Obedience to authority

Question 1

obedience

Question 2

milgram’s study - procedure

Question 3

milgram’s study - findings

Answer 3

• 100% of parts = gave shocks up to 300V
• 65% of parts = gave shocks all the way up till max 450V
• parts felt high level of stress during the experiments
  = showed symptoms of:
• sweating, trembling, anxious + hysterical laughter
  = despite this, most were obedient + were willing to inflict potentially lethal shocks on a man w/ a weak heart

Question 4

ad of milgram’s study

Answer 4

despite the ethical issues w/ the study, many psychs feel that after conducting a cost-benefit analysis
= study was worthwhile
= we now know that most people could potentially do the same thing, leading to people taking more responsibility + not blindly following orders
- parts didn’t suffer any long-term emotional disturbances + most of them were happy to have taken part + learnt something important from the experience

Question 5

disads of milgram’s study

Answer 5

• deception
• psychological harm
• right to withdraw
• unrepresentative sample

Question 6

deception - disads of milgram’s study

Answer 6

parts were deceived about the true nature of the experiment = told it was about memory when it was about obedience
= no informed consent
- parts also led to believe they were delivering real shocks to Mr Wallace who had a weak heart
- HOWEVER this deception was necessary to avoid demand characteristics
= increase the validity of the study

Question 7

psychological harm - disads of milgram’s study

Answer 7

• parts became extremely distressed (some became hysterical) during the experiment + may have even thought they killed Mr Wallace
  = not protected from psychological harm
• HOWEVER Milgram didn’t expect his parts to obey + psychological harm was not anticipated

Question 8

right to withdraw - disads of milgram’s study

Answer 8

• several parts asked to leave the experiment but were told that they were not allowed
  = violates their right to withdraw from the experiment

Question 9

unrepresentative sample - disads of milgram’s study

Answer 9

• sample = unrepresentative
• all the parts were white American males
• results can’t be generalised to women (gender bias) or other cultures (culture bias)
• HOWEVER, this study has since been replicated w/ women + obedience rates were not significantly different