Milgram and Asch

Question 1

When was Milgram’s shock experiment?

Answer 1

1963

Question 2

Give a brief overview of Milgram’s experiment.

Answer 2

1. Obedience experiment but ppts thought it was about effect of punishment on learning
2. Ppts met confederate (Mr Wallace) who was strapped to a chair with electrodes on scalp to administer electric shocks
3. Each ppt asked to give M.W increasingly higher level shocks for each word pair he failed to remember
4. Ppts believed shocks were real
5. Predicted 0.001% would administer lethal shock, but over 50% did

Question 3

What situational factors did Milgram find affected obedience?

Answer 3

1. Proximity of victim
2. Proximity of the authority
3. Level of authority
4. Legitimacy of context
5. Personal responsibility
6. Support of others

Question 4

How did proximity of the victim affect obedience?

Answer 4

M.W was in different room = easier to obey b/c effects weren’t seen.

2. In a variation, M.W and ppt were in the same room and obedience fell to 40%

Question 5

How did proximity of the authority affect obedience?

Answer 5

When exptr and ppts were in different rooms, obedience fell

Question 6

How did level of the victim affect obedience?

Answer 6

Exptr’s lab coat = official and legitimate

2. When replaced by ordinary person, obedience fell

Question 7

How did legitimacy of the context affect obedience?

Answer 7

1. Originally done at Yale

2. When replicated in rundown office block, obedience fell

Question 8

How did personal responsibility affect obedience?

Answer 8

When working with another person who administered the shock, obedience rose to over 90%

Question 9

How did support of others affect obedience?

Answer 9

When social support was offered by another confederate, obedience fell to 10%

Question 10

What personality factors did Milgram find affected obedience?

Answer 10

Locus of control

2. Authoritarian personalities
   - used F-scale and found that 20 obedient ppts scored higher than 20 disobedient

Question 11

What other factor did Milgram find affected obedience?

Answer 11

Ppts told shocks weren’t harmful - may have felt they weren’t causing long-term damage

Question 12

When was Asch’s conformity experiments?

Answer 12

1950s

Question 13

Give a brief overview of Asch’s study.

Answer 13

1. Ppt and confederates showed a card with 3 lines of different lengths A, B and C
2. Showed a second card with 1 line and asked which resembled A, B or C

Question 14

What situational factors did Asch find affected conformity?

Answer 14

1. Size of the majority
2. Unanimity of the majority
3. Task difficulty/ambiguity

Question 15

How did size of the majority affect conformity?

Answer 15

1. The greater the majority, the greater their influence
2. When confederates all picked the wrong one, ppts did the same
3. Conformity rate increased as number of confederates increased

Question 16

How did unanimity of the majority affect conformity?

Answer 16

1. Disagreement = no unanimous decision to change, so there is no fear of rejection or need to fit in
2. Asch: if most confeds picked wrong line but one didn’t, ppt was less likely to conform

Question 17

How did task difficulty/ambiguity affect conformity?

Answer 17

1. Difficult task = increased likeliness of informational social influence
2. Asch: when all three lines were similar to the 2nd card, there was a higher rate of conformity