Obedience: Milgram's research - evaluation

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  • Created by: gemshort
  • Created on: 09-01-18 14:02

Strength: Milgram's findings have external validity
Sheridan and King (1972) conducted a similar study where real shocks were given to a puppy. 54% of male student participants and 100% of female student participants delivered what they thought was a fatal shock. This is a strength because it suggests that Milgram's findings were genuine because people behaved the same way with real shocks.Milgram himself reported that 70% of participants said they believed the shocks were genuine

Strength: the findings are generalisable
The central feature of the study was the relationship between the authority figure and the participant. Milgram argued that the lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life. Other research supports this, for example Hofling et al (1966) studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands from doctors were very high (21 out of 22 nurses obeyed). This suggests that the processes of obedience to authority that occured in the study can be generalised to…

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