Milgram Flashcards
participant
- number
- age
- gender
- ethnicity
- history
- payment
- 40 participants
- 20-50 (population validity)
- Americans (culture bias), white (ethnocentric)
- historical bias as many experience wars
- $4.50
Procedure
- introduced to another participant who was actually a confederate
- drew straws to dertermine roles of the teacher or student (fixed)
- Experimenter dressed in a grey lab coat okayed by an actor
- two rooms were used , one for the learner one for the teacher with and electric shock generator one for the experiment
- ## learner strapped to a chair with electrodes after learning a list of word pairs, teacher tests them and ask them to recall
Results
- all obedient until 300 volts
- many showed signs of distress
- 14 nervous laughter
- 14 dropped out between 300 and 375
- 65% carried on until 450 volts
Ethics
- deception and no informed consent- as people lead to believe they could be potentially killing a person
- psychological harm- some later felt severe guilt and showed signs of extreme stress
Right to withdraw- could leave and keep money
However had prods to continue
variation 7
Telephonic instruction
After giving instructions face to face experimenter left the room, gave instructions over the telephone
- participants willing to give 450 v went from 65% to 22.5%
- participants also lied about increasing shock level
- however when experiment returned they obeyed again
Variation 10
Rundown office block in Bridgeport Connecticut
Yale gave confidence to do study
Same preocedure
Obedience dropped to 45.5%
(Setting not as important as immediacy)
Variation 13
Ordinary man gives orders
Didn’t tell teacher what levels of shock to give during experiment
Learner suggested to increase shock level
All instructions given by ordinary man
80% broke off before maximum
Variation 8
Estrocentric
40 women sampled
More empathy, worse anxiety
No significant difference to men
How did the teacher punish
- teacher gave a shock for every wrong answer, increased voltage for each question from 15 to 450 volts
- learner got answers wrong on purpose
Prods by experimenter:
1. Please continue
2. The experiment requires you to continue
3. It is essential you continue
4. You have no choice but to continue
Conclusion
Ordinary people are brought up listening to authority and it is ingrained in us
People think authority figures are morally right
As they couldn’t see the learner they were more likely to follow orders but showed more empathy if they could see and so were less likely to be obedient
Situation over rides disposition
Generalisability
Aged 20-50 so lacks population validity
No women were studied - androcentric
All American and Caucasian - ethnocentric
Not generalisable to todays society as people will have more modernised morals and many volunteers would have experienced wars so their views will be different, historical bias ( mc carthytsm)
Reliability
Experiment very controlled, all pps went through same process
Has the same prods
Recorded protests
Seating plan
15v wring answer
Application
Members of authority should wear a uniform
Nazi Soldiers in ww2 weren’t acting off their own accord but due to pressure of higher powers, were unable to refuse, despite being upset they were unable to refuse
Validity
Lack of population validity
Was done in a lab so could control more variables that may effect (extraneous and confounding)
However lacks ecological validity, done in a lab could have lead to demand characteristics and un natural behaviour
Ethics
Decppeption and no informed consent - belived they were giving life threatening shocks
Psychological harm - many pps showed signs of extreme stress
Were given the right to withdraw and still keep the money
However prods made them continue
