Social Influence - 03 Explanations for Obedience & Milgram

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

Where someone acts in response to a direct order from an authority figure

Question 2

What was the aim if Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 2

Was interested in how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person.

Question 3

How did Milgram find volunteers for his study?

Answer 3

newspaper advertisement for a lab experiment investigating how punishment affects learning

Question 4

What was the sample like in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 4

40 males aged between 20-50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional

Question 5

Where Milgram’s original study conducted?

Answer 5

Yale university

Question 6

What was one thing about Milgram’s experiment which might have motivated people to take part?

Answer 6

The p’s were paid $4.50 for taking part

Question 7

What were the two roles in Milgram’s experiment and what did they do?

Answer 7

The learner was meant to learn a list if word pairs given to him by the teacher (the real p) and had to recall these pairs back to the teacher from a list of 4 possible answers

Question 8

What was the teacher told to do every time the learner made a mistake in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 8

Administer an electric shock with the shock level increasing by 15 volts with each wrong answer up until the maximum 450 volts

Question 9

What happened when the teacher refused to administer the shock in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 9

4 prompts telling them that they have to continue

Question 10

When did Milgram’s experiment stop?

Answer 10

When the teacher refused to continue or until 450 volts was reached and given 4 times

Question 11

How many people went all the way to 450 volts in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 11

65%

Question 12

How many people went up to 300 volts in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 12

100%

Question 13

What conclusions can be made from Milgram’s study?

Answer 13

-Under some circumstances, most people will obey orders that go against their conscience
-Suggests that it is nit evil people who commit evil crimes, but ordinary people following orders

Question 14

Milgram’s original study suggests that what type of variables explain obedience?

Answer 14

Situational varaibles

Question 15

In what ways were the p’s in Milgram’s study deceived?

Answer 15

1-False aim
2-Not actually real shocks
3-Researcher & Learner confederates
4-Not randomly allocated
5-Think they can’t leave

Question 16

In what ways were the p’s in Milgram’s study not protected from harm?

Answer 16

Believed they were harming someone else which can cause mental harm to the p’s as they could feel guilty

Question 17

How can Milgram’s study be justified?

Answer 17

1-deception was needed, if p’s knew the true aim there would be demand characteristics and refuse to continue
2-Helps to explain Nazi officers and how they acted and why they punished so many people as they were obeying orders

Question 18

Limitation of Milgram’s study (population validity)

Answer 18

-Androcentric & ethnocentric
-so may not be representative of everyone
-Women may be more likely to obey
-People in other countries e.g. China may be more likely to obey
-So can only be generalised to men in the USA

Question 19

Counterargument for Milgram’s lack of population validity

Answer 19

-Milgram did replication with female p’s and found exact same obedience rate
-So original results can be generalised to wider population

Question 20

Limitation of Milgram’s study (lack of ecological validity)

Answer 20

-Lab setting and unusual task too
-symbols of authority not often seen in real life
-so may not apply to normal life obedience

Question 21

Counterargument for lack of ecological validity in Milgram’s experiment

Answer 21

-Hofling investigated obedience in real life
-Nurses ordered to give drug to patient from unknown doctor over phone
-21/22 nurses obeyed
-shows that it can be generalised to real life situations

Question 22

What shows there was high internal validity in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 22

-P’s visually stressed
-Telling researcher to stop experiment and check on learner
-Given test shock to show that it works
-75% believed they were actually giving shocks

Question 23

What shows that there was low internal validity in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 23

-Researcher was in same room as teacher rather than leaner
-Screams were coming out of a speaker
-Why would man with heart condition agree to be p
-Experimenter was calm and passive

Question 24

What are the 3 situational variables in Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 24

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 25

What is proximity?

Answer 25

The physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person they are giving the order to.

Question 26

What is location in Milgram’s study?

Answer 26

The place that the order is issued

Question 27

What is uniform in Milgram’s study?

Answer 27

What they are wearing and if that conveys a signal of authority

Question 28

What happened when the location moved from Yale to a seedy office in town and why?

Answer 28

Obedience rate lowered to 47.5%

Yale university is very prestigious and highly respected so the people working there have high legitimacy of authority. The office has no significance to the p’s and it not well known or respected so there is no legitimate authority

Question 29

What happened when the teacher and learner were in the same room and why?

Answer 29

Obedience rate lowered to 40%

The p’s could actually see how the shocks were affecting the learner and so are more likely to feel guilt and not want to carry on administering the shocks

Question 30

What happened when the teacher had to force the learner’s hand onto a shock plate and why?

Answer 30

Obedience rate lowered to 30%

The p’s feel even more guilt as they were physically having to move the learner and make them receive the shock making them feel fully responsible

Question 31

When happened when the experimenter left the room and gave instructions via telephone and why?

Answer 31

Obedience rate lowered to 20.5%

The p’s do not have any symbol of authority in front of them so they do not feel as much pressure to shock the learner

Question 32

What happened when the experimenter was replaced with a member of the public in ordinary clothes and why?

Answer 32

Obedience rate lowered to 20%

The member of the public has no legitimacy pf authority unlike the experimenter who had a lab coat so the p’s are less likely to follow their instructions

Question 33

Who provided supporting evidence for the power of uniform?

Answer 33

Bickman

Question 34

What 3 uniforms did the experimenter wear in the uniform study?

Answer 34

Milkman
Guard
Civilian

Question 35

What were the 3 orders given in the uniform study?

Answer 35

“pick up this bag for me”

“this man is overparked on the meter but doesn’t have any change, give him a dime”

“don’t you know you have to stand on the other side of the pole”

Question 36

What were the results of the uniform study?

Answer 36

people 2-3 times more likely to obey the guard rather than the civilian

In the parking meter condition 89% obeyed the guard, 57% the milkman and 33% for the civilian

Question 37

What do the results of the uniform suggest about obedience?

Answer 37

Dress alone can suggest authority and if people think someone has authority to punish them they are more likely to obey

Question 38

Evaluation of situational variables-strength
(high levels of control)

Answer 38

-high levels of control in the research into situational variables
-Milgram systematically altered one variable at a time to test effect on obedience
-All other variables kept constant
-Gave more certainty leading to cause and effect

Question 39

Evaluation of situational variables-weakness
(lack of internal validity)

Answer 39

-Orne & Holland argued that p’s worked out it was fake
-This is even more likely in the variations because of extra manipulation
-unclear whether results are genuinely due to obedience or demand characteristics

Question 40

Evaluation of situational variables-weakness
(obedience alibi)

Answer 40

-Milgram’s findings support situational factors
-But this has been criticised by Mandel who argues that it offers an excuse or alibi for evil behaviour
-in his view it is offensive to survivors of the Holocaust to suggest that the Nazi’s were simply obeying orders and were victims themselves of situational factors beyond their control
-so we need to be careful when completely removing personal responsibility and blaming it on the situation
-means the research is socially sensitive