Obedience Flashcards
Obedience
A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the orders is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming.
Milgram’s research
40 American men volunteered to take part in a study, supposedly on memory.
When each volunteer arrived at Milgram’s lab he was introduced to another participant (a confederate). They drew lots to see who would be the ‘Teacher’ and who would be the ‘Learner’. The draw was fixed so that the participant was always the Teacher. An ‘Experimenter’ was also involved (also confederate, dressed in a lab coat).
The study aimed to assess obedience in a situation where an authority figure (E) ordered the participant (T) to give an increasingly strong shock to a Learner located in a different room (in 15-volt steps up to 450 volts). The shocks were fake but the Teacher did not know this.
Findings: Every participant delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts. 12.5% stopped at 300 and 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
Milgram also collected qualitative data including observations such as; the participants showed signs of extreme tension; many of them were seen to ‘sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their hands’; three even had ‘full-blown uncontrollable seizures’
