Obediance

Question 1

Who conducted this research

Answer 1

Milgram

Question 2

What was the aim of this study of obedience

Answer 2

To investigate whether particpants would obey a figure of authority b harming another person.

Question 3

What’s the procedure of this study

Answer 3

40 males, ages 20-50 volunteered for this study via a newspaper article and were paid upon arrival.
The particpants were given the role as a teacher and MR Wallace (confederate) was given the role of the student. Before the study started Mr Wallace made it clear he had a heart condition
The student and teacher were in different rooms and the teacher asked the student questions and everytime they got one wrong, they got an electric shock, which increased with every answer.
Mr Wallace made noises of pain and even said “ouch my heart”, and this study continued until the particpant didn’t want to electric shock him anymore.

Question 4

What were the findings from this study

Answer 4

At least every particpant went up to 300 volts, with 12.5% of people stopping when they got here. This was labled as “intensive shock”
65% went all the way to 450 volts

Question 5

What was said in the debrief

Answer 5

84% of particpants said they were glad to have taken part after finding out that mr Wallace wasnt getting hurt

Question 6

Strength evaluation

Answer 6

P- controlled study
E- he used a standardised procedure meaning all particpants whiteness the same experience, such as everyone being told about mr Wallace’s heart condition. This also allows for extranious variables to be controlled
E- the behaviour is more likely to be due to the situation, rather then other reasons.

Question 7

Limitaion evaluation

Answer 7

P- flaws by other psychologists have been brought to attention
E- they said that particpants didn’t believe it ws a real procedure, and that Mr Wallace wasnt actually experiencing electric shocks. This could have been because he was in another room, the wrong answers were so frequency and no one was checking on mr Wallace.
E- this suggests the study would lack internal validity and didnt measure what it claimed t measure
HOWEVER, behaviour from the particpnats suggested that they did think it was real, due to them having nervous laughter, fidgeting and some particpnats saying they dont want to do it anymore.

P- lacking mundane realism
E- this isn’t a day to day task, therefore its not being representative of real life obedience, such as if they were asked to close the door or do the dishes
E-lacking ecological validity