obedience: Milgram's research

Question 1

obedience

Answer 1

an individual following a direct order
person that issues the order is usually a figure of authoritu
has the power to punish people when they don’t obey

Question 2

baseline procedure

Answer 2

• 40 male ppts that had responded to an advert in which they were given roles of either teacher or learner
• teacher (ppt everytime) must give an electroshock to the learner when they got the question wrong
• increased the severity of shocks with each wrong answer

Question 3

baseline findings

Answer 3

• none stopped below 300 v
• 12.5% stopped at 300v
• 65% continued to the highest (450v)
• ppts showed extreme signs of distress : 3 had uncontrollable seizures

Question 4

other data

Answer 4

• asked 14 students to predict the outcome
• no more than 3% said they would go up to 450v
  justification for the study
• ppts debriefed that behaviour was normal
  follow up questionnaire that most said they were glad they took part

Question 5

conclusions

Answer 5

• german people aren’t different
• American ppts were willing to obey even if they harmed someone
• certain factors encouraged obedience

Question 6

AO3: low internal validity

Answer 6

• Orne & Holland: ppts didn’t believe the set up or that the shocks were real
• didn’t actually test obedience
• confirmed by research as there were tape recordings of ppts saying they didn’t know if the shocks were real

Sheridan & King: shocks were given to a puppy
54% males & 100 females gave potential fatal shocks
genuine results like Milgram

Question 7

AO3: good external validity

Answer 7

• lab environment reflected authority in real-life
• Hofling (1966): 22 nurses were phoned by a Dr Smith while alone to administer a drug to patients
  
  • 21/22 followed the orders

Question 8

AO3: supporting research

Answer 8

• reality TV showed replicated Milgram’s study
• ppts believed they were contestants in a game show and were paid to give fake electroshocks to other ppts
• 80% delivered max shock of 460v to an unconscious man
• low internal validity: knew they were fake
  demand characteristics: paid to do this

Question 9

AO3: alternate explanation (social identity theory)

Answer 9

• obedience lies in group identification
• ppts identified with the experimenter & science of the study
• when obedience fell it was because they didn’t identify with the experimenter but with the learner more
  study looked at behaviour with the 4 prods
• 1st 3 didn’t demand obedience but asked for help with science
• 4th demanded obedience: when this was used ppts quit
• didn’t obey but identified

Question 10

AO3: ethical issues

Answer 10

• deception
  told them role of teacher/ learner was random - not
  believed shocks to be real