Milgram Flashcards
What was interesting about the sample?
- It was all men
- They were all aged between 20 and 50
- It was a self-selecting sample (meaning they volunteered themselves by replying to an advertisement)
How many participants were in Milgram’s baseline study?
40
Where was the study carried out?
Yale University
How many confederates were involved and what were their roles?
One confederate, his name was Mr Wallace and it was rigged so that he was always the learner getting ‘electrocuted’.
What was the maximum voltage of the shock generator?
450v
What was the obedience level of people who went all the way to the maximum voltage?
65%
What voltage did 100% of the participants go up to?
300v
What did Milgram tell his participants that the original baseline study was about?
Memory
How many switches did the shock generator have?
15
How many participants went all the way to 450v?
26
Define demand characteristics
Acting in the way you think the experiment requires you to act. For example if a ppt is told that the experiment is about good behaviour, the ppt may try to act as well as possible which does not form a valid study.
What was Milgram’s aim of the study?
to investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another.
How were the ‘roles’ decided?
Through a rigged ‘chance’ draw of names out of a hat. Mr Wallace (the confederate) would always be the learner (the one getting shocked) and the real participant would always be the teacher (the one testing and shocking).
Who was Mr Wallace?
The confederate
What is a confederate?
Someone who is in on the whole experiment, they know what’s going on. They usually pose as a participant.
What was the learner tested on?
They had been asked to memorise some word pairs and would be shocked if they got it wrong.
What was the role of the teacher?
The role of the teacher was to test the learner on the word pairs for example “which word matches with dog? Is it A B C or D” and the learner would push a button which locked in their answer. if it was right they would move on and if it was wrong the teacher would administer a shock going up in 15v incriments.
Who was in the room with the teacher? (ppt)
The experimenter - he was there to act as the authority figure, in close proximity.
What acted as a buffer between the teacher and the learner?
The wall or the electric shock generator itself.
Was the shock generator real?
No, it was a fake generator built by Milgram
What voltage level was the shock given to the participant?
it was a 45v shock to prove it was ‘real’.
How many answers did Mr Wallace actually get correct?
1 in 4 of the word pairs were answered correctly
What happened at 300v? When this repeat? What happened after that?
Mr Wallace pounded on the wall. He repeated this at 315v and then it went to silence.
What happened if the participant asked for advice from the experimenter such as “shall I continue shocking”?
The experimenter had a set of pre-determined responses such as “please continue” or “the experiment requires you to continue” and the participant would have to keep going.
