contemporary study - Burger Flashcards
what ethical considerations and adaptions did Burger make to Milgram’s study?
- 2 step screening process
- right to withdraw was given three times (twice in writting)
- a clinical psychologist was present as the experimenter who was informed to stop the study if ptps look extremeley distressed.
- the sample shock voltage changed from 45v to 15v
- they were told immediately after the study that the confederate was not actually recieving electric shocks.
Burger had several hypothesis what were these?
- would people still obey today: he thought they would based on a recent study done by Blass (2000)
- gender: he did not think there would be any gender differences
- personality: he thought people with higher empathy levels would be more likely to not obey
- norm information: he thought that having someone else refuse to continue would influence how obedient someone was.
what happened during the first screening?
it was a phone interview where ptps were asked 6 mental health q’s and if they answered “Yes” to any of them then they would be excluded from the study
- if they had two or more psychology classes they also couldn’t be apart of the study?
what happened during the second screening?
- they met with a clinical psychologist at the Santa Clara university and they were assessed on levels of empathy and their need for control.
- also excluded if they may of reacted negatively to the study.
what were all ptps promised regardless if they carried on with the study or if they were excluded?
- $50 dollars in cash for attending the two 45 mins screening procedures
after screening how many participants were successful and could take part?
41 girls and 29 boys
what was the ages range of ptps?
20-81
how were they assigned to either the base condition or the modelled refusal condition?
randomly, but an effort was made to ensure gender ratio’s were roughly equal.
what happened to participants upon arrival ?
they were introduced the experimenter (white male, 50’s) and a confederate was escorted by an assistant in the room.
what did they tell participants the study was investigating?
the effect of punishment of learning.
how did they decide who would be the teacher and who would be the learner?
names was taken from a rigged draw.
so the confederate was always the learner and the participant was always the teacher.
the participant and confederate were taken where after they were assigned their roles?
to another room where the participant watched the ecperimenter strap in the confederate to stop excessive movement to a (phoney) electric shock generator.
what did the confederate say to the experimenter once he was strapped into the chair?
“i have a heart problem but nothing to serious” in which the experimenter replied “the shocks are painful, but not dangerous.”
what was the learners task?
they had to remember each, 25 word pairs. the experimenter would read the first word of the word pair, followed by four other words and the confederate had to indicate which word was the correct one by pressing certain buttons.
what happened to the participant when he was taken away from the confederate and into another room?
he/she experienced a sample shock of 15v (only 2 people refused) and was explained to them that it was a one way room, they could hear the confederate but the confederate can’t hear you.
