Study of Obedience - Milgram (1961)

Question 1

What is the definition of Obedience?

Answer 1

Obedience means to comply with the demands of someone you see as an authority figure

Question 2

What was Milgram’s aim?

Answer 2

To investigate how far people go in obeying an authority figure who instructed them to harm another person

Question 3

What procedure did Milgram use?

Answer 3

Milgram used a volunteer sample of 40 male students studying at Yale university. The participants would be “randomly allocated” to the role of teacher and student (the ppt was always the teacher and the students were all confederates). The student was taken into a room and electrodes were attached to his arm; the researcher and ppt went into the room next door and the teacher was to administer electric shocks based upon the response of the student in a test. The voltage was to increase if the student continuously answered incorrectly from 15V -> 450V (Death).

Question 4

What were the results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

Milgram predicted 2% of ppts would shock up to the highest level. However, all participants went up to 300V and 65% shocked up to 450V

Question 5

What did Milgram conclude from his study?

Answer 5

He concluded that under the right circumstances, ordinary people will obey unjust orders

Question 6

What were the variations of the Obedience study?

Answer 6

• Proximity (Teacher and student being in the same room caused lower obedience)
• Location (A more remote area caused a drop in obedience)
• Uniform (Casual clothing caused a lower rate of obedience)
• Legitimacy of authority

Question 7

What are the strengths and limits of Milgram’s Obedience study?

Answer 7

Strengths:
- It was a lab study which results in higher reliability as variables are controlled
- It had high mundane realism as they ppts were convinced they were actually shocking the students
- It has real life applications as it explains why people may behave unjustly in situations (Hofling hospital study)
Limits:
- Demand characteristics can cause a lower validity of results as ppts are aware of aim
- There was gender bias as all ppts were men (Beta bias) less generalisable = less external validity
- Ethics (DRIPP)