Milgram - behavioural study of obedience Flashcards
what is obedience?
- a form of social influence:
a person changes their behaviour bc of the direct instructions of another person - typically a direct order from a figure with perceived authority
context?
- during the 2nd world war (1939) millions of innocent ppl were killed on command, e.g. those killed in German conc camps
- the historians at the time attributed the behavior of the Nazi soldiers as being due to a German character defect
- Milgram was interested in this DESTRUCTIVE OBEDIENCE where orders are obeyed even tho the indiv understands the - consequences
Aim?
to investigate whether destructive obedience to authority is unique to Germans or whether anyone could display brutality simply by following orders.
hypothesis?
- M did not state any explicit hypotheses in his research
- he did state in his original article that “the individual who is commanded by a legitimate authority figure ordinarly obeys”
- however, prior to the research he did ask 14 Yale psy seniors to predict the level of obedience. All predicted that only an insig minority would administer the max. elevel of shock (estimates 0-3%)
Aim (Germans)?
- the “Germans are different” hypothesis
- Milgram’s research was to test the historian’s hypothesis
- his original experiment in USA was a ‘pilot’ study but the results made conducting the exp in Ger unec
methodology?
- difficult study to categorise
- often referred to as a laboratory exp
- hwr, not a tru exp as no IV and DV
- M initially intended to compare Americans w Germans - if he had nationality would have acted as the IV, and it would have been classed as an exp
- it is a controlled observation in a lab setting
DV is?
- no IV
- DV: max Voltage each ppt went to
extraneous variables: LOR?
- LOR: Yale uni- prestigious - may ⬆ obedience (47.5% went to 450V when replicated in a run down office block)
extraneous variables: researcher bias?
M’s own expectations may have influenced the research. BUT scripted verbal prods and non-participant observation so this bias may be minimal
EV: social desirability?
volunteer bias (eager to please), may have occurred in debrief interviews –ppts may have lied about how they felt/reasons for their obedience to present themselves in a positive light etc. 74% said they ‘had learnt something of importance’ in a follow up questionnaire.
methodologies- non ppt observation def?
An observation where the researcher chooses not to play any part in what is being observed
method - non ppt ob- link to M?
m was not part of the group being observed
+s of non ppt obs?
+ more likely to be objective so less chance of researcher bias as Milgram not directly interacting with ppts and so findings less likely to be distorted by his expectations so higher internal validity.
-s of non ppt obs?
- Could miss important insights into obedience behaviours, thoughts and feelings as not part of the group. However he did use structured interviews to gain more information on ppts experiences, thoughts and feelings.
structured interviews def?
a type of interview where the questions are decided in advance and asked in the same order for each interviewee