[Topic 4] Situational variables affecting obedience

Question 1

Outline Milgram’s experiment

Answer 1

• Milgram studied obedience by seeing if participants would give a series of increasingly severe electric shocks to a person in a different room if an experimenter told them too.
• The person did not actually revive any electric shocks, both he and the experimenter were confederates of Milgram.
• 40 male Participants through newspaper adverts
• Paid $4.50
• Told that it was a test on memory
• Rigged, the participant would always be the teacher
• 15v to 450 with it written danger
• The participants given prod’s to continue getting more aggressive.

Question 2

What were the findings?

Answer 2

• Although the participants protested 65% of participants went up maximum (450) voltage when the experimenter told them to do so.
• None of the participants disobeyed before the 300v shock, only five refused to continue with the procedure at 300v

Question 3

What variables affected obedience?

Answer 3

Proximity:

• When the experimenters proximity to the participant changed, obedience decreased dramatically.
• Obedience fell from 65% to 21% when the experimenter issued his instructions from another room via phone

Location:

• Changing location of the study did not have a major effect on how obedient participants were
• Obedience fell from 65% in the university laboratory to 48% when the study was conducted in a privately-rented office

Uniform:

• Obedience also decreased dramatically when the experimenter did not wear his laboratory ‘uniform’
• When the experimenter wore his lab coat 65% of participants gave max (450) voltage and when he did not wear the lab coat very few participants obeyed.

Question 4

Evaluation 1: Many of Milgram’s participants didn’t believe the shocks were real

Answer 4

• Many of Milgram’s participants didn’t believe the shocks were real
• Despite the fact the learner cried in pain, the experimenter in Milgram’s studies remained cool and distant
• This might have led to the participants not believing any real harm would come to the learner
• This means that the research may lack internal validity because if the deception hadn’t worked then any conclusions drawn about why participants obeyed is invalid

Question 5

Evaluation 2: Milgram’s research has many ethical issues including deception and no real right to withdraw

Answer 5

• Milgram’s research has many ethical issues including deception and no real right to withdraw
• While Milgram claimed they had the right to withdraw, the prods from the experimenter made it more difficult for them to leave.
• This study highlights importance of ethics when conducting psychological research and the need to safeguard the well-being of participants above the aims of any research study.