Core Study 1- Milgram (S) Flashcards
Authority figures and obedience
What is an authority figure?
A person who has a real or perceived higher status than another.
What is obedience?
When you follow an order/ request from an authority figure.
What is disobedience?
When you refuse to follow and order/ request from an authority figure
What are situational factors?
Factors in our environment as opposed to our individual characteristics
Background
What is Milgram’s background and reasoning for research?
He was a member of a European Jewish family with an interest in the psychology behind the holocaust.
He wanted to see if their culture was the reason for high levels of obedience (dispositional factor)
Aim
What was the aim of Milgram’s study?
To investigate how obedient people are to following orders from a person in authority
in context- (administering electric shocks that would result in pain and harm to another person)
Method
What was the experimental design of Milgram’s study?
-controlled observation since there was only one condition
Method
What was the dependent variable and how was it operationalised?
obedience- operationalised as the maximum voltage given in response to order
Sample
What did the sample consist of and how were they selected?
age, gender, quantity, how they were selected, where they were from
-40 males
-between 20- 50
-from New Haven, Connecticut
-collected from newspaper advertisement
-took place at Yale University
Procedure
How much were participants paid for taking part?
$4.50
Procedure
How were roles distributed between the learner and teacher pair?
Both paper slips said teacher- the confederate acted as the ‘learner’ and the participant always acted as the teacher
It was rigged
Procedure (ethics)
How was deception integrated in the study?
2 ways
-participants told they would not cause any lasting tissue damage from giving out shocks
-participants told they were taking part in a study of memory and effects of punishment on learning
Procedure
What did the learner and teacher have to with the word pairs?
-learner had to learn word pairs (teacher read out first word, learner had to give next three by flicking the corresponding switch)
Procedure
What happened if the answer given was incorrect?
The teacher gave a shock by flicking a switch on a shock generator (voltage increased in 15v increments from 15v-450v every time an answer was wrong)
Procedure
What are the benefits of having standardised answers from the learner once a shock was given?
teacher responses can be easily analysed, reliability is increased
Procedure
What happened once the shock generator reached 315v?
Teacher recieved no pain response, unlike the previous shocks, leaving assumption that learner was unconscious/ dead
This breaks ethical issue of protection from harm (physical and emotional)
Procedure
What 4 verbal prods did the experimenter frequently use to convince the teachers to carry on?
-“Please continue. Please go on.”
-“You have no choice, you must go on.”
-“It is absolutely essential that you continue.”
-“The experiment requires you to continue.”
Procedure
How were participants debriefed at the end of the study?
They recieved full explanation of true nature of experiment and were interviewed using open-ended questions and attitude scales to make sure they left in a state of well-being
Results
What quantitative results were gathered from the study?
100% particpants continued to 300volts (enough to kill you)
65% participants continued to full 450volts
26 participants= obedient, 14= disobedient/ defiant
Results
What qualitative results were gathered from the study?
-many participants showed signs of extreme stress (sweating, shaking, laughing nervously etc)
-3 participants had full blown seizures
Results
What did the 14 university students who predicted levels of obedience predict results would be?
predicted obedience would be low- only 3% would continue to the end
Conclusions
Did findings support the dispositional hypothesis or the situational hypothesis?
Situational- How aspects of social processes could influence a person
Conclusions
Give some possible reasons for obedience that Milgram identified.
9 in total
-carried out in respectable environment (Yale uni)
-Legitimacy (worthwhile)
-volunteer and were paid= obligation to obey
-from teacher’s perspective- they may have been just as unlucky to be the learner and endured shocks
-rights to withdraw= unobvious
-told shocks weren’t dangerous
-learner appeared comfortable for first 300v
