CORE STUDIES
,Social psychology
MILGRAM (1963)- OBEDIENCE
Background:
● Interested in how far people would go in obeying authority if it involved harming others
● Interested in whether ordinary people would obey an authority gure, a similar situation to
of the nazis.
Aim:
● To nd out where people would be obedient to authority even if it meant physically hurting
others
Method and sample:
● controlled observation in a laboratory setting.
● Conducted at Yale university
● Independent measures design
● Volunteer/ self selected sampling was used
● Newspaper advert had been used to recruit 40 men between 20 and 50
● From a variety of different backgrounds but all from new haven
Procedure:
● Each participant was given $4.50 to participate.
● The partiipant was given the role of the teacher and Mr Wallace the role of the learner.
● The participant was deceived that the study was about memory and learning.
● The participant was given a shock to convince them it was genuine of 45v
● Milgram watched though a one way mirror
● The learner did not relieve any shocks but did act as if they were
● The memory task involved reading pairs of words aloud to the learner to test their
recognition skills, when a mistake was made the learner as given a shock of15v higher
than the previous one
Prods:
"Please continue/please go on."
"The experiment requires you to continue."
"It is absolutely essential that you continue."
"You have no other choice, you must go on."
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Sample:
Results:
Conclusion
Key theme:
, Results:
● 65% of participants went to 450v
● 35% of participants disobeyed
● 14 participants stopped earlier
● The mean voltage given was 368v
Conclusions:
● Situational factors aftfect obedience such as: the legitimacy of the context, the feeling of
nancial obligation, the proximity of the authority gure and the victim, personal
responsibility for completing the task, authority gure (appearance & sternness), wont be
held responsible for any damages caused
● individuals are more obedient to authority than expected
● People nd that carrying out destructive acts triggers feelings of stress
Strengths:
● Controlled observation- possible to control extraneous variables
● Level of control and standardisation- research was more reliable
● Detailed design of the shock generator- increased validity because it convinced them that
the shocks were real
● Carefully selected participants to ensure a range of ages and background- greater validity
● Qualitative measurement - easily comparable, conclusions could be easily drawn, more
Weaknesses:
● The participants were all males and from the same area- results are less generalisable to
the target population
Ethical issues:
● Did not give informed consent as they were told the false aim which is also deception
● Deception
● Participants were denied the right to withdraw due to the prods
● Participants went through psychological harm and distress
Key area:
● Shows how pressure from another person can in uence an individuals behaviour
fi fi fi fi fl
,Social psychology
MILGRAM (1963)- OBEDIENCE
Background:
● Interested in how far people would go in obeying authority if it involved harming others
● Interested in whether ordinary people would obey an authority gure, a similar situation to
of the nazis.
Aim:
● To nd out where people would be obedient to authority even if it meant physically hurting
others
Method and sample:
● controlled observation in a laboratory setting.
● Conducted at Yale university
● Independent measures design
● Volunteer/ self selected sampling was used
● Newspaper advert had been used to recruit 40 men between 20 and 50
● From a variety of different backgrounds but all from new haven
Procedure:
● Each participant was given $4.50 to participate.
● The partiipant was given the role of the teacher and Mr Wallace the role of the learner.
● The participant was deceived that the study was about memory and learning.
● The participant was given a shock to convince them it was genuine of 45v
● Milgram watched though a one way mirror
● The learner did not relieve any shocks but did act as if they were
● The memory task involved reading pairs of words aloud to the learner to test their
recognition skills, when a mistake was made the learner as given a shock of15v higher
than the previous one
Prods:
"Please continue/please go on."
"The experiment requires you to continue."
"It is absolutely essential that you continue."
"You have no other choice, you must go on."
fi fi
Sample:
Results:
Conclusion
Key theme:
, Results:
● 65% of participants went to 450v
● 35% of participants disobeyed
● 14 participants stopped earlier
● The mean voltage given was 368v
Conclusions:
● Situational factors aftfect obedience such as: the legitimacy of the context, the feeling of
nancial obligation, the proximity of the authority gure and the victim, personal
responsibility for completing the task, authority gure (appearance & sternness), wont be
held responsible for any damages caused
● individuals are more obedient to authority than expected
● People nd that carrying out destructive acts triggers feelings of stress
Strengths:
● Controlled observation- possible to control extraneous variables
● Level of control and standardisation- research was more reliable
● Detailed design of the shock generator- increased validity because it convinced them that
the shocks were real
● Carefully selected participants to ensure a range of ages and background- greater validity
● Qualitative measurement - easily comparable, conclusions could be easily drawn, more
Weaknesses:
● The participants were all males and from the same area- results are less generalisable to
the target population
Ethical issues:
● Did not give informed consent as they were told the false aim which is also deception
● Deception
● Participants were denied the right to withdraw due to the prods
● Participants went through psychological harm and distress
Key area:
● Shows how pressure from another person can in uence an individuals behaviour
fi fi fi fi fl
