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To what extent can the validity of obedience research be defended?
- Words:
- 999
- Submitted:
- Wed Mar 10 2004

... To what extent can the validity of obedience research be defended? Obedience is prevalent in everyday life. For example, we obey the doctor by taking the recommended prescription, trusting that he or she is the expert and knows best. Usually, problems do not arise as a result of this, although it is said that the desirability of obeying authority correlates to how reasonable the commands are. Milgram and Hofling et al. in particular investigated obedience using various authority figures to give commands to the participants. They aimed to determine the extent to which people would obey, despite the consequences of their actions. While the studies produced conclusive results, it is important to consider the validity of the research, both ecological and experimental. Ecological validity refers to the validity of the research outside the research situation itself, as in how well the findings would generalise to everyday situation. Experimental validity on the other














