milgrams research into obedience

• Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.
• Milgram -

  aim

  • what extent people will obey authority figures

  procedure

  • 40 male Americans took part at yale
  • confed played learner pp was teacher
  • could not see learner but could hear
  • teacher gave learner shock when answered question wrong
  • up to 450v
  • learner shout to stop, silent after certain v
  • examiner encourage to carry on

  findings

  • all wend to 300v, 65% 450v
  • many pps shake, sweat or seizure

  conclusion

  • german people not that different to American
• weakness -

  The pps were deceived as they thought the shocks were real and that they were harming the learners. The participants also appeared to suffer great distress during the experiment.

  However… Deception was necessary to avoid the participants changing their behaviour. Also the pps were debriefed after the experiment and were assured that their behaviour was entirely normal and 84% said they were happy to have taken part
• strength -

  Milgram's study can be applied to real life by showing the potential for ordinary people to obey authority figures, even when harming others.

  Highlights the importance of questioning authority in real world situations and helps us to explain past atrocities.
• strength -

  A French documentary in 2012 conducted Milgram's shock experiment under the guise of a game show and found that 80% of the pps went to the maximum voltage.

  Supports Milgrams original findings about obedience to authority and demonstrates that his findings can be replicated in other countries and times (temporal validity).