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... criticised for lack of ecological validity. Due to it being an artificial test of obedience and therefore lacks 'mundane realism'. But Milgram may be justified because although there were important differences between experimental and real life obedience, there is a fundamental similarity in the psychological processes at work. And this idea led Milgram to carry out a series of experiments to investigate the extent to which 'individualistic Americans' would obey authority. However, other research by Hofling et al (1966) supports the level of obedience from authority. He had 22 staff nurses as his participants in a number of psychiatric hospitals in the USA. An unknown 'doctor' (Hofling's confederate) phoned each staff nurse with instructions to give a patient double the daily dosage of a medication. Twenty-one of the twenty-two nurses obeyed the instructions and prepared the medication. They were stopped just before they supplied the medication. His experiment shows that in other ...