Milgram’s research

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

A type of social obedience where an individual follows a direct order from what they perceive to be an authority figure.

Question 2

What was Milgram’s aim?

Answer 2

To assess obedience levels

Question 3

What was Milgram’s procedure?

Answer 3

40 American men were given the role of teacher through fixed draw and they were ordered to give (fake) shocks to the learner (confederate) by an experimenter and shocks increased by 15V with each mistake on a memory task up to 450V

Question 4

What were Milgram’s findings?

Answer 4

No participants stopped before 300V and 65% went all the way to 450V, many showed signs of stress and most objected but continued anyway but the prior survey said 3% would obey.

Question 5

What were Milgram’s 6 variables?

Answer 5

Proximity, location, uniform, buffer, touch proximity and remote instruction

Question 6

What were the findings of the proximity variable?

Answer 6

Obedience went to 40% when learner and teacher were in the same room as teacher cannot psychologically distance self from consequences of their actions

Question 7

What were the findings of the location variable?

Answer 7

Obedience went to 47.5% in a run down office building as the prestige of Yale University gave the setting more credibility and legitimacy.

Question 8

What were the findings of the uniform variable?

Answer 8

Obedience was 20% when the experimenter was a member of the public as uniform is a strong symbol of legitimate authority.

Question 9

What were the findings of the buffer variable?

Answer 9

Obedience went to 92.5% when someone else administered the electrical shock instead of the participant

Question 10

What were the findings of the touch proximity variation?

Answer 10

Obedience went to 30% when the participant forces the learner’s hand onto a shock plate

Question 11

What were the findings of the remote instruction variation?

Answer 11

Obedience went to 20.5% when the experimenter gave instructions over the phone

Question 12

Does Milgram’s study have mundane realism?

Answer 12

Milgram believed he had mundane realism as the task may not be realistic but the relationship between the experimenter and participant reflects the real world authority relationships

Question 13

What is research support for Milgram?

Answer 13

Sheridan and King (1972) conducted a study where particpants gave real shocks to puppy in response to orders from an experimenter. Despite the distress of the animal, 54% of men and 100% of women gave what they believed to be the fatal shock.

Question 14

What are ethical issues for Milgram’s study?

Answer 14

The particpants were deceived as the thought the role allocation was random, but it was in fact was fixed and they thought the shocks were real. However, Milgram dealt with this by debriefing.

Question 15

Did Milgram have internal validity?

Answer 15

Milgram reported that 75% of his particpants said they believed the shocks were genuine but Orne and Holland argued that participants only behaved as they did as they didn’t believe the set up so they were acting. Also, the tapes of Milgram’s study report only half the participants thought the shocks were real and 2/3 were disobedient.

Question 16

Does Milgram have population validity?

Answer 16

His findings were replicated in other cultures such as Meeus and Raajmakers (1986) used a more realistic procedure on dutch particpants and 90% of participants obeyed

Question 17

Does Milgram have ecological validity?

Answer 17

Bickman (1974) conducted a field experiment with 3 conferderates in a jacket and tie, milkman’s outfit and a security guard outfit where they asked people to perform tasks in the street. People were twice and likely to obey the security guard than the suit and tie.