A03

• limitation- legitimacy of shocks

  • gina perry- reviewed the interview tapes and found a signification number of participants raise questions about legitimacy of shocks, this could reduce the validity of findings as may not be acting same way they would have believed they were real
  • However, Milgram gathered qualitative data that suggested 70% of ppts believed shocks were real, highlights findings are likely to be accurate.
• limitation- DCS


  Milgram’s variations, and particularly the removal of a uniform as a situational variable, may have lacked validity i.e., they did not measure what they intended to measure. For example, even Milgram himself admitted that the use of a ‘normal citizen’ in place of the confederate with a lab coat, may have been too obvious a substitution

  • may have been due to the participants behaving according to their expectations and so the results were affected by demand characteristics. 
• strength- contradicotry research

  • Rank and Hobson conducted research which contradicted all factors. Had a known doctor, in a psychiatric hospital, in real life, ask nurses to administer an overdose of a known drug, on 2/18 obeyed.
  • Highlights despite all situational factors being present, can be overcome by a moral compass, depending on an individual’s personality. Individual differences therefore influence the effectiveness of situational variables.