Obedience-Milgrams study

Question 1

A01

Define Obedience

Answer 1

Type of social influence which causes person to act in response to order given by person usually authority figure

Question 2

A01

Outline aims of milgrams study of obedience

Answer 2

wanted to know why ppl obeyed authority figures
-Milgram established baseline procedure uses to assess obedience levels

Question 3

A01

Outline Milgram’s baseline study procedure
>teacher-participant
>learner-confederate
>experimenter-confederate

Answer 3

> 40 American men volunteered to take part in Milgram’s study at Yale university , on memory task
when volunteers arrived at milgrams lab they introduced to another participant(confederater of milgrams)
p drew lots to see who be teacher(T) or Learner(L)
draw was fixed-so genuine participant always teacher
confederate always learner
Experimemter also involved (E)-confederate, dressed in grey lab coat

Question 4

A01

Explain milgrams Baseline procedure arrangement

Answer 4

Teacher(p) could not see learner(c) -can hear
>teacher gave learner electric shock every time learner made mistake on memory task
>shocks increased with each mistake in 15 volt step ups to 450volts
>shock was fake -labelled to suggest dangerous

Question 5

Explain milgrams Baseline Findings

Answer 5

Every participant delivered shocks up to 300 volts
12.5% (5 participants) stopped at 300 volts(intense shock)
65% continued to highest level of 450 V-fully obedient
collected qualitative data including observations:
Participants showed signs of extreme tension-sweat, tremble ,stutter ,bite lips
>3 had uncontrollable seizures

Question 6

A03

outline Milgram’s study had Low internal validity-didn’t believe set up

Limitation

Answer 6

> Milgram’s research not tested what intended to
Milgram reported 75% of p believed shock genuine
Orne & Holland-argue p behaved as they did because not believed in set up of experiment were play acting
Perry listened to tapes of milgrams p reported only half of them believed shock was real
suggests p may responded to demand characteristics

Question 7

A03

Counterpoint to low internal valdiity- Sheridan & King -puppies

Limitation

Answer 7

Sheridan & King conducted a study using a procedure similar to milgrams
their p gave a real shock to a puppy in response to orders recieved from the experimenter
despite the real distress of the puppy , 54% of male & 100% of female p delivered what they believed was fatal shock
supporting Milgrams study & shows genuine results as people behaved obediently , even when shock was real

Question 8

A03

Outline Ethical issues

Limitation

Answer 8

P in the study were decieved so informed consent could not be
obtained. **
e.g p thought allocation of roles ( Teacher & learner) was random but it was fixed, p also thought the shock was real-milgram dealt with this by debriefing p
* There was psychological harm inflicted upon the p -
* They showed signs of psychological & physiological distress such as
trembling, sweating & nervous laughter.