AO1

• Aim:


  To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person i.e. evaluating the influence of a destructive authority figure.
• Sample:

  Randomly selected participants - 40 male volunteers.
• What roles were assigned to the participant and the confederate in the study?


  The participant was the 'teacher' and the confederate was the 'learner'
• How was the role of 'teacher' and 'learner' decided in the study?

  Through random allocation
• What was the procedure when the confederate answered a question incorrectly?

  The participant had to give him an electric shock
• How much did the electric shocks increment by during the experiment?


  15 volts
• What was the range of the electric shocks administered in the study?


  From 300V to 450V
• What voltage was marked as 'lethal' in the study?


  330V
• Did participants believe the electric shocks were real?


  Yes, participants thought the shocks were real
• What was the purpose of falsely demonstrating the shocks to be real before the study?


  To ensure participants believed the shocks were real
• How were participants assessed during the experiment?


  On how many volts they were willing to shock the confederate with
• What was the experimenter's role when participants refused to administer a shock?


  To give a series of orders or prods
• How did the demands of the experimenter's prods change when participants refused to administer shocks?


  The demands increased in terms of demandingness
• How many prods were used when participants refused to administer shocks?


  Four prods
• What was the focus of the first three prods given to participants?


  They demanded obedience to science
• What did the final prod demand from the participants?

  Obedience specifically to the confederate
• Findings:


  -All participants went up to 300V and 65% went up to 450V.

  -No participants stopped below 300V, whilst only 12.5% stopped at 300V, showing that the vast majority of participants were prepared to give lethal electric shocks to a confederate.
• How did proximity affect obedience?


  -Participants obeyed more when the experimenter was in the same room i.e. 62.5%.-This was reduced to 40% when the experimenter and participant were in separate rooms, and reduced to a further 30% in the touch proximity condition i.e. where the experimenter forcibly placed the participant's hand on the electric plate.
• How did location affect obedience?


  -Participants obeyed more when the study was conducted at a prestigious university i.e. Stanford.-This is because the prestige of such a location demands obedience and also may increase the trust that the participant places in the integrity of the researchers and their experiments.
• How did uniform affect obedience?


  -Participants obeyed more when the experimenter wore a lab coat. A person is more likely to obey someone wearing a uniform as it gives them a higher status and a greater sense of legitimacy.-It was found that obedience was much higher when the experimenter wore a lab coat as opposed to normal clothes. -However, demand characteristics were particularly evident in this condition, with even Milgram admitting that many participants could see through this deception.