Milgram

• obedience

  = form of social influence in which an individual follows a 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 baseline study

  = to assess obedience levels.

  • 40 American men volunteered to take part in a 'memory' study.
  • participant was introduced to another participant (confederate)
  • they drew who would be the teacher and the leaner- draw was rigged so the participant was always the teacher. An experimenter was also involved.
  • teacher gave the learner electric shocks when they made a mistake on a memory task.
  • shocks increased from 15-450 volts, the shocks were fake but labelled to suggest they were very dangerous.
  • encouraged not to leave the experiment by the experimenter.
• baseline findings

  -every participant delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts.

  -12.5% stopped at 300 volts

  -65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.

  -qualitative data= observation: participants showed signs of extreme tension- many seen to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, dig their fingernails into their hands.

  -3 had full-blown out uncontrollable seizures.
• other data

  = Milgram asked 14 students to predict the participants behaviour.

  • estimated that no more than 3% of participants would continue to 450 volts.
  • shows findings were unexpected- underestimated how obedient people are.
  • all participants debriefed after.
• Milgram's aims

  = wanted to know why such a high proportion of the German population obeyed Hitler's commands to the murder of over 6 million.
• conclusions

  = that German people aren't different.

  • experiment shows people are willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person.
• Evaluation- research support

  strength= replicated in a French documentary.

  • documentary focused on a game show- participants believed they were contestants in a new show (the game of death)
  • They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks (ordered by presenter) to other participants (actors) in front of audience.
  • 80% gave maximum shock
  • behaviour almost identical to Milgram's participants- nervous laughter, nail-biting.
  • supports Milgram's findings about obedience to authority.
• Evaluation- low internal validity

  limitation= Milgram's procedure may not have been testing what it intended to test.

  • 75% of participants said they believed the shocks were real.
  • But it's argued participants behaved as if they didn't really believe in the set up.
  • so suggests participants may have been responding to demand characteristics.
• Evaluation- counterpoint

  Sheridan and King conducted a study using procedure like Milgram's.

  • participants gave real shocks to a puppy in response to orders from an experimenter.
  • despite the real distress of the animal, 54% of male and 100% of female participants delivered the fatal shock.
  • suggests that the effects in Milgram's study were genuine because people behaved obediently even when shocks were real.
• Evaluation- alternative interpretations of finding

  limitation= conclusions about blind obedience may not be justified.

  • Haslam showed that the participants obeyed when the experimenter delivered the first 3 verbal prods, every participant who was given 4th prod disobeyed.
  • according to social identity theory, participants only obeyed when they identified with the scientific aims, but when they were ordered to just obey an authority figure they refused.
  • shows that SIT may provide more valid interpretations.
• Evaluation- ethical issues

  = participants were deceived.

  • allocation of roles was rigged
  • shocks weren't real
  • stopped debriefing people so not many actually knew the true aims.
  • told to carry on if they wanted to leave- no right to withdraw.
  • some has seizures= physical harm