Case Study 5- Obedience Flashcards
Name of study
Done by
Year
Behavioral study of behavior
MILGRAM
1963
What is obedience?
Why is it important ?
Psychological mechanism which links individual action to political purpose, by following rules and order by authority without actually agreeing to do it.
Because if it is not followed it is considered to be breaking the law. E.g. Passing red light
Background
In 1933-1945 millions of people were killed during German holocaust. ( Jews, Romanians, disabled, trade unions )
This was due to Germans having extreme obedience and agentic state. They thought they were different to others.
Milgram, himself was a Jew and was affected by this German holocaust. Hence he wanted to see if in the 1960’s people from USA would obey, if he created, extreme situations.
Aim
What was the aim?
Was to test the ‘Germans are different’ hypothesis as in history Germans thought they were superior in society and therefore, for example, soldiers went into extreme obedience.
He wanted to investigate how obedient people would be to orders from a person in authority, which would result in pain and harm.
Method
What type of experiment was it?
A laboratory experiment, which led to obedience. Literally a pre experiment as it only had one condition.
Method
What was the DV and IV?
DV:
The level of shock intensity, for example, greater the voltage of shock the higher the level
IV
Was the command to obey.
Participants:
Describe the participants ?
40 men aged 20-50.
Were recruited from an advert in a magazine hence were volunteers to take part in the study.
Self selecting sampling
If respondents turned up, they would get 4.50$. They did not have to complete whole study to get this money.
Participants
Who were the respondents?
•these were the teachers.
•come from a mixture of backgrounds.
37.5% manual skilled
40% white collor
22.5% professionals
•teachers were being observed through a one way mirror.
Participants:
Who were the rest?
Learner- Mr Wallace, he was mild mannered and likeable. 47 year old accountant. He was going to be electrocuted.
Experimenter- Male 31 years old Biology teacher Was dressed in a grey lab coat
Tried to prevent teachers from withdrawal through verbal proses
Paid participants.
Apparatus
describe the apparatus used?
Shock generator used.
Had 0-450 volts in 15 volt stages.
Had labels next to each stage.
Electrodes are attached to generator and chair. Wires to learner.
Apparatus
Name of the labels ?
15- slight shock
75 - moderate
135 - strong
195 - very strong
255 - intense
315 - extreme intensity shock
375 - severe shock
435 - XXX
Procedure
Where was STUDY done?
Yale university
Procedure
Tell me the steps that were done?
- Both learner and experimenter received instructions as bout the investigation of the effect of punishment and learning.
- They were told that one = learner and other would be teacher
- Pulled slips to see who would be who
- Anyhow participant would always be teacher
Procedure
What happened once they were selected?
- Learner was taken to a separate room to that of teachers
- Teachers were shown the electric shock generator as a try and what happened was:
- A single 45 V shock
- On wrist
- using third switch
- from a battery. - Teacher than read out each pair of words to see which one corresponded best. If wrong shock would take place
- From 0-300 volts learner did not say anything. 300 to 315 pounded the wall and did not say anything else
Procedure
After this pounded, what happened
THE teachers began to turn to experimenter for guidance. However he used verbal prods in order to prevent the withdrawal.
- Please continue
- Experimenter requires you to continue
- Absolutely essencial for you to continue
- You have m other choice, must go on.
