MILGRAM Flashcards
What was Milgram interested in?
Why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler and murdered 6 million Jews
What did Milgram think about the German population?
Germans were different from other people in other countries- perhaps being more obedient- known as dispositional explanation of obedience
What was Milgram’s aim?
Interested in researching how far people would go to obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person
What is the definition of obedience?
Social influence from a person in power/authorty
What does social influence cause a person to do?
Act in response to an order given by another person
What is the experimenter also known as?
The confederate
What was the confederate dressed in?
A grey lab coat
What was the learners name?
Mr Wallace
What did Mr Wallace have to learn?
A list of word pairs
Who could administer the electric shocks?
The teacher
What nationality were the men tested?
American
How many men took part?
40
What university were the men from?
Yale
What ages were they from?
20-50
Did they all have the same jobs?
No- some were unskilled, some were skilled
How much were the men paid just for turning up?
4.50
Who was the genuine participant?
The teacher
What were some of the prods used?
Please continue
The experiment requires you to continue
It is absolutely essential that you continue
You have no choice but to continue
How many people went up to 450V?
65%
How many went up to 300V?
100%
What was some of the PPTS behaviour?
Sweating
Trembling
Stuttering
Biting their lips
How much went up to 300V/
100%
How much went up to 450V?
65%
Proximity?
When the teacher and learner were in the same room, obedience dropped from 65% down to 40%
When teacher had to force learners hand onto the shock plate, obedience dropped from 65% down to 30%
Uniform?
Grey lab coat (65%) down to ordinary attire (20%)
Location?
From laboratories in Yale university to run-down office buildings (48%)
Ethical issues?
Lack of protection from harm
3 had seizures
Milgram debriefed the PPTS afterwards
He followed up with them a year later
Deception?
They thought they were taking part in a study between memory and learning not obedience to an authority figure
Believed they were giving real shocks
Milgram gave them a questionnaire afterwards and 84% said they were happy with the experiment to have participated
