Obedience: Milgram

Define obedience

a form of social influence where an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a figure of authority (subjective), who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming

Who conducted research into obedience?

Milgram

What was the aim of Milgram’s research?

to test the extent of humans’ willingness to obey orders from an authority figure (a destructive order that has negative consequences)

What was the method used in Milgram’s research?

• 40 male students aged 20-50 recruited by newspaper advert

• they were told they were taking part in memory study, $4.50 reward

• confederate = learner, ppts = teacher

• experimenter told teacher to give shocks every time learner got something wrong

• shocks started at 15V then went to 450V labelled as lethal

• if ppt questioned study, researcher would tell them to continue

What were the results of Milgram’s research?

• 100% of ppts went up to 300V (dangerous, willing to harm)

• 65% of ppts went to the highest level of 450V (even after leaner stopped responding)

• ppts showed signs of extreme tension e.g sweating, trembling ; 3 ppts had seizures

• Milgram predicted only 3% would go up to 450V

• all ppts were debriefed + assured behaviour was normal after

What was the conclusion of Milgram’s research?

people will listen to an authority figure if they believe they aren’t responsible for the consequences

also study was conducted at Yale (prestigious university), the pressure and situation was new to them

How is the fact that there are potential impacts of demand characteristics in this study a weakness?

because it suggests that ppts may not have fully believed they were administrating real shocks. Instead, their behaviour might have been influenced by what they thought to be expected behaviour. This reduces the certainty the experiment measured true obedience reducing the internal validity

Give an example of this weakness

for example, Perry (2013), after reviewing the tapes of Milgram’s ppts noted that some expressed doubts about the authenticity of the shocks

How is the fact that Milgram’s study into obedience lacks population validity a weakness? (+counter/development)

as it means that findings may not represent how females or people from other age groups would respond to authority meaning the findings can’t be generalised to everyone

C: however, the procedure has been repeated all over the world, where consistent and similar obedience levels were found

Give an example of this weakness

for instance, the research is based on 40 American males

How is the fact that this research has real life application a strength?

because we are now aware of the power of such influence in establishing social order and moral behaviours and so can reduce future obedience to destructive orders

Give an example of this strength

for example, the research opened our eyes to the problems of obedience such as how the nazis obeyed orders from Hitler even though it wasn’t what most people wanted

How is the fact that the research was conducted in an artificial setting with an uncommon task a disadvantage? (+counter/development)

as the behaviour shown in this task may not reflect real-world obedience as the study lacks ecological validity and mundane realism

C: however, Holfing found similar obedience levels in a natural hospital setting