Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

A form of social influence, in which an individual follows a direct order

Question 2

What did Milgram research and why?

Answer 2

Obedience levels. Influenced by finding an answer to why high proportions of German population obeyed Hitler (WW2)

Question 3

What happened in Milgram’s baseline procedure?

Answer 3

• 40 American men volunteered
• Participants (teacher) paired with confederate (learner)
• Learner to remember word pairs
• Teacher shocked learner for every wrong answer

Question 4

What were the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

• All continued to 300V
• 12.5% stopped at 300V
• 65% continued to 450V
• Participants showed signs of mental distress (sweat, seizure)

Question 5

What did psychology students predict about findings?

Answer 5

14 students predicted results:
- Less than 3% would continue to 450V

Question 6

What percentage was happy to have participated?

Answer 6

84% of participants

Question 7

What are the strengths of Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

• Research support (Game of Death)
• Replication (Sheridan and King)

Question 8

What are the limitations of Milgram’s study?

Answer 8

• Low internal validity/lack of realism
• Alternative interpretation
• Ethical issues

Question 9

STRENGTH-
I- Research support

Answer 9

D- Findings were replictaed in a French documentary, focusing on the game show- Le jeu de la mort. Participants believed they were contestants and were paid to give (fake) electric shocks to (fake) participants in front of an audience. 80% delivered a shock of 460V- behaviour similar to Milgram’s participants
E- Supports OG findings abou obedience

Question 10

LIMITATION-
I- Low internal validity

Answer 10

D- Milgram found 75% believed shocks were genuine. Orne and Holland argue participants behaved due to play acting. Perry confirms this- only 1/2 believed shocks were real- 2/3 of these were disobedient
E- Suggests participants may have responded to demand characteristics

Question 11

STRENGTH-
I- Replication

Answer 11

D- Sheridan and King conducted a Milgram-style study. Participants gave shocks to a puppy, responding to orders from an experimenter. 54% of men and 100% of women gave a ‘fatal’ shock
E- Suggests effects in Milgram’s study wre genuine- obeyed when they thought shocks were real

Question 12

LIMITATION-
I- Alterantive interpretation of findings

Answer 12

D- Haslam et al- Milgram’s participants obeyed Experiementer for first 3 verbal prods, but all disobeyed the 4th prod. Social identity theory (SIT) suggests this is as they identified with scientific aims of research
E- Shows SIT may provide a more valid interpretation of findings

Question 13

LIMITATION-
I- Ethical issues

Answer 13

D- Milgram’s participants were deceived- believed role allocation was random, shocks were real, learner was real participant. Caused psychological harm- 3 even had uncontrollable seizures
E- Highly unethical- benefits do not outweight the cost