Milgram’s Study Into Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience

Answer 1

A type of social influence which causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person who usually has power/authority

Question 2

Aim of Milgram’s study

Answer 2

To investigate why people obey authority figures

Question 3

Participants in Milgram’s study

Answer 3

40 male participants aged between 20 and 50 years who were recruited through newspaper adverts and flyers in the post

Question 4

Outline Milgram’s procedure

Answer 4

-when ppts arrived they were payed and there was a rigged draw for their roles with the confederate always getting learner while the ppt was the teacher, there was also an experimenter dressed in a lab coat
-ppts were told they could leave the study at any time
-learner was strapped in a chair in another room and wired with electrodes, the teacher was required to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time the learner made a mistake on a memory task
-shock level started at 15V and went up to 450V(labelled danger severe shock)
-at 300V the learner pounded on the wall and then gave no more responses
-experimenter encouraged the teacher to go on if looked at for assurance
-all ppts were debriefed and assured that their behaviour was normal

Question 5

Results of Milgram’s experiment

Answer 5

-no participants stopped below 300V
-12.5% stopped at 300V
-65% continued to the highest level of 450V
-ppts showed signs of extreme tension and three had uncontrollable seizures
-70% of participants thought the shocks were genuine

Question 6

Conclusion of Milgram’s study

Answer 6

People will obey the order of those they perceive to have authority even when going against their own desires and inflicting pain on others

Question 7

Expand on limitation that the study lacks ecological validity as it tested obedience in a lab setting

Answer 7

-very different to real life obedience where people are asked to follow more nuanced(subtle) instructions rather that administering electric shocks
-in addition the study lacked validity from demand characteristics as research found participants behaved in such a manner because they did not believe in the set up
-may tell us very little about obedience in real life instances

Question 8

Expand on strength that the study has high external validity due to support from other research

Answer 8

-Milgram’s study was able to display obedience between an authority figure and the participant which further experiments have also demonstrated
-eg Hofling Et al gave instructions to nurses by telephone using a false name(not known to the nurses) alone to administer unknown drug above the recommended dose, 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed demonstrating that the majority of nurses will obey dangerous orders

Question 9

Expand on limitation that studies have shown that people may not always obey authority figures

Answer 9

-Rank and Jacobson gave instructions to a group of nurses by telephone using a familiar name to administer 3x the recommended dose of a known drug, 2 out of 18 obeyed demonstrating only a small majority of nurses will obey dangerous orders
-challenges validity of study due to evidence going against it

Question 10

Expand on limitation that Milgram underestimated individual differences in obedience, findings not generalisable

Answer 10

-in his study he only investigated males and applied his results to females which is a form of beta bias
-Sheridan and King found that 54% of males obey an order and shock a puppy however 100% of females shocked a puppy
-findings cannot be applied to all

Question 11

What are situational variables

Answer 11

External factors that influence the level of obedience shown by participants eg proximity, location, uniform

Question 12

What was obedience level when teacher and learner in same room and why

Answer 12

40% due to closer proximity so teacher feel higher sense of personal responsibility for the learner and see the pain they were causing

Question 13

Obedience level when experimenter left the room and issued instructions by telephone and why

Answer 13

21% due to greater proximity to experimenter and could not see they had less authority over the teacher

Question 14

Obedience level when the experiment took place in a run down office rather than a prestigious university

Answer 14

48% due to location which has lack of legitimate authority that Yale has

Question 15

Obedience level when teacher forces learners hand onto plate and why

Answer 15

30% due to closer proximity so would feel more responsible for what happens to the learner

Question 16

Obedience level when experimenter was played by an ordinary member of the public

Answer 16

20% due to lack of uniform, means authority is less legitimate

Question 17

What is internal validity

Answer 17

Whether the experiment actually measures what it intends to measure

Question 18

Expand on strength of Milgram’s situational variables study that it has research support

Answer 18

-Bickman used three male actors dressed as security guard, milk man and one in ordinary clothes who asked members of the public to pick up a bag/give someone money for a parking metre
-76% of the time people obeyed the security guard, 30% of the time people obeyed the one in normal clothes
-suggests more likely to obey those in uniform as infers a sense of legitimate authority
H: however Bickman’s study was a field study meaning less control over EVs meaning can be less certain uniform alone affected obedience

Question 19

Expand on limitation of study into situation variables that it has low internal validity

Answer 19

-Orne and Holland argue many of the ppts worked out the procedure was fake
-it is even more likely that ppts in Milgram’s variations realised this because of the extra manipulation eg when experimenter replaced with a member of the public ppts may have worked out the truth
-unclear whether the results are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because the ppts saw through the deception and acted accordingly
H: however milgram stated that 70% of his og ppts thought the shocks were real

Question 20

Expand on strength of situational variables study that it has cross-cultural replications

Answer 20

-Miranda Et al found an obedience rate of over 90% among Spanish students so reflects way in which different societies structured
-suggests Milgram’s findings can be applied to different cultures and apply to females as well
H: this research still presents problems as most replications have taken place in Western, developed societies which are not culturally different to the US