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- Lack of realism

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, so study has low internal validity

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 (“You have no other choice, you must go on”). 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