SI - situational factors affecting obedience (M) (AO3)

Question 1

What is a limitation of his research? - Low experimental realism

Answer 1

===> Perry (2013) argued many ppts. expressed doubt about authenticity of shocks after listening to original tape recordings. Lack of belief over the shocks would have led to demand characteristics and results would have lacked internal validity. However, evidence suggests even when people know electric shocks are real, they still administer them

Question 2

What is a strength of his research? - Reliable

Answer 2

===> Similar results with Sheridan and King (1972) - puppy electric shocks study where 54% of males and 100% of females administered what they thought were fatal shocks (puppy received an anesthetic to put it to sleep). Suggests ppts. in Milgram’s study weren’t just reacting to demand characteristics because the results were replicated - females more obedient than men Must be noted this was true with animal subjects, might not be able to be generalised to human subjects

Question 3

What is a strength of his research? - Reliability with other research (of higher ecological validity)

Answer 3

===> Hofling et al (1966) carried out a field experiment where 21/22 nurses obeyed an unknown doctor’s telephone instruction to administer drugs over prescribed limit. Concluded that power and authority of doctors was a greater influence on nurses’ behaviour than basic hospital rules. Higher levels of ecological validity than Milgram’s as it was conducted in a real hospital setting and produced same results so Milgram’s results can be generalised

Question 4

What is a limitation of his research? - Blind obedience might not be justified

Answer 4

===> Haslam (2014) analysed the ppts.’ behaviour following the prods and found that when the fourth prod was used, ppts. were always defiant. He argued this was because the first 3 prompts made ppts. identify with scientific research aims of the study (e.g, “The experiment requires you to continue”). Differing levels of obedience can be explained by social identity theory as people were obeying orders due to identifying with the research