Obedience

• Obedience


  A form of social influence in which an individual follows direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming
• Milgram's research (baseline procedure)

  • 40 American men volunteered to take part in a study (supposedly on memory)
  • volunteer arrived, introduced to confederate. Drew lots to see who would be Teacher (T) and Learner (L), draw was rigged so the participant was always the T.
  • The study was aimed to asses obedience where an authority figure ordered the participant to give an increasing strong shock to a learner
• Milgram's research (Baseline findings)

  • All participants delivered shocks to 300 volts.
  • 12.5% stopped at 300 volts (5 participants)
  • 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts
  • Milgram also collected qualitative data including observations
• Milgram's research (other data)

  • Before the study 14 psychology students were asked to predict the participants behaviour. They predicted that no more than 3% of the participants would continue to 450 volts. (suggests the results are surprising
  • participants in baseline study were debriefed and assured their behaviour was normal. (84% said they were glad to participate)
• Milgram's research (Conclusions)

  American participants in his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person.
• Evaluation of Milgram's research (Research support)

  Strength

  • Milgram's findings were replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality tv.
  • This documentary supported milgram's findings and demonstrates that the findings were not just due to special circumstances
• Evaluation of Milgram's research (low internal validity)

  Limitation

  • The procedure may not have been testing what he intended to test
  • 75% of his participants said they believed the shocks were genuine.
  • Orne and Holland (1968) argued that participants behaved as they did because they didn't really believe in the study and Perry (2013) confirmed this
  • suggests participants responded to demand characteristics
• Evaluation of Milgram's research (Alternative interpretation of findings)

  Limitation

  • Milgram's conclusions about blind obedience may not be justified.
  • Haslam et al (2014) showed that participants obeyed when the Experimenter delivered the first 3 verbal prods. However, when given a 4th prod without exception disobeyed.
  • According to SIT the study only obeyed when they identified with scientific aims of the research. SIT may provide a more valid interpretation of Milgram's study
• Ethical issues of Milgram's study

  • participants were deceived. They thought that the roles were picked randomly but they were fixed instead and they also believed that the shocks were real.
  • Baumrind (1964) criticised Milgram for deceiving his participants.
• Social Identity Theory (SIT)

  This theory suggests that your behaviour is motivated by your social identity. A person's self-image has two components: personal identity and social identity. Personal identity is based on your characteristics and achievements. Social identity is determined by the various social groups to which you belong