Obedience-Milgrams study

Question 1

background to the study

Answer 1

Milgram (1963)- wanted to know why the german population had followed the orders of hitler and killed millions of jews

Question 2

procedure

Answer 2

• recruited 40 male participants between 20-50yrs old
• participants gave fake electric shocks to a learner in obedience to instructions from the experimenter
• the teacher was required to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time they got something wrong
• when the teacher got to 300V the learner pounded on the wall then gave no response
• when the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, the experimenter used a sequence of four prods, ‘please continue’, ‘the experiment requires that you continue’, ‘it is absolutely essential that you continue’, ‘you have no other choice you must go on’

Question 3

findings

Answer 3

• no participants stopped below 300V
• 12.5% stopped at 300
• 65% continued to highest voltage
• qualitative data collected such as observations shows participants showed signs of extreme tension, sweating, trembling, 3 even had seizures
• all participants were debriefing and assured that their behaviour was entirely normal, also sent a follow up questionnaire, 84% reported that they felt glad to have participated

Question 4

low internal validity

Answer 4

Holland (1968)- argued that participants behaved the way they did because they didn’t really believe in the set up

• Gina Perry (2013)- listened to the tapes of Milgrams participants and reported that many of them expressed their doubts about the shocks
• King (1972)- conducted a similar study where real shocks were given to a puppy, despite the real shocks 54% of the male participants and 100% of the female participants delivered what they thought was a fatal shock, this suggests that the effects in Milgrams study were genuine because people behaved the same way with real shocks
• 70% believed they were giving real shocks

Question 5

Good external validity

Answer 5

Hofling (1966)- studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high (21/22 nurses obeying)
-suggests that Milgrams study can be generalised

Question 6

Supporting replication

Answer 6

replication of Milgrams study on television, the participants believed they were contestants and were paid to give (fake) electric shocks when ordered by the presenter to other participants who were actors in front of an audience. 80% delivered the maximum shock of 460 to an apparently unconscious man

Question 7

social identity theory

Answer 7

the key to obedience lies in group identification, in Milgrams study participants identified with the experimenter.
Haslam and Reicher (2012)- looked at the prods the the experimenter used, the first three don’t demand obedience, they appeal for help with the science, the 4th prod demands obedience, everytime it was used the participant quit

Question 8

ethical issues

Answer 8

Baumrind (1964)- very critical of the ways Milgram decieved his participants, told participants the allocation of roles as teacher and learned was random but was fixed, made them believe they were giving real shocks