Social influence - ethical and methodological issues with the studies used.

Internal validity - Sherif

Task was ambiguous, could have conformed because of demand characteristic (other's behaviour)

Methodological issues include

internal validity, external validity and ecological validity.

External validity - Asch

# All American males - biased and unrepresentative sample cannot be generalised to other populations. # Studies carried out during the cold war - hunts for anyone who behaved in a non American way. It was sensible to conform.

External validity - Milgram

# Unrepresentative sample, questionable cross-cultural replicability (participants were of ages 20-50, males.) HOWEVER, he did later test females and find similar levels of obedience.

Is the research of important value?

- Sherif and Asch's experiments show people do conform - Studies on obedience highlight the importance of authority.

Deception is used in which studies. Why?

Asch, Milgram, Sherif and Gamson because of the purpose of the study

Protection from harm should...

Be no greater than normal life

Ethical issues include

Deception Respect for privacy Informed consent Debriefing Protection from harm

Internal validity - Asch

High internal validity, because it is a lab experiment. However, some participants did say that that conformed to please the experimenter not due to group pressure.

Respect for privacy is used in which studies? What was the benefit of this?

Hofling and Bickman's participants did not know they were being a part of a study. This is a benefit because this strengthened both internal and ecological validity

Debriefing?

Milgram debriefed his participants, this removed the problem of deception and giving them the right to withdraw.

Ecological validity - Asch

Not everyday life

Ecological validity - Milgram

Not everyday life

Ecological validity - Sherif

Not everyday life

Informed consent was not obtained by which studies?

Presumptive consent was taken by Milgram. Informed consent was not because of the purpose of the study. As well as Hofling and Bickman because they did not know they were in a study.

Protection from harm - Milgram

Suffered from stress, however all debriefed. 84% said they were glad to take part and none suffered long term emotional disturbances

Protection from harm - Asch

Suffered from stress, however nothing was out of the ordinary

Internal validity - Milgram

Were not convinced by the set-up of the experiment and merely obeyed because of demand characteristics. This is unlikely because participants were given sample shocks and suffered from varying levels of stress.