AO3

• Strengths

  • Debriefing - The participants were thoroughly and carefully debriefed on the real aims of the study, in an attempt to deal with the ethical breach of the guideline of protection from deception and the possibility to give informed consent. In a follow up study conducted a year later, 84% of participants were glad they were part of the study and 74% felt as if they learned something. This suggests that the study left little or no permanent or long-term psychological harm on participants.
• Weaknesses:

  • It raises a socially sensitive issue – Milgram’s findings suggest that those who are responsible for killing innocent people can be excused because it is not their personality that made them do this, but it is because of the situation that they were in and the fact that it is difficult to disobey – some may strongly disagree with this, and especially the judicial system, where (except in viable cases of diminished responsibility), individuals are expected to take moral responsibility for their actions.
• The power if the uniform: research support Durkin and Jeffery (2000) demonstrated that young children's understanding of police authority was dominated by visual cues, specifically the presence of a police uniform.

  
  

  
  
• In Milgram's study, a significant proportion, 35%, resisted the authority figure; this can't be explained by situational factors alone, as each participant had precisely the same experience. However, Adorno's theory acknowledges that the willingness to obey an authority figure can vary from person to person, offering an explanation as to why there are extreme variations in Milgram's participants