1. What rationale do the author(s) give for conducting the study?
The author that is conducting this research is testing the obedience of a subject when dealing with “stocking a victim” by use of a shock generator. There are thirty levels of shock that are generated varying from a slight shock to a severe shock. Obedience is tested by how long the subject will continue to “shock the victim”. The point of this study is to determine if Americans are obedient even if they know the act is wrong.
2. What is/are the research questions and/or hypothesis/hypotheses?
How obedient would subjects be to researchers when it comes to shocking a victim? Are Americans as obedient to authority as the Germans were during World War II? Does the location of the experimenter and the victim matter?
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List the dependent variable(s)?
The dependent variables are amount of shock given, response time, and length of the shock. These three dependent variables come together to form the level of obedience.
5. What are the major findings and do they support the hypothesis/hypotheses or address the research question(s)?
The researcher found that twenty-four out of the forty subjects completed finished the experiment. This is completely against what was expected. The location of the victim and experimenter did make a difference in each circumstance. Americans are not naturally less likely to obey something that they no is wrong. The amount of obedience was highly underestimated. The subjects endured both emotional strain and tension, which was unexpected.
6. What do the results of this study mean in practical terms? (What does the study add to our understanding of the phenomenon?)
People are much more likely to obey someone of authority than expected, even if it is against their beliefs or morals. Something such as Hitler’s rise to power could have been just as possible in the United States because Americans are just as likely as the Germans to continue to do something that they know is