electrodes being inserted in them
Naive pps ask the confederates ( the learners) questions and when they are wrong they get a shock from 15 - 450 volts which increases with every wrong question
What are the four prods used by the experimenter to encourage the teacher ? ( the naive pps)
Please continue
The experiment requires you to continue
It is absolutely essential you continue
You have no other choice - you must go on
What is the quantitative data collected by milgram?
Every pps went to a least 300 volts
12.5% stopped at 300 volts
65% continued to 450 volts
What is the qualitative data collected by milgram’s study?
Naive pps showed extreme levels of stress and anxiety such as sweat trembling and playing with their finger
3 had seizures
Pps were debrief at the end
84% reported that they were glad to take part in the study
AO3 : Internal Validity
Holly and Orne says Internal validity is low because people didn’t believe the set up and knew that it was fake so therefore Milgrsm didn’t test obedience.
Milgrams reported that 70 % of his participants believed that the shocks were real
Sheridan and Perry conducted a similar study on puppy’s with real shocks obtained similar results to milgrams. Shows they obtained the same results with real and fake shocks as pls behaved the same way
AO3 : External Validity
May think that external validity is low due to it being a laboratory study but actually the laboratory actually accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life. Generalisable to other situations as 21/22 nursers obeyed.
AO3 : Ethical Issues
Consents : Participants Consented to the study but it was not informed consents are they didn’t know the actual aim of the study. As to get true results of the study
Deception : They didn’t know the true aim of the study which is obedience and they didn’t know the shocks are not real
Debrief: 84 % were happy that they took part
Withdraw : participants were not allowed to withdraw and were given four prods to continue to the experiment
Protection from harm : 3 people had seizures
