Research Into Obedience - Milgram

Question 1

Outline Milgram’s research into obedience (6 marks)

Answer 1

Milgram wanted to investigate if individuals would obey the orders of an authority figure even if it led to negative consequences by using a lab experiment at Yale University and 40 males. He placed an advert in a newspaper looking for volunteers. The real participant was assigned the role of the teacher and the confederate was always the learner. The teacher’s job was to administrate a learning task and deliver ‘electric shocks’ to the learner each time they answered incorrectly. The shocks began at 15 volts and increased in increments of 15 volts to a maximum of 450 volts. The experimenter used prompts if the teacher refused such as “Please continue’ or ‘The experiment requires that you continue’. Milgram found that all participants went to at least 300 volts where only 12.5% had stopped at this point. 65% of the participants had continued to 450 volts showing high levels of obedience, To conclude, ordinary people are obedient to authority when asked to behave in an inhumane way.

Question 2

Discuss Milgrams research into obedience (3 x AO3)

Answer 2

1. Milgram’s research could be argued to be prone to demand characteristics, this is because the method was a lab and the participants knew that they were taking part in an experiment. Therefore, they may have changed their natural behaviour to help the researcher, for example by giving the electric shocks as they believed this is how they were supposed to act in the experiment, rather than because they were being obedient to the authority figure. This could be especially true as the participants were paid for taking part in the research. Thus, reducing the internal validity as Milgram may not have been truly measuring how obedient they were to authority.
2. Research to support Milgram’s research in to obedience to authority was conducted by Hofling. He conducted a study using nurses on a hospital ward who were ordered by an unknown doctor to give a dangerous dose of a drug to patients via a telephone. 21 out of the 22 nurses agreed to give the medication even though they knew not to take orders over the phone. Therefore, this supports the idea that we are obedient to the authority figure as the majority of nurses obeyed. This strengthens Milgram’s research as it has good external validity and findings can be generalised to other settings.
3. Milgram’s research had major ethical issues. There was a lack of informed consent, as the participants believed that they were taking part in a study of punishment on memory rather than obedience to authority. There was deception, as participants were led to believe the electric shocks were real.
   In addition, there was a lack of the right to withdraw, as if they wanted to stop the experiment, they were prompted to continue by the experimenter. Thus, limiting Milgram’s research into obedience.