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    Study: Stanley Milgram 1963: Zaina Hassan Social Psychology-Studies of Obedience

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    The document summarizes two studies on obedience conducted after Stanley Milgram's famous 1963 experiment. In Bickman's 1974 study in New York, people were more obedient to requests from a man dressed as a guard compared to a civilian or milkman, showing visible symbols of authority increase obedience. In Hofling's 1966 study, 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed an instruction over the phone to administer a drug, breaking hospital rules, showing very high conformity to orders even without an in-person authority figure present. Both studies provide further evidence for factors influencing obedience found in Milgram's initial experiment.

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    Study: Stanley Milgram 1963: Zaina Hassan Social Psychology-Studies of Obedience

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    zainahassan
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    The document summarizes two studies on obedience conducted after Stanley Milgram's famous 1963 experiment. In Bickman's 1974 study in New York, people were more obedient to requests from a man dressed as a guard compared to a civilian or milkman, showing visible symbols of authority increase obedience. In Hofling's 1966 study, 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed an instruction over the phone to administer a drug, breaking hospital rules, showing very high conformity to orders even without an in-person authority figure present. Both studies provide further evidence for factors influencing obedience found in Milgram's initial experiment.

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    Obedience Studies

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    The document summarizes two studies on obedience conducted after Stanley Milgram's famous 1963 experiment. In Bickman's 1974 study in New York, people were more obedient to requests from a man dressed as a guard compared to a civilian or milkman, showing visible symbols of authority increase obedience. In Hofling's 1966 study, 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed an instruction over the phone to administer a drug, breaking hospital rules, showing very high conformity to orders even without an in-person authority figure present. Both studies provide further evidence for factors influencing obedience found in Milgram's initial experiment.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    88 views3 pages

    Study: Stanley Milgram 1963: Zaina Hassan Social Psychology-Studies of Obedience

    Uploaded by

    zainahassan
    The document summarizes two studies on obedience conducted after Stanley Milgram's famous 1963 experiment. In Bickman's 1974 study in New York, people were more obedient to requests from a man dressed as a guard compared to a civilian or milkman, showing visible symbols of authority increase obedience. In Hofling's 1966 study, 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed an instruction over the phone to administer a drug, breaking hospital rules, showing very high conformity to orders even without an in-person authority figure present. Both studies provide further evidence for factors influencing obedience found in Milgram's initial experiment.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    Zaina Hassan

    Social Psychology- Studies of Obedience.

    Study: Stanley Milgram 1963


    This study by Milgram is extremely famous and has been repeated numerous times
    across the world.
    Aim To find out if Americans would obey an unjust order to inflict
    pain on someone else.
    Method 40 male participants were selected after replying to a newspaper
    ad.
    At the start of the experiment they met a man called, a mild-
    mannered man in his fifties; who was then hooked up to a charge
    generator. He was in fact a confederate.

    The participant sat in another room and tested 'Mr Wallis' on


    word pairs, when he got one wrong, the participant was to give
    him an electric shock. These increased as more incorrect answers
    were given from 15 to 450 volts.

    Each time a shock was given a pre-recorded sound played


    indicating the confederate in varying degrees of pain, until after
    315 volts there was an eerie silence. Another confederate wearing
    a lab coat encouraged the participant to continue (this was the
    authority figure).
    Results All went up to at least 300 volts. 65% went up to 450.
    Conclusion Under certain circumstances, most people will obey orders.

    Evaluation
    There are a lot of evaluation points on this research, many of which can be applied
    to other pieces of research into obedience; if you are here looking for help with an
    essay on this. They can be categorised as either ethical or methodological (how
    the experiment was carried out).

    Ethical
     Deception. In the Milgram experiment the participants were lead to believe
    it was a study into memory.
     Harm. Those who continued to the end (most of them) may have thought
    they had killed the confederate.
    Zaina Hassan
    Social Psychology- Studies of Obedience.

     Right to withdraw-Because it was an experiment into Obedience, the


    participants may have thought they couldn't leave since Mr Williams
    prevented them if they tried.

    Methodological
     Limited sample- Only men and people from one town were used. There
    were age restrictions on who could apply; the sample was self-selected (i.e
    people chose themselves and this is only a certain personality type).
     Ecological Validity (poor)-Giving electric shocks is not an everyday-task,
    or indeed a task that someone would ever have done before.
     Experimental realism- The participants may not have believed the
    experiment was real, so they are more likely to carry on as they don't think
    they're really harming someone.
     Demand characteristics- Since they are aware of being in an experiment,
    the behavior of the participants may be altered.

    Other studies of Obedience:

    Study Bickman (1974) New York Hofling (1966) Nurses


    To see if uniform influences Would nurses obey an oder that
    Aim
    authority and obedience. breaches hospital rules.
    Method Three researchers were dressed An unsuspecting nurse was told to give a
    Zaina Hassan
    Social Psychology- Studies of Obedience.

    patient a drug for a 'doctor' before he


    as either: a civilian (coat and arrived.
    tie); milkman, or guard.
    The instruction broke many hospital
    People were approached on the guidelines including acting without a
    street and were asked one of signed order from a doctor.
    three things. Here is an example
    of one: "Pick up this bag for me The nurse was stopped before giving the
    [points to bag]" medication and as an extra precaution it
    was harmless anyway.
    Much more obedience with the 21 out 22 nurses obeyed until they were
    Results
    guard stopped.
    Visible symbols of authority Heirarchies such as those in hospitals
    Conclusion
    increase obedience. put pressure on us to obey.
    Supports the findings of
    Milgram (relating to status) The nurses did not give consent to take
    part in this study.
    Has good ecological validity as it
    is in a real-life setting. It contradicts Milgram's findings as it
    Evaluation
    shows very high conformity when an
    Questionable how representative order is given over the telephone.
    the sample is since it only tests
    those who happened to be on this A very small sample was used.
    street at the time.

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