🔵 Social influence: Milgram's research on obedience

Question 1

When did Milgram conduct his baseline procedure on obedience

Answer 1

1963

Question 2

Describe Milgram’s (1963) baseline procedure on obedience

Answer 2

40 American men volunteered to take part in a study at Yale University which was supposedly on memory

The genuine participants arrived and were met with another (who was actually a confederate)

They drew lots to determine who would be a teacher or learner (It was rigged so the genuine participant was always a teacher)
And there was an experiment who was also a confederate

Teacher had to give the learner an electric shock every time they got an answer wrong
and the shocks increased 15volts every time up to 450 volts

The shocks were fake but the teacher did not know this

Question 3

What group of participants took part in Milgram’s baseline study (and how many)

Answer 3

40 American men

Question 4

What was the set up of the leaner and teacher in Milgram’s study investigating obedience

Answer 4

The teacher could not see the learner but could hear them

Question 5

What were the findings of Milgram’s baseline research on obedience

Answer 5

100% of the participants delivered shocks up to 300 volts

12.5% of participants sopped delivering shocks at 300 volts

65% of participants continued giving shocks to the highest level of 450 volts (they were fully obedient)

Question 6

How many participants delivered shocks up to 300 volts

Answer 6

40 participants (100%)

Question 7

How many participants stopped giving shocks at 300 volts

Answer 7

5 participants(12.5%)

Question 8

At 300 volts what did the Learner do

Answer 8

Pounded on the wall then gave no response to the next question

Question 9

How were Milgram’s participants in the research on obedience recruited

Answer 9

They were recruited through a newspaper advert or mailshot

Question 10

At 315 volts what did the learner do

Answer 10

He pounded on the wall again, but was silent for the rest of the procedure

Question 11

What were the different labels on the switches on shock machine of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 11

Slight shock

Intense shock

Danger - server shock

Question 12

What qualitative data did Milgram collect during his observations of his participants on his research on obedience

Answer 12

Observations of participants showing signs of extreme tension

Question 13

List examples of the symptoms of extreme tension that participants showed in Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 13

Sweating

Trembling

Stuttering

Biting their lips

Digging fingernails into their hands

Question 14

How many participants had full blown uncontrollable seizures during Milgram’s study on obedience

Answer 14

3 participants

Question 15

Why did Milgram debrief the participants after the baseline study on obedience

Answer 15

To assure that their behaviour as completely normal

Question 16

How many participants claimed they were happy to participate in Milgram’s baseline procedure on obedience

Answer 16

84% of participants

Question 17

What did 14 psychology students predict the findings of Milgram’s baseline procedure on obedience would be

What does it show

Answer 17

They predicted that no more than 3% of the participants would continue up to450 volts

Shows that findings were unexpected and underestimated how obedient people actually are

Question 18

What were the conclusions of Milgram’s baseline procedure on obedience

Answer 18

That German people were not different

The American participants in his study were willing to obey orders even to harm another person

Certain factors in his study encouraged obedience and Milgram did further research to investigate them

Question 19

What are the evaluation points of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 19

Research supporting the findings of Milgram’s research on obedience

Low internal validity of Milgram’s study

Counterpoint to low internal validity of Milgram’s study

Ethical issues

Question 20

What are the weaknesses of ‘Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 20

Low internal validity of Milgram’s study

Ethical issues

Question 21

What are the strengths of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 21

Research supporting the findings of Milgram’s research on obedience

Counterpoint to low internal validity of Milgram’s research on obedience

Question 22

Describe the research supporting the findings of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 22

A documentary created by (Beauvois et al 2012) was focused on a game show called Le Jeu de la Mort where participants though they were contestants in a pilot episode

They were then paid to give electric shocks ordered by the presenter to other participants (who were actually actors) in a studio audience

Question 23

What were the fiindings of the research supporting the findings of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 23

80% of participants gave 450 volts to an apparent unconscious man

Participants in the game show showed the same signs of tension as the ones in Milgram’s research on obedience

Question 24

Explain how Milgram’s research on obedience had low internal validity

(Low internal validity of Milgram’s study evaluation point)

Answer 24

Milgram’s procedure may have tested another dependent variable even though he reported that 75% of his participants thought that the shocks were real

However, Orne and Holland (1968) said that participants did what they did because the thought the set up was fake and they were play acting

Also Perry (2013) conduct research where she listened to tapes of the study and reported that only half of them thought it was real - and ⅔ of those were disobedient

Question 25

Explain why the low internal validity of Milgram’s study on obedience is a limitation so his research

Answer 25

His participants were subjected to demand characteristics, and may have either acted on the

Please-U effect

or

Screw-U effect

Question 26

Describe the counterpoint for the low internal validity of Milgram’s study on obedience

Answer 26

King (1972) made a study using the same procedure as Milgram where all participants (who were all students) gave a puppy real shocks by order of the experimenter

Question 27

State the findings of the counterpoint for the low internal validity of Milgram’s study on obedience

Answer 27

84% of men and 100% of women gave what they thought was a fatal shock to the puppy

Question 28

Explain why the counterpoint of the low internal validity of Milgram’s research strengthens Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 28

It shows that the effects in Milgram’s study was real because participants behaved obediently even when the shocks were real

Question 29

Describe the ethical issued of Milgram’s research on obedience

Answer 29

Participants were deceived many times:
They thought the procedure was to test memory
They thought the allocation of roles was real
They thought the shock were real

Although this was dealt with through debriefing Baumrind (1964) objected against this because she believed that deception in psychological studies have serious consequences for both researcher and participants