Lesson 1.1.2

1.1.2 Milgram's obedience research and variation studies Quiz: Pearson Edexcel Psychology, Unit 1

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

In partnership with Revision Ninja

Lesson 1.1.2, Milgram's obedience research and variation studies: 20 multiple choice questions for the Pearson Edexcel Psychology (9PS0), Unit 1: Social psychology, written with Revision Ninja.

Host it live on the board and students join with a game code on their own devices, or revise alone with Free Play. The answers are revealed in the game.

Host this setFree Play

The 20 questions

  1. How many male participants took part in Milgram's original obedience study of 1963?

    • 20
    • 100
    • 40
    • 60

  2. What was the highest shock level on Milgram's shock generator?

    • 300 volts
    • 150 volts
    • 600 volts
    • 450 volts

  3. In the original baseline study, what percentage of participants went to the maximum 450-volt level?

    • 35%
    • 65%
    • 80%
    • 50%

  4. Who played the role of the 'learner' in Milgram's study?

    • A trained actor who played the experimenter and gave all instructions to the participant
    • A confederate who pretended to receive the shocks and gave scripted responses
    • An assistant who recorded the participant's obedience score on a checklist during the trial
    • A genuine volunteer who was paid to take real shocks at each level of the procedure

  5. In Milgram's Experiment 10 (Rundown Office Block), what was changed from the baseline study?

    • Participants were allowed to choose the shock level themselves at each stage of the procedure
    • The learner was placed in the same room as the participant, so the two could see each other clearly
    • The study took place in a run-down office building, which lowered the perceived legitimacy of the setting
    • The experimenter was replaced by a recorded voice that delivered all of the instructions over a speaker

  6. In Milgram's telephonic instructions variation (Experiment 7), what was changed?

    • The participant was allowed to stop at any point and was paid for the time spent in the procedure
    • Two peers in the room refused to continue, and the participant was then asked to follow their lead
    • The learner was placed in the room with the participant, and was visible while receiving the shocks
    • The experimenter gave instructions by telephone rather than being physically present in the room

  7. In Milgram's 'Ordinary man gives orders' variation (Experiment 13), what changed?

    • An ordinary man with no authority gave the orders instead of the experimenter in the lab coat
    • The learner was given a higher voltage to receive, and the shock levels were increased in larger steps
    • Two peers were placed in the room, and each refused to continue at the same point in the procedure
    • The experimenter was replaced by a female assistant who gave all of the instructions to the participant

  8. Why did Milgram vary the study in terms of setting, instructions and authority figure?

    • To identify which situational factors increase or reduce obedience and dissent
    • To test whether men and women show different levels of aggression when they are given orders
    • To check whether the learner would eventually confess to being a confederate in the study
    • To prove that all participants are equally obedient regardless of the situation they are placed in

  9. Milgram's variations showed that obedience was affected by which type of factor?

    • Only the participant's income, since wealthier participants were far more willing to follow orders
    • Situational factors such as proximity, legitimacy of the setting and the presence of dissent
    • Only genetic factors such as inherited personality, which cannot be changed by any situation
    • Only the participant's age, since older participants always obeyed more than younger participants

  10. If 30 of 40 participants had obeyed to 450 volts in a replication, what percentage is this?

    • 65%
    • 70%
    • 75%
    • 80%

  11. Which ethical concern is most central to Milgram's obedience study?

    • Deception and psychological harm to participants who believed they were giving painful shocks to another person
    • Use of a double-blind design, which meant that neither the participant nor the experimenter knew the aims
    • Recording the data on paper forms rather than on computers, which made later analysis more difficult
    • Lack of informed consent for the learner, who had no information about the study's aims at all

  12. Milgram's study is a laboratory experiment. Which evaluation is most accurate?

    • Its findings cannot be generalised to any setting, because a laboratory has no link to everyday life
    • It removes ethical issues entirely because the procedure was simulated and no one was harmed at all
    • It is guaranteed to be ecologically valid because real shocks were delivered to the learner in every trial
    • It gives strong control and supports causal conclusions, but its ecological validity may be limited

  13. Which experiment in Milgram's programme involved two peers who refused to continue?

    • Experiment 10, in which the study moved to a run-down office block in Bridgeport
    • Experiment 7, in which the experimenter gave instructions by telephone rather than in person
    • Experiment 17, in which two peers rebelled and obedience dropped sharply
    • Experiment 13, in which an ordinary man rather than an experimenter gave the orders

  14. A replication found that obedience was lower when the experimenter was absent from the room. What does this suggest?

    • Participants obey only when they are paid, so the experimenter's presence has no effect on behaviour
    • Obedience is fixed by genetics and cannot be changed by any feature of the room or the experimenter
    • Obedience depends only on the age of the participant, so the experimenter's presence does not matter
    • Proximity of the authority figure is a situational factor that affects how far people obey

  15. Milgram's participants were all male in the original study. What is the main implication for generalising the findings?

    • The findings are irrelevant because the study used a laboratory rather than a field setting
    • The findings apply equally to all people, because gender has no effect on obedience in any situation
    • The findings may not apply equally to women, so the sample limits generalisation to the whole population
    • The findings show that women are always more obedient than men in any situation of authority

  16. A student says Milgram's findings show obedience is caused by a single dispositional trait. Which response is most accurate?

    • This is accurate, since the variations confirmed that personality alone explains the whole pattern of results
    • This is accurate, since all participants showed the same personality trait in every variation of the study
    • This is accurate, since the learner's responses were recorded and showed a stable trait of compliance
    • This is an oversimplification, since the variations showed situational factors strongly affect obedience

  17. Which of the following best describes Milgram's shock generator as used in the procedure?

    • A fake device with 30 switches labelled from 15 volts up to 450 volts, with no real current delivered
    • A device with 10 switches that delivered gentle vibrations rather than any electrical shock at all
    • A real device delivering shocks of up to 450 volts to the learner in every trial of the procedure
    • A computer program that displayed shock levels on a screen without any physical switches involved

  18. Why did Milgram use a learner who was a confederate rather than a real participant?

    • So that the participant would feel more guilty about harming a genuine person in the room during the study
    • So that the study could be run more cheaply, since confederates do not need to be paid for their time at all
    • So that the procedure could be standardised, with the learner's responses scripted in the same way for every participant
    • So that the learner could give better answers to the word pairs, which increased the reliability of the scores

  19. In Milgram's baseline procedure, what was the participant's role?

    • The teacher, who read word pairs and administered shocks when the learner gave wrong answers
    • The observer, who recorded the learner's answers on a form and never gave any shocks at all in the study
    • The learner, who answered word pairs and was given real electric shocks by the experimenter in each trial
    • The experimenter, who gave instructions to the teacher from a script in an adjoining room of the lab

  20. Which statement about Milgram's variation studies is correct?

    • They changed the sex of the participants in every condition, which was the only factor that was ever varied
    • They removed the learner entirely from the procedure, so that participants gave no shocks in any condition
    • They used a different laboratory in each condition, so the findings could not be compared across conditions
    • They manipulated one situational factor at a time to see how it changed the level of obedience

All Pearson Edexcel Psychology quizzes