Obedience: Gender

Question 1

List 2 pieces of research that reject gender differences in obedience.

Answer 1

1) Milgram (1963)

2) Burger (2009)

Question 2

Explain the research findings of Milgram (1963).

Answer 2

P - Milgram’s (1963) study rejects
E - Found that men and women were equally obedient in the 65% however stress levels in females were higher
E - And so found that gender does not link to levels of obedience and the stress could be due to women being regarded as generally more empathetic than men

Question 3

Explain the research findings of Burger (2009).

Answer 3

P - Burger’s (2009) study rejects
E - He replicated Milgram’s study, stopping at 165V with experimenter interjection and have the confederates verbal protests at 150V
E - Due to him finding no significant different between women and men, he concluded gender did not affect obedience

Question 4

List 2 pieces of research that support gender differences in obedience.

Answer 4

1) Sheridan and King (1972)

2) Kilham and Mann (1974)

Question 5

Explain the research findings of Sheridan and King (1972).

Answer 5

P - Sheridan and King’s (1972) study supports
E - Conducted a study like Milgram’s, only they used a puppy as the learner, who was visible to ppts and was given real shocks
E - Found that 100% of females were fully obedient whilst only 54% of males were obedient, concluding that gender did affect levels of obedience

Question 6

Explain the research findings of Kilham and Mann (1974).

Answer 6

P - Kilham and Mann’s (1974) study supports
E - They found that 40% of Australian male students obeyed compared to 16% of the females giving the maximum shock in a replication of Milgram’s study
E - Due to ppts being paired with people of their gender they suggested women were more likely to for an alliance and oppose the experimenter

Question 7

Using the research findings of Blass (1991), conclude the results.

Answer 7

P - Blass’s (1991) research rejects
E - When using a meta-analysis of 9 studies he found that only Kilham and Mann showed any significant gender difference
E - The conclusion was that in general there are no gender difference in obedience and that the difference was in emotional responses

Question 8

What does research conclude about gender differences?

Answer 8

There is some research to suggest that gender does affect obedience however more research concludes that there isn’t a significant difference and so it must be down to other factors such as individual differences.

Question 9

List 2 general strengths of testing gender and obedience.

Answer 9

1) Standardised procedures allows for mass replication to compare and test for consistency
2) Lab experiments have high control of EVs to establish cause and effect of different genders causing differing rates of obedience

Question 10

List 3 general weaknesses of testing gender and obedience.

Answer 10

1) Low ecological validity due to taking place in artificial conditions that may give rise to demand characteristics and behaviour that ppts wouldn’t exhibit in real life
2) Low task validity due to obedience being operationalised as a voltage in studies like Milgram’s (1963) which doesn’t reflect obedience in real life such as completing homework
3) Ignores situation factors that may change obedience levels