Discuss research into obedience [16 marks]
Milgram’s (1961) Shock Experiment was a controversial study into
obedience to authority figures. His aim was to test the extent to which
people will obey an unjust order by an authority figure even when it goes
against one’s moral code and inflicts pain in another person. Furthermore,
he also wanted to test his initial “Germans are different” hypothesis, due
to their involvement in the Holocaust, which is a dispositional approach as
it assumes that obedience is the result of personality factors rather
than situational factors. Milgram’s had a sample of 40 males from a
variety of different backgrounds, obtained via volunteer sampling (leaflets
and newspaper ads) and they were paid $4.50 for their time. The
participants were allocated the role of the teacher, and the student was
played by Mr Wallace – a confederate – through a rigged draw. The
teacher had to test the learner on their ability to remember word pairs
and were required to give increasingly (fake) severe electric shocks, which
went up in 15 volt increments until 450 volts, each time the learner made
a mistake. To convince the participants that the shocks were real, they
gave them a 45-volt shock to prove the machine is real. 4 verbal prods
Milgram found that no participants stopped below 300 volts, 12.5%
stopped at 300 volts, and 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
He also collected qualitative data made through observations of
participants showing signs of extreme tension when giving electric shocks.
For example, they were sweating, trembling, biting their lips, and digging
their fingernails into their hands. These findings went against the
predictions that 14 psychology students had made prior to the
experiment, where they claimed that no more than 3% would continue to
450 volts. Milgram concluded that most people would obey an authority
figure even when it goes against one’s moral code and discovered that
destructive obedience is not a result of dispositional factors, but certain
situational factors. These include the location of the experiment, the
uniform of the authority figure and the proximity between the teacher and
the learner. He also concluded that the "Germans are different”
hypothesis is false as all participants were 40 ordinary American men.
Their high levels of obedience show that all people show obedience to
higher authority figures.
One strength of Milgram’s study is that it has good external validity. At
first glance, the fact that Milgram’s study was a lab experiment may make
it appear that it lacks external validity. However, the central feature of the
situation was the relationship between the authority figure (the
experimenter) and the participant (teacher). Milgram argued that this
relationship reflected wider authority relationships in real life.
Furthermore, Hofling et al conducted a similar study on nurses in a
hospital ward. In this study, some confederates acting as doctors, called
the nurses on the phone and gave them unjustifiable demands to do with
Milgram’s (1961) Shock Experiment was a controversial study into
obedience to authority figures. His aim was to test the extent to which
people will obey an unjust order by an authority figure even when it goes
against one’s moral code and inflicts pain in another person. Furthermore,
he also wanted to test his initial “Germans are different” hypothesis, due
to their involvement in the Holocaust, which is a dispositional approach as
it assumes that obedience is the result of personality factors rather
than situational factors. Milgram’s had a sample of 40 males from a
variety of different backgrounds, obtained via volunteer sampling (leaflets
and newspaper ads) and they were paid $4.50 for their time. The
participants were allocated the role of the teacher, and the student was
played by Mr Wallace – a confederate – through a rigged draw. The
teacher had to test the learner on their ability to remember word pairs
and were required to give increasingly (fake) severe electric shocks, which
went up in 15 volt increments until 450 volts, each time the learner made
a mistake. To convince the participants that the shocks were real, they
gave them a 45-volt shock to prove the machine is real. 4 verbal prods
Milgram found that no participants stopped below 300 volts, 12.5%
stopped at 300 volts, and 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts.
He also collected qualitative data made through observations of
participants showing signs of extreme tension when giving electric shocks.
For example, they were sweating, trembling, biting their lips, and digging
their fingernails into their hands. These findings went against the
predictions that 14 psychology students had made prior to the
experiment, where they claimed that no more than 3% would continue to
450 volts. Milgram concluded that most people would obey an authority
figure even when it goes against one’s moral code and discovered that
destructive obedience is not a result of dispositional factors, but certain
situational factors. These include the location of the experiment, the
uniform of the authority figure and the proximity between the teacher and
the learner. He also concluded that the "Germans are different”
hypothesis is false as all participants were 40 ordinary American men.
Their high levels of obedience show that all people show obedience to
higher authority figures.
One strength of Milgram’s study is that it has good external validity. At
first glance, the fact that Milgram’s study was a lab experiment may make
it appear that it lacks external validity. However, the central feature of the
situation was the relationship between the authority figure (the
experimenter) and the participant (teacher). Milgram argued that this
relationship reflected wider authority relationships in real life.
Furthermore, Hofling et al conducted a similar study on nurses in a
hospital ward. In this study, some confederates acting as doctors, called
the nurses on the phone and gave them unjustifiable demands to do with
