Obedience-Milgram’s research

• What is obedience?


  A form of social influence in which an indiviual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority, who has the power to punish when obedience is not forthcoming.
• When did Milgram conduct his baseline study? What was the aim of it?

  Milgram (1963) produced a baseline procedure that could be used to assess obedience levels. The aim of the experiment was to find out whether ordinary Americans would obey unjust orders from a person in authority, to inflict pain on another person.
• AO1: Describe Milgrams baseline procedure?

  40 American men volunteered to take part in a study, supposedly on memory. Upon arrival they were introduced to another participant (a confederate). Lots were drawn to see who would be 'The learner' and who would be 'The teacher.' The draw was fixed so the participant was always the teacher. An experimenter (a confederate) was also involved, dressed in a great lab coat. The student was to learn word pairs and the teacher was told to give them electric shocks from every wrong answer. These electric shocks increased by 15V every time, until 450v. At 315V the learner pounded on the wall and went silent for the rest of the procedure.
• Give an example of one of the 4 prods used by the experimenter to order the teacher to continue?

  'You have no choice you must go on.
• What were the findings?

  65% of pps were fully obedient and continued to the highest level of 450V instead of the less than 3% that were predicted to continue prior to the experiment. This shows that the findings were unexpected.
• What did Milgram conclude?

  The American participants in his study were very willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person. German people are not 'different.
• AO3: strength, research support. What research support did Milgrams findings have (describe the research and when it was done)?

  Hofling et al (1966) arranged for an unknown doctor to telephone 22 nurses and ask each of them (alone) to administer an overdose of a drug that was not on their ward list. A startling 21/22 nurses started to administer the drug. The nurses obeyed without question to an 'authority figure.' This supports Milgrams findings that people are willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person.
• AO3: limitation, ethical issues. Describe two ethical issues involved in Milgrams research; how were they deceived? Who criticised Milgram for deceiving his participants and why did she object? How were the participants not given the right to withdraw?

  Many ethical issues were involved in Milgrams research. Firstly, the participants in the study were deceived. For example, participants thought that the allocation of the roles, teacher and learner, was random but, in fact it was fixed. They also thought that the shocks were real. Even though Milgram dealt with this by debriefing his participants, Diana Baumrind criticised Milgram for deceiving his participants. She objected because she believed that deception in psychological studies can have serious consequences for participants and researchers. Furthermore, the right to withdraw was made very difficult for participants. While initially being given the right to withdraw it was made very difficult to do in the experiment due to the four prods one of which was 'you have no other choice you must go on.
• AO3: limitation, low internal validity. Who suggested that Milgrams research may not have been testing what he intended to test and why may they have though that?

  Orne and Holland argued that participants behaved as they did because they did not really believe the set up. So they were 'play acting.' Other research suggests that only about half of the participants believed the shocks were real, with two thirds of these being disobedient. This suggests that participants may have been responding to demand characteristics, trying to fulfil the aims of the study.
• AO3: strength, counterpoint to low internal validity. What research support suggest that the findings of Milgrams study was genuine?

  Furthermore, how many participants did Milgram say believed the shocks were genuine?

  Sheridan and King conducted a study using a procedure like Milgrams. Participants gave real shocks to a puppy in response to orders from an experimenter. Despite the real distress of the animal, 54% of the men and 100% of the women gave what they thought was a fatal shock. This suggests that the findings in Milgrams study were genuine because people behaved obediently even when the shocks were real. Furthermore, Milgram reported that 75% of his participants believed the shocks were genuine.