1.4 obedience

Define the term obedience

A 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

How many people took part in milgram study

40 American male volunteers

What was Milgrams baseline procedure

• participants were told it was a study on memory

• Each volunteer was introduced to another participant (who was a confederate), and introduced to the experimenter

How were roles allocated in Milgrams study

They drew lots to see who would be the teacher and who would be the learner

The draw was fixed so the confederate was always the learner

What was Milgrams baseline procedure (detail)

• the learner was Strapped into a chair and wired up with electrodes

• The teacher was given a small shock to experience for themselves

• If the learner made a mistake in the memory test, the stranger would deliver a stronger (fake) electric shock

• At 315V the learner pounded on the wall, then remained unresponsive for the rest of the procedure

What were the 4 prods the experimenter used

1. Please continue

2. The experiment required you to continue

3. It is absolutely essential that you continue

4. You have no other choice, you must go on

What were the findings

• every participant delivered shocks up to 300V

• 12.5% stopped at 300V

• 65% Continued to the highest level of 450V

What qualitative data was gathered

Observations: nail biting, sweating, trembling, biting their lips

What were the predictions

14 psychology students predicted that 3% would continue to 450V

How did Milgrams follow up after the study

Debriefed all participants and sent a follow up questionnaire where 84% said they were glad to have participated

What was Milgrams conclusion

German people are not different as they Americans in his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person

Evaluation- research support

A french ‘TV show’ followed a similar study to Milgram. Ordered to give electric shocks by the presenter in front of a studio audience. 80% delivered the max shock of 460V to the ‘unconscious’ man

Evaluation — low internal validity

Gina perry found that only half of the paritpcants thought the shocks were real, so participants may have been responding to demand characteristics

Counterpoint- Charles Sheridan and Richard king conducted a study using real electric shocks and puppies, 54% of men and 100% of women gave the ‘fatal shock’

Evaluation — alternative interpretation

Findings may show social identity theory. Alex Haslam found that every participant that was given the fourth prod disobeyed. This shows that participants only obeyed when they identified with the scientific aims of the research, and stopped when they were asked to blindly obey an authority figure

Evaluation — ethical issues

The participants were deceived as they thought everyone was a participant and they thought the shocks were real.

However milgram did debrief the partipants