Obedience

Question 1

What was the aim of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 1

To see if people would obey the orders of an authority figure, even when there was fatal consequences.

Question 2

What was the procedure of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 2

1. 40 American males aged between 20-50 were recruited by volunteer sampling and told to go to Yale university
2. Participants were introduced to ‘Mr Wallace’ who played the role of a learner and received electric shocks- both the learner and experimenter were confederates of Milgram
3. Both individuals were ‘randomly’ assigned to a role, but this was rigged so that the participant was always the one who played the teacher
4. The participant and experimenter attached mr Wallace to the equipment, which he wasn’t allowed to leave, and sampled a 45v shock to increase how authentic the shocking was
5. The participant asked Mr Wallace a question and shocked him in stronger shocks, starting at 15v and going up to 450v
6. At 150v Mr Wallace demanded to be released
7. At 300v he refused to answer more questions
8. At 315v he screamed
9. At 330v he could no longer be heard

Question 3

What were the results of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 3

1. Participants were visibly uncomfortable, as they were sweaty, showed nervous laughter, wanted to leave, hesitated pressing switches and some even had seizures
2. 100% gave 300 volts
3. 65% gave the maximum 450 volts

Question 4

If the point is:

A weakness of Milgram’s study on obedience is the results can’t be generalised to the target population.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 4

Evidence- For example, Milgram only used 40 American men from 1 area between the ages of 20-50, making the study androcentric and ethnocentric, as it is a very limited sample in terms of representativeness.

Explanation- Had females or males of a different age or location participated, the findings may have been different.

Link- This suggests that the study is limited in how far it can be used to explain obedience, as the findings cannot be generalised.

Question 5

If the point is:

A strength of Milgram’s study on obedience is that it can be argued to have high reliability.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 5

Evidence- As the study was a lab experiment it allows other people to repeat it in order to check for accuracy of consistency of findings.

Explanation- Likewise, it also involved clear standardised procedures, such as all participants listening to the same recording of Mr Wallace.

Link- This enables the findings to be questioned and the study to be tested for consistency.

Question 6

If the point is:

A strength of Milgram’s study is that it has practical applications.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 6

Evidence- People tend to obey orders from other people if they recognise their authority as morally right and/or legally based. This response is learned in a variety of situations.

Explanation- In particular, if we look at everyday situations like soldiers obeying orders or people obeying figures of authority like a police officer.

Link- This suggests that the Milgram study is very useful when looking at behaviour in society and understanding obedience on a wider level.

Question 7

If the point is:

A weakness of Milgram’s experiment is that it did, however, break ethical guidelines.

What is the evidence, explanation and link?

Answer 7

Evidence- For example, the participants were deceived by the true aim of the experiment and many suffered from psychological distress.

Explanation- However, the participants were fully debriefed after the experiment, were not physically harmed and could have left at any time.

Link- This shows that breaking ethical guidelines was essential to study the nature of obedience.

Question 8

What are the 3 situational variables affecting obedience?

Answer 8

1. Loss of uniform
2. Location
3. Proximity

Question 9

How did loss of uniform affect obedience?

Answer 9

1. Experimenter appeared to be an ordinary member of society without wearing the white coat
2. This led to 20% participants obeying because they don’t seem like an authoritative figure

Question 10

How did location affect obedience?

Answer 10

1. The experiment moved from Yale university to a rundown office block
2. Led to 48% obeying, as an office would lose the idea of being in an official building

Question 11

How did proximity affect obedience?

Answer 11

Close proximity-

1. The learner was moved into the same room as the teacher
2. Led to 40% obeying as they could hear harm being done

Absent experimenter-

1. Experimenter left the room and gave instructions by phone
2. Led to 23% obeying as they weren’t actually with them

Question 12

What are the evaluation points of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 12

— The results cannot be generalised to its target population

+ It can be argued to have high reliability

+ It has practical applications

— It did, however, break ethical guidelines