The document provides a concise overview of core studies in psychology, including key methodologies, findings, and their significance. It covers foundational research such as Milgram's obedience experiments and Loftus and Palmer's eyewitness testimony studies, discussing ethical considerations and ...
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
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