Obedience - Milgram's Research

What is dispositional attribution?

Inferring that the reason for a person’s behaviour is something about themselves, such as their personality

What is situational attribution?

Inferring that a person’s behaviour is caused by something about the situation they are in

What is obedience?

A type of social influence where individuals follow a direct order, usually from a figure of authority who has the power to punish

What are the differences between obedience and conformity?

• Obedience is a direct order usually from a figure of authority who has the power to punish whereas conformity is where individuals respond to perceived group pressure

• Conformity occurs between people of equal status where as obedience occurs within a social hierarchy

• Obedient behaviour is often different from the behaviour of the authority figure, conformist behaviour is same as social group behaviour

• Conformity = implicit pressure, Obedience = explicit pressure

Who was Stanley Milgram?

Interested in why a high proportion of the German population obeyed Hitler’s orders resulting in the murder of 11 million people during the second world war. Theorised this may be due to differences in obedience to authority and designed an experiment to investigate this.

What was the aim of Milgram’s research?

To investigate the extent to which individuals would obey an authority figure, even if it meant harming another person

What was the procedure used in Milgram’s research?

• 40 American males volunteers took part of different ages and occupations

• They were told that it was an investigation into memory. The real Ps were paired with confederates and assigned the role of a teacher or learner. The Ps though their roles were randomly assigned

• Learner had to remember pairs of words. Each time they made an error the teacher delivered a stronger fake shock. The machine was labelled ‘slight shock’ to ‘danger - severe shock’.

• At 300V the learner the learner would pound on the wall and gave no response to the next question. After 315V the learner fell silent for the rest of the procedure

• If the teacher tried to stop, the experimenter who wore a lab coat provided q verbal ‘prod’ to continue

• Experiment continued until P reached the max voltage (450V) or refused to continue.

What were the predictions of Milgram’s study?

<3% would administer a shock at the highest voltage

What were the results of Milgram’s?

100% of Ps in the baseline study administered what they though was a 300V shock because an experimenter asked them to and 65% continued to the highest level

What were the conclusions of Milgram’s research?

Suggests most people obey instructions even if they inflict pain on others because someone in a position of authority instructs them to. Milgram hypothesised they obeyed because of situational variables