Obedience Studies

• When was Milgram’s study?

  1965
• What was Milgram’s aim?

  Participants thought the aim was to investigate the effects of punishment on memory but the real aim was to see if people would obey the orders of an authority figure even when there were fatal conseqeunces.
• What was Milgram’s method?

  40 American men

  Participant was made Teacher, confederate was made learner

  Shocks were given for wrongs answers - went up 15V every mistake

  Experimenter had set responses (4 prods)
• What was Milgram’s results?

  1. Quantative data - 12.5% (5 P’s) stopped at 300V, 65% continued to 450
  2. Qualitative data - P‘s showed signs of extreme tension (sweat, tremble, bite their lips, groan)
• What was Milgram’s conclusion?

  Americans were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person as partcipants gave electric shocks to the leaner when told to do so by the authority figure.
• What were the situational variables affecting obedience that Milgram looked at?

  1. Loss of Uniform
  2. Location
  3. Proximity
  4. Remote Authourity
• What was ’Loss of Uniform’ ?

  When the experimenter appeared to be an ordinary person of the public without wearing the lab coat.
• What was the level of obedience in LOU?

  20%
• What is supporting research of LOU?

  Bickman’s
• What was ’Location’ ?

  Experiment moved from a prestigious university to a run down office block.
• What was the level of obedience in Location?

  47.5%
• What was ‘Proximity‘ ?


  Learner was moved into the same room as the teacher.
• What was ‘Close Proximity’ ?

  Experimenter held the hand of the teacher.
• What was the level of obedience in Proximity?

  40% for normal, 30% for close proximity.
• What was ‘Remote Authority’ ?

  Experimenter left the room and gave instructions through the phone.
• What was level of obedience in RA?

  20.5%
• What is contradicting research for RA?

  Hofling - night nurses.
• What is supporting research for RA?

  Rank & Jacobson.