Milgrim's Study Of Obediance Flashcards

1
Q

What was the aim of Milgrim’s study?

A

To investigate obedience to an authority figure using a laboratory based procedure

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2
Q

What was Milgrim’s method?

A

He used 40 male participants by advertising for volunteers. There were 3 roles in the experiment:
The experimenter: the authority figure played by a confederate
The teacher: the person who would test the learner and administer punishments played by the real participant
The learner: the person who would receive punishments if they got questions wrong played by a confederate. The dependent variable was how far in bolts the participant would go to shock the learner. Participants had to ask a question to the learner and if they got it wrong they would administer volts that would increase up to 450 volts. The learner gave predetermined recorded responses, gradually increasing in panic as the volts were administered.

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3
Q

What were the results of Milgrim’s test?

A

Signs of extreme tension in most participants, including one who had a seizure.

All participants went up to 300 volts

14 defied the experimenter after this point

26 obeyed to the end and gave 450 volts

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4
Q

What was Milgrim’s conclusion?

A

People are surprisingly obedient to authority even when being told to inflict pain for no good reason.

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5
Q

What are the situational factors in obedience that Milgrim’s found?

A

Proximity - of the victim and of the authority figure

Location

The power of uniform

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6
Q

How did proximity of the victim affect Milgrim’s study?

A

In the original study 65% gave the 450 volts shock. However, when the teacher and learner were in the same room only 40% gave the 450 shock. This was perhaps a result of the teacher being able to experience the learners distress more directly.

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7
Q

How did the proximity of the authority figure affect Milgrim’s study?

A

In the original study, the authority figure sat a few feet away from the teacher and 65% gave the 450 volt shock. If the authority figure gave his orders over the phone only 21% gave the 450 shock. This could be due to lack of intimidation as the experimenter is not face to face with the teacher.

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8
Q

How did location affect Milgrim’s study?

A

As the study was carried out at Yale University, participants remarked that the location gave them confidence in the integrity of the people involved. A further variation of the study was carried out in a run down office in Connecticut with no obvious connections to the university and levels of obedience dropped from 65% to 48%

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9
Q

How could the power of uniform affect Milgrim’s study?

A

Bushman conducted a study where a female researcher dressed either in a police uniform or a beggar stopped people in the street and asked people to give money to a male researcher for their parking ticket. 72% obeyed when she was wearing the police uniform compared to 52% when she was a beggar

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10
Q

How could Hofling’s research support Milgrim’s?

A

Hofling et al studied nurses working in hospitals. The nurses were rang by hofling pretending to be a doctor and asked them to give a double dose of a drug. If they did this they would be breaking several rules- giving twice the stated doses and taking orders over the phone and not have consent forms signed by the Dr. He found that 21/22 nurses obeyed Hofling and gave the drug, thus research in natural settings shows that people will obey legitimate authority figures, supporting Milgrim’s research and making it reliable.

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11
Q

How can Milgrim’s research be said to have internal validity?

A

As the experiment was carried out in a controlled lab then the results have validity. As the environment is controlled then Milgrim would be able to rule out any extraneous variables. Also, with the study being controlled it means that the experiment is repeatable and reproducible-which milgrim proved by carrying out the same experiment in different scenarios. Therefore Milgrim’s findings can be said to be valid as the experiment was controlled.

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12
Q

How could Demand characteristics affect Milgrim’s experiment?

A

Orne and Holland suggest that as the experimenter was cold and distant and showed no compassion for the screams of the learner the participants must have worked out that the situation was fake and this is why they administrated the shocks; they knew they were not actually harming the participants. This would have been supported by the fact the electric shocks are not a believable punishment for getting questions wrong. This means that we cannot be sure that the IV (authority figure) affected the DV (obedience) as it is possible the Ps guessed the aim and demand characteristics are the things that caused their obedience. Therefore Milgrim’s research findings are questionable and it may be that the rate of obedience would be very different in a more realistic situation

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13
Q

How could individual differences have affected the findings of Milgrim’s study?

A

A commonly held assumption is that women would be more susceptible to social influence than men. Milgram did not investigate obedience in women so could not identify any gender differences in his study. However, it could be argued that there are a number of factors that need to be considered in Milgram’s research that may explain why some participants went up to 450v where as some didn’t, e.g personality, upbringing, age, etc. Therefore Milgram’s study is flawed as these factors are not considered in the study and they may play a significant role in what influences the decision to to obey an authority figure

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