research into obedience

• define obedience?

  to follow demands of someone you perceive as an authority figure
• what is destructive obedience?

  when an individual follows demands of authority figure despite causing distress
• aim of milgrams study 1963?

  • investigate whether ordinary american citizens would obey an unjust order from authority figure
• method of milgrams study?

  • conducted at yale uni
  • were all volunteers who responded to advert in local paper where they were paid $4.50
  • p believed they were taking part in experiment on punishment & learning
  • p met with experimenter & another p (both confederates)
• procedure of milgrams study?

  • role of teacher & learner were assigned (p got told this was randon but real p was always teacher) - rigged
  • teacher read learner series of word pairs & tested recall
  • learner was in adjacent room
  • teacher instructed to give electric shocks every time learner made mistake & to increase voltage by 15 each time
  • as shock increased learner screams (recorded) became louder/more dramatic
  • at 315v he became silent - unconscious/dead
  • this continued until p refused to continue/450v reached
  • if p tried to stop experimenter responded with verbal prods
  • p debriefed after
• results of milgrams study?

  • 100% of p shocked upto at least 300v
  • 65% of p continued up till full 450v
  • many p displayed great anguish/attacked experimenter verbally/twitched nervously/broke out in nervous laughter
• conclusion of milgrams study?

  under right circumstances ordinary people will obey unjust orders
• * evidence to support findings by hoflings nurses?

  • experiment where doctor (authority figure) asked nurse to give large dosage of drug to patient that could kill them
  • 20/21 nurses gave high dosage(was actually glucose had no effect)
  • people do obey orders of those they perceive to have authority over them
  • for d.o to occur legitimate authority figure must be present
  • reliability of milgrams findings shown by obedience to authority is clear in natural settings as well
• 3 X of research into obedience?

  1. ungeneralisable
  2. unethical
  3. socially sensitive research
• X ungeneralisable?

  • m used volunteer sample of men from usa
  • p had responded to ad in paper so all likely to have interest in science
  • only using men - androcentric cannot explain obedience levels of women
  • ? population
  • findings are not generalisable to entire population
  • obedience may differ in other people
• X unethical

  • deception involved telling p taking part in memory study rather than test of obedience
  • p suffered psychological harm by stress - one p broke out in stress rash/one left & immediately smoked full pack of cigs
  • ? integrity
  • m had not respected p breaking bps guidelines
  • difficult to repeat so reliability cannot be assessed
• X socially sensitive research?

  • m research suggests ordinary people can behave in evil way when given orders from legitimate authority figure
  • used to explain nazis behaviour - committed violent acts in ww2
  • adolf eichmann "just following orders"
  • used to remove blame from soldiers & shift to commanding officer
  • important that research does not offend/upset members of public
  • m had to take extreme care to share findings of his work & ensure wasnt used to justify actions of criminals
• sample of milgrams study?

  40 males from range of backgrounds/occupations