Evaluate Milgram 1963 - (8 marks)

Question 1

GENERALISABILITY - UNREPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE

Answer 1

→ Low Generalisability → Major criticism was that the sample was unrepresentative
→ American Men → ethnocentric → 40 participants → but from a variety of backgrounds and different ages
→ It could be argued that using men this produced a sample that was biased, or did not reflect the general population.

Question 2

GENERALISABILITY

Answer 2

→ Low generalisability
→ Study limited to people who read the advertisement (asking for Volunteers to take part in a study of memory and learning at Yale University → to be paid 4.50 dollars) and were prepared to take part in a lab experiment.
→ These men who replied may have been different to the general population.

Question 3

RELIABILITY

Answer 3

→ High Reliability → Study can be replicated
→ Burger replicated aspects of variation #5, #17, #8. → Milgram filmed parts of his study.
→ Burger followed Milgram’s script wherever possible, indicating high reliability.

Question 4

APPLICATION

Answer 4

→ The study demonstrates how obedience to authority works and this can be used toincrease obediencein settings like schools, workplaces and prisons.
→ Milgram (1974) links his findings to the My Lai massacre. In 1968, a group of US soldiers (“Charlie Company”) killed the 800 inhabitants of a Vietnamese village. They were obeying the orders of Lt William Calley. The soldiers executed old men, women and children. →
Despite an attempted cover-up, 14 officers were eventually tried by a military court, but only Calley was jailed. His 20 year sentence was halved on appeal and he was later paroled. He said he was only following orders from his superiors.
→ With a better understanding of blind obedience, tragedies like this could be prevented in future. For example, soldiers could betrainedto report and refuse orders that would be war crimes.

Question 5

ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY

Answer 5

→ Low ecological validity
→ Milgram’s study was carried out in an artificial setting → It was a lab experiment → For example, Nazi soldiers were given their orders in prison camps during war time → The concept was repeated by Shanab and Yahya (1977) found high levels of obedience in a replicarion of Milgram’s experiment using Jordanian School Children
→ This showed Milgram’s lab experiment has little relevance to the real world as being ordered to give electric shocks during a memory experiment is an unrealistic situation.

Question 6

RELIABILITY - ARTIFICIAL STUDIES

Answer 6

→ Low Reliability → Less artificial studies have been carried out gaining similar results.
→ For example Hoffling’s study (1966), nurses were asked to give potentially lethal injections to patients, and 21/22 appeared to do it.

Question 7

ETHICS

Answer 7

→ the main criticism is that participants’ wellbeingwas ignored:
→ they were deceived(about the shocks) and did not giveinformed consent(they were told it was a memory test, not an obedience test). When they tried towithdraw, the “prods” made this difficult for them. This sort of treatment of participants drags science into disrepute and makes it harder to recruit for future research.
→ The main defence is that the study wouldnot have been possibleif participants knew what was being investigated. After all, everyone who had the study described to them beforehand felt sure thattheywould disobey.