Contemporary study; Burger Flashcards
Aim
See if peoples obedience levels changed sins Milgrams study and conduct a more ethical study
Sample
- 29 men, 41 women aged 20-81
- paid 40$ for two 45 minute sessions
- Anxiety and depression inventory, interview with clinical psychologist
- exclude anyone who experienced child abuse, domestic abuse of had been in combat
Procedure
Two conditions
Base condition: Introduced to experimenter, told they could end experiment at any time, learner completed word pair test, administered electric shock for wrong answer, learner disclosed heart condition, participant was given 15v shock to show machine worked, learners responses were pre recorded at 75v the teacher would hear learner grunt in pain and at 150v yell ‘ get me out of here’
Model refusal condition: same procedure as base condition, two teachers both watched learner strapped into chair, teacher 1 (confederate) began procedure, no signs of hesitation until 90v where he said ‘ i dont know about this’ . The experimenter then asked teacher 2 (participant) to continue.
At end of study they were told shocks weren’t real.
Results
No significant difference between levels of obedience in his study and original Milgram study.
- 70% were obedient after 150v compared to 65% in Milgrams study
- little difference in obedience between men and women
Conclusion
People today will still obey at similar levels as found by Milgram
No significant difference between men and women
Evaluation
Ethics - advantage- involved screening participants for anxiety etc - protection from harm
Only include quantitative data - disadvantage - no qualitative date to explain reasons behind obedience
Generalisability - advantage - findings can be applied to variety of age groups, sexes , educational and ethnic backgrounds
Volunteer sample - disadvantage - may obtain similar types of people who are interested in psychology, might not accurately reflect different types of people.
