Miligram's

Question 1

What are the effects of social pressure?

Answer 1

Social pressure can lead individuals to conform, comply, or obey, even against their moral values, due to the influence of authority or group norms.

Question 2

What is considered to be one of the most basic parts of the social world by psychologists?

Answer 2

Obedience to authority is considered one of the most fundamental aspects of the social world.

Question 3

What is destructive obedience?

Answer 3

Destructive obedience occurs when individuals obey authority figures in ways that harm others or violate ethical standards.

Question 4

Give one example of destructive obedience.

Answer 4

A historical example is the Holocaust, where individuals followed orders leading to mass atrocities.

Question 5

What is one theory used by social psychologists to explain the Holocaust?

Answer 5

The agentic state theory, which suggests people see themselves as agents executing authority’s will, is often used to explain the Holocaust

Question 6

What is the background of Milgram’s research?

Answer 6

Milgram’s research was inspired by the Holocaust, aiming to understand how ordinary people could commit atrocities under authority’s orders.

Question 7

What did Milgram do before the experiment?

Answer 7

He conducted a pilot study and surveyed psychology students, who predicted that very few participants would fully obey authority.

Question 8

What is the aim of the experiment?

Answer 8

To investigate how far individuals would obey authority figures when instructed to harm another person.

Question 9

What was the research method?

Answer 9

A controlled laboratory experiment.

Question 10

What is the research design?

Answer 10

A single condition design (no independent variables manipulated between groups).

Question 11

How was the participants’ level of obedience measured?

Answer 11

By the maximum voltage shock they administered on the learner (up to 450 volts).

Question 12

What was the sample?

Answer 12

40 male participants aged 20-50 from the New Haven area, with various occupations.

Question 13

What kind of sampling technique was used?

Answer 13

Volunteer sampling; participants responded to a newspaper ad.

Question 14

What was the reward or incentive the participants received?

Answer 14

$4.50 for their participation, regardless of the experiment’s outcome

Question 15

Where did the study take place?

Answer 15

In a laboratory at Yale University.

Question 16

How was the procedure?

Answer 16

Participants were assigned the role of “teacher” and instructed to administer electric shocks to a “learner” (a confederate) for wrong answers.

Question 17

What was the participant told?

Answer 17

They were told the study aimed to investigate the effects of punishment on learning.

Question 18

What was the task given?

Answer 18

The “teacher” read word pairs and administered shocks when the “learner” (confederate) answered incorrectly.

Question 19

What were the results?

Answer 19

65% of participants administered the maximum 450-volt shock, and all went to at least 300 volts.

Question 20

What was the quantitative data?

Answer 20

The percentage of participants who administered shocks at different voltage levels.

Question 21

What was the qualitative data?

Answer 21

Observations of participants’ stress, such as sweating, trembling, and verbal protests.

Question 22

What was the conclusion?

Answer 22

People are likely to obey authority figures, even when it conflicts with their personal conscience.

Question 23

Why was the legitimacy of the study questioned?

Answer 23

Critics argued that participants may not have believed the shocks were real, questioning the study’s ecological validity.

Question 24

What were the strengths of the study?

Answer 24

High level of control in a lab setting.

Groundbreaking insights into obedience.
Replicability of the study.

Question 25

What were the weaknesses of the study?

Answer 25

Low ecological validity.

Artificial setting and tasks.
Potential demand characteristics.

Question 26

What were the ethical issues with the study?

Answer 26

Deception about the nature of the experiment.

Psychological harm due to stress.
Lack of informed consent in full detail.

Question 27

How can the study be applied to real life?

Answer 27

It highlights the dangers of blind obedience, informing practices in military training, workplace hierarchies, and ethical guidelines in authority-driven environments.