Burger (2009) Flashcards
Aim
To see if Milgram’s findings were era-bound and id obedience affected gender or personality traits
Sample
70 adult volunteers
20-81
60% university degrees
55% white
4% black afro-american
Recruited through flyers at libraries, ads in newspapers
Ethical changes to Milgram
- Shocks of 150V to avoid high levels of anxiety, 79% in Milgram who gave 150V went to 450V
- Exclude anxious volunteers
- Given 3 reminders of right to withdraw
- 15V given to participants at start
- Debriefed immediately after and met learner
- Clinical psychologist supervised trials
Self report questionnaires measured what?
Empathic concern - feel sympathy to others
Desire for personal control - want to control events
When was trial stopped
When participants refused to continue after 4 prods or at 150V
Findings
70% obedient
No significant difference in men and women
Men = 67%, women = 74%
No sig dif in empathic ppl = defiant (19.25) and obedient (19.2)
Sig dif between personal scores in defiancy = Defiant higher scores (106.92), to obedient (98.24)
Conclusion
Milgram’s findings not era-bound
Lack of empathy doesn’t mean high obedience
Desire for personal control related to obedience
Strength
Any participants who had taken 2 or more psychology classes were excluded
5 admitted to awareness
Weakness
38% deselected with anxiety
Sample would have been more psychologically robust
Should be less obedient, generalisability limited
CA of weakness
Beauvois (2012)
Replicated Milgram
Did not exclude any participants, except with medication of health problems -> Burger had similar findings so may be generalisable
80% obeyed to 450V
Application
Elms (2009)
Situation lost realism because participants stopped before suffered real stress
Post 150V conversations between participants and experiments provided findings
Reduced meaningfulness of study in helping to understand obedience in real-world situations
