Milgram

Question 1

What was the aim of Milgram’s Experiment?

Answer 1

To test how far ordinary people go when being ordered to give electric shocks

Question 2

What was the sample?

Answer 2

40 men aged 20-40 from America who volunteered through a newspaper advertisement

Question 3

What was the procedure?

Answer 3

Participants were split into teachers and learners for a word association.
There was a fixed draw so that they all became learners and there was one confederate.
The participants were all given a 45v shock at first so they knew it was real.
They were then told when the learners gave a wrong answer to give an electric shock ranging fro 15 to 450v, each increment was 15v.
They were given 5 verbal prods before they were able to leave.
There was no contact with the learner until 300v when they banged on the wall and there was no response.

Question 4

What was the results?

Answer 4

100% (40/40) went to 300v
65% (24/40) went to 450v

Question 5

What was the conclusion?

Answer 5

‘ordinary’ people obey orders from an authority figure in extreme conditions even if they feel uncomfortable doing so.

Question 6

Strengths

Answer 6

Standardised procedure- 15v increments, word association- can be repeated- increases reliability
Demonstrates how obedience is affected by an authority figure- helps explain gang behaviour
Participants were debriefed, confidentiality - ethical

Question 7

Weaknesses

Answer 7

4o American men, aged 20-40, cannot be generalised to those who are not from America or males, all volunteered through volunteer sampling - shared characteristics - lacks generalisability
Set up in a classroom, lacks ecological validity- lowers validity of findings