Obedience

Question 1

obedience defintion

Answer 1

Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order usually from a figure of authority.

Question 2

Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 2

40 American men volunteered for what they thought was a memory study. The study aimed to assess obedience in a situation where an authority figure ordered the participant to give an increasingly strong shock to a learner located in a different room. The shocks were fake but the teacher didn’t know this.

Question 3

Milgram’s baseline findings

Answer 3

All participants delivered shocks up to 300 volts. 65% continued to highest level of 450 volts. Milgram observed that participants showed signs of extreme tension, three even had ‘full blown uncontrollable seizures’.

Question 4

Milgram’s conclusion

Answer 4

Milgram suspected there were certain factors in the situation that encouraged obedience, so decided to conduct further investigations to experiment them.

Question 5

Evaluation of Milgram’s research (brief)

Answer 5

strength - research support, French documentary
weakness - low internal validity, Perry
weakness - ethical concerns, Baumrind

Question 6

strength of Milgram’s research

Answer 6

There is research support as Milgram’s findings were replicated in a French documentary. In the documentary, it focused on a game show where participants were paid to deliver (fake) shocks to other participants, who were actually actors. 80% of the participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man. Their behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants – nervous laughter, nail-biting, other signs of anxiety. Therefore, this supports Milgram’s original findings about obedience to authority and increases the reliability of his findings.

Question 7

weaknesses of Milgram’s research

Answer 7

Milgram’s research has low internal validity. Milgram reported that 75% of his participants said they believed the shocks were real. However, Perry’s research in 2013 reported that only about half of the participants believed the shocks were real after listening to the tapes of Milgram’s participants. This suggests that participants may have been responding to demand characteristics, trying to fulfil the aims of the study. Therefore, limiting the validity of Milgram’s findings.

Milgram’s research has many ethical concerns. The participants in his study were deceived by being told it was a memory study, therefore informed consent could not have been obtained. Additionally, the participants also believed the shocks to be real. Milgram dealt with these issues by debriefing the participants at the end of the study and assuring them that their behaviour was normal. HOWEVER, Baumrind criticised Milgram for deceiving his participants. She believed that deception in psychological studies can have serious consequences for participants and researchers. However, deception was crucial for the study to work.