Milgram

• Obedience


  A type of social influence whereby someone acts in response to a direct order from a figure of perceived authority
• Obedience to authority is a more direct process than conforming to majority influence
• In obedience, the individual may have less choice to whether they comply or not
• Milgram's Aims


  To investigate whether 'ordinary' people will obey an authority figure ordered the participant to give an increasingly strong shock to a learner
• Milgram's Procedures


  1. 40 male American participants volunteered

  2. Introduced to a confederate

  3. Drew lots for roles

  4. Experimenter present in the room
• Milgram's Ethical Issues


  • Unethical
  • Blurred right to withdraw
  • Deception
  • Protection from harm
• A weakness is that Milgram's study was unethical
• Participants were deceived about the confederate's heart condition
• Participants were told they were administering real electric shocks
• Participants did not have the right to withdraw
• Participants were given prods when reluctant to continue
• Internal validity


  About controls
• External validity


  Can this be generalised
• A limitation of Milgram's research is that his procedure may not have been testing what he intended to test
• 75% of participants thought the shocks were genuine
• Other research found that only half of participants believed the shocks were real
• Only 1/3 of participants were obedient
• Participants may have been responding to demand characteristics
• Milgram's study is lacking in ecological validity
• A strength of Milgram's research is evidence to suggest it has high ecological validity when applied to real world situations
• Sheridan and King's study supports Milgram's research
• Milgram's findings can be generalized and applied to real life
• Milgram's study used both men and women compared to white American men
• Milgram's study has been replicated in a French documentary about reality TV
• French documentary replication


  1. Participants believed they were contestants

  2. Paid to give fake electric shocks

  3. 80% delivered maximum shock of 460
• Behaviors in the French documentary were almost identical to Milgram's participants
• Signs of anxiety were shown in the French documentary participants
• The findings from the French documentary support Milgram's findings about obedience to authority
• The findings demonstrate that Milgram's results were not just due to special circumstances
• The French study shows it can be generalized and has cross-cultural validity