Obedience - Milgram

• Obedience:

  A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. Usually receiving the order from a position of authority.
• Why Milgram wanted to create an obedience study:

  • Milgram was Jewish
  • He was interested to see whether the Germans were different and where they more likely to be obedien
• Baseline procedure:

  • He only recruited men to participate
  • Happened in Yale university
  • There was a learner (a confederate) a teacher ( the participant) and an experimenter

  -Participant read out the questions

  • Learner tries to repeat the words and if its wring the teacher delivers an electric shock
  • The shock was able to reach up to 450V and started at 15V ( there was 30 increments)
  • The shocks weren't wear however the participant didn't know this
  • participants were told to continue even if the actor were showing 'pain'
  • as the voltage increased some participants show signs of resistance.
• Milgram's students predictions:

  They guessed the amount of participants that would give the highest shock would be 3% when it was actually 65%
• Pre-procedure:

  • Mr Wallace was always the learner
  • confederate wore lab coat
  • people received money on arrival
  • Told they could leave at any point
• Findings of the baseline procedure:

  • 100% of participants continued to 300V
  • 12.5% stopped after this
  • 65% continued to 450V
  • participants showed extreme tension
  • 84% said they were glad they took part
• Strength: Research support

  His findings were replicated in a French documentary

  Focused on a game show were the participants believed they were the contestants

  They completed a variations of Milgram's study infront of a TV audience

  80% delivered the maximum shock

  Showed nervous behaviour just like Milgram's study
• Limitation: Low internal validity

  • Milgram reported that 75% believed that the shocks were genuine
  • Orne and Holland argued participants behaved the way they did because they didn't believe in the set up so were acting for demand characteristics
• Limitation: Ethical issues

  • the participants were deceived
  • the participants thought that role allocation was random
  • they also thought the shock's were real