MILGRAMS RESEARCH - Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

When someone follows an order from someone who is of a higher status than themselves.

Question 2

What were the aims of the study?

Answer 2

=test if the Germans were more obedient or not.
=was meant to be a pilot study.

Question 3

Procedure?

Answer 3

(P= participants. E= experimenter)
=participants volunteered for a memory and learning study.
=confederate wore a lab coat.
=P told they could leave at any time
=E explained punishment was an electric shock.
=shocks went up voltage each time
=by 15v it increased

Question 4

Findings ?

Answer 4

=obedience rate was 65%
=100% went up to 300v
= many showed extreme signs of distress

Question 5

Conclusions?

Answer 5

=German hypothesis is false
=p were ordinary Americans
=high levels of obedience show that we are all likely to conform to someone of a higher authority.

Question 6

How is high external validity a strength in this study?

Answer 6

=relationship between E and P were seen to be like the real world.
=other studies show that conformity can be seen the same outside of a lab

Question 7

How is this study seen to be unethical?

Answer 7

=high levels of distress seen in P
= P were deceived
=created a bad reputation for psychologists.