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Milgram (1963) Criticisms

1) :-( It is possible to explain the high obedience levels in terms of demand characteristics. There are features of the experiment (e.g. prestigious university) that provide cues about how to behave. Most people found these hard resist, but it does not mean that they would always be so obedient to an unjust authority. Subsequent replications (Milgrams variations) showed that obedience rates dropped when these demand characteristics were changed. This means that the baseline study only tells us about obedience in one setting and that the findings may not be generalisable to real life.

2) :-( Individual differences do have some effect as not all participants went to 450v, some showed signs of being more uncomfortable than others, this tells us that the conclusion that situational factors cause obedience is wrong and too simple as dispositional factors have input too.

3) :-( There are big ethical issues with this study, Baumrind attacked Milgram for the severe stress he caused participants (can be seen in video footage), Milgram however said that he did not know such high levels of stress would be caused (this did not stop him replicating though). Also, later on he asked participants if they were glad to have taken part, 84% were and 74% said they had learnt something important about themselves. However, Freudians would argue this is exactly what they would say to try and explain their behaviour to themselves.

4) :-( See Internal and External Validity for more criticisms

Also See

• Asch Criticisms
• Milgram Criticisms
• Moscovici Criticisms
• Obey/Resist
• Why yield?

Comments

These notes are for AQA A Level psychology PYA3.