Milgrim's Study into Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

A form of social influence, in which an individual follows a direct order from a percieved authority figure.

Question 2

What year did Milgram do his study?

Answer 2

1963

Question 3

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 3

Whether ordinary people (not just German soldiers in WWII) would obey an authority figure, even when the figure was ‘unjust’ and they were required to injure another person.

Question 4

What was the procedure BEFORE Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

• 40 male ppts volunteered for study of how punishment affects learning
• To take place at Yale University

Question 5

What was the procedure DURING Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

• Two confederates: an experimenter (authority figure) and a ‘learner’.
• The genuine ppt acted as ‘teacher’ + was told that he must administer increasingly strong electric shocks to the learner each time he made a mistake on a learning task.
• The ‘learner’ sitting in another room, gave mainly wrong answers and recieved (fake) electric shocks starting at 15v and going up in 15volt steps until 450volts.
• If teacher felt unsure about continuing, experimenter used a sequence of verbal ‘prods’ such as “please continue” and “the experiment requires that you continue”

Question 6

What were Milgram’s findings?

Answer 6

• 65% of ppts obeyed the experimenter to highest level of 450v
• ppts showed signs of extreme tension; many seen to ‘sweat’ and ‘tremble’
• 3 ppts even passed out

Question 7

How many ppl passed out during Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

3

Question 8

What was Milgram’s conclusion?

Answer 8

Ordinary ppl will obey authority even when they know that what they are doing is wrong

Question 9

What r the two evaluations of Milgram’s study?

Answer 9

• Lacks internal validity
• Has several ethical concerns

Question 10

Limitation of Milgram’s research - may lack internal validity

Answer 10

Orne and Holland (1968) argued ppts were ‘going along w the act’ when administering electric shocks. Ppts did not rlly believe in the set-up + guessed the shcoks were not real = demonstrating unnatural behaviour bc they knew the electric shocks weren’t real.
Thus, contrary to Milgram’s claims - his ppts were not acc obeying - instead showing demand characteristics and co-operating w/ the study.
Indicates - Milgram’s study not measuring obedience as he intended to.
Challenging validity of study and its conclusions

Question 11

Limitation of Milgram’s study - has several ethical concerns

Answer 11

Study included deception bc ppts were told aim of study was to investigate effect of punishment on learning, when true aim was to investigate obedience to authority. - Means ppts unable to provide fully informed consent prior to study. Furthermore, right to withdraw was not provided - ppts given verbal prods to make them stay even when they wanted to stop the study. Also - ppts subjected to psychological harm - exposed to extremely stressful situations. These ethical concerns question credibility