Milgram's research into obedience

Question 1

What are dispositional factors in regard to obedience?

Answer 1

• Personality patterns that influence how obedient you are
• Developed in childhood and linked to strict parenting

Question 2

What are situational facotrs in regard to obedience?

Answer 2

• The power of the situation that shaped obedient behaviours
• Proximity, uniform, location

Question 3

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 3

To see why people obey orders when the action required is inhumane

Question 4

What were the procedures of Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

• 40 male participants used
• Advertised a study on how punishment affects learning for volunteers
• All paid $4.50, even if they left
• Real participant was the teacher and the confederate was the learner (rigged draw for the role)
• Another confederate acted as the experimenter
• ‘Learner’ given a learning tasks and, every time he got a question wrong, he was given an electric shock
• The shocks increased in strength
• Learner sat in another room so the teacher could only hear him
• Learner gave mainly wrong answers and complained of the pain after 300 volts and stopped answering after 315
• Experimenter insisted the teacher continued

Question 5

What were the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

• All participants went to 300 volts but 12.5% stopped at that point
• 65% continued to 450 volts
• Qualitative data (e.g sweating, stuttering, trembling etc) was recorded
• All participants debriefed and 84% reported they felt glad to have participated
• Ordinary people are obedient to authority, even when asked to behave inhumanely
• It is not just evil people who commit crimes, but ordinary people obeying orders