eval

• Asch's Study


  • Lacks ecological validity as it was based on peoples' perception of lines, this does not reflect the complexity of real life conformity
  • Sampling issues as the study was only carried out on men, thus the sample was gender bias and the results cannot be applied to females, lacks population validity
• There are ethical issues regarding Asch's study - Participants were told the study was about perception of lines, so they could not give informed consent
• It is possible that the participants may have felt embarrassed when the true nature of the study was revealed, potentially putting them through some form of psychological harm
• Asch did debrief at the end
• Asch's results


  Can be linked to theories/reasons why people may conform to the majority, such as 'Normative influence' which states that people conform to fit in when privately disagreeing with the majority
• Some participants said they conformed to fit in with the group, this claim coincides (supports) 'Normative influence'
• Demand characteristics


  Could explain the findings of the study
• Most of the guards later claimed they were simply acting
• Guards and prisoners were playing a role


  Their behavior may not be influenced by the same factors which affect behavior in real life
• The study's findings cannot be reasonably generalized to real life, such as prison settings
• The study has low ecological validity
• The study may also lack population validity as the sample comprised US male students
• Limitation of Milgram's study

  • Lacked ecological validity as it was carried out in a lab under artificial conditions
  • Findings may not be generalisable to real life settings as people do not usually receive orders to hurt another person in real life
• The study's findings cannot be applied to female prisons or those from other countries
• Limitation of Milgram's study

  • Sample was biased as Milgram only used males, so results cannot be generalised to females
• America is an individualist culture (were people are generally less conforming)

  The results maybe different in collectivist cultures (such as Asian countries)
• Value of Milgram's work

  • Provides insight into why people under the Nazi reign were willing to kill Jews when given orders to do so
  • Highlights how we can all be blind to obedience, often doing things without question
• Strength of the study

  • It has altered the way US prisons are run
  • Juveniles accused of federal crimes are no longer housed before trial with adult prisoners (due to the risk of violence against them)
• Strength of Milgram's study

  • Used a standardised procedure because it was a lab experiment, which improves reliability and helps establish a causal relationship
• The study has received many ethical criticisms
• Participants playing the role of prisoners were not protected from psychological harm, experiencing incidents of humiliation and distress
• One prisoner had to be released after 36 hours because of uncontrollable bursts of screaming, crying and anger
• The emotional distress experienced by the prisoners could not have been predicted from the outset
• Deception


  The participants actually believed they were shocking a real person, and were unaware the learner was a confederate of Milgram's
• Milgram: '"illusion is used when necessary in order to set the stage for the revelation of certain difficult-to-get-at-truths"'
• 83.7% of participants said they were "glad to be in the experiment"
• Zimbardo did conduct debriefing sessions for several years afterwards and concluded they were no lasting negative effects
• 1.3% of participants said they wished they had not been involved
• Strength of the study

  • The harmful treatment of participant led to the formal recognition of ethical guidelines
  • Studies must now gain ethical approval before they are conducted
  • An ethics committee review whether the potential benefits of the research are justifiable in the light of possible risk of physical or psychological harm
  • They may request researchers make changes to the studies design or procedure, or in extreme cases deny approval of the study altogether
• Protection of participants


  • Participants were exposed to extremely stressful situations that may have the potential to cause psychological harm
  • Many of the participants were visibly distressed
• In his defence, Milgram argued that these effects were only short term. Once the participants were debriefed (and could see the confederate was OK) their stress levels decreased. Milgram also interviewed the participants one year after the event and concluded that most were happy that they had taken part.

  • However, Milgram did debrief the participants fully after the experiment and also followed up after a period of time to ensure that they came to no harm.
• Signs of tension


  • Trembling
  • Sweating
  • Stuttering
  • Laughing nervously
  • Biting lips
  • Digging fingernails into palms of hands
• Three participants had uncontrollable seizures
• Many participants pleaded to be allowed to stop the experiment
• Full blown seizures were observed for 3 participants, one so violent that the experiment was stopped
• Cannot explain Nazi behavior


  Mandel described how the German Police Reserve shot civilians in a small Polish town even though they were not directly ordered to and were told they could be assigned to other duties
• Mandel's findings


  Challenges agentic state as they were not powerless to obey
• Plain cruelty


  May better explain Zimbardo's participants using the situation to express their sadistic tendencies, guards inflicting rapidly escalating cruelty to prisoners even though there was no authority figure telling them to
• Obedience may be caused by certain aspects of human nature
• Adorno found many significant correlations (e.g. Authoritarianism correlated with prejudice against minority groups)

  We cannot say that one variable causes another