Milgram (1963) Flashcards
what is the key theme to milgram’s research?
responses to people in authority
what is the behaviour studied by milgram?
obedience
what is the background to milgram’s research?
ww2, nazis murdering millions of innocent people because they were ‘just following orders’
what was the aim to milgram’s study?
to investigate what level of obedience would be shown when participants were told by an authority figure to administer electric shocks to another person
what was the design of milgram’s study?
controlled observation, collecting both quantitativen(amounts of volts given) and qualitative (milgram observed participants emotional responses and interviewed the participants after the study)
describe the sample of milgram’s study
40 males aged between 20-50 yrs from the new haven area in usa, volunteer sampling - responded to a newspaper to participate in a study of memory and learning at yale uni, wide range of occupations (such as postal clerks, high-school teachers, engineers etc), paid $4.50 for their participation but they were told payment was simply just for coming to the laboratory
describe the electric shock generator used in milgram’s study
30 switches marked in 15 volt intervals from 15 to 450v. labels from ‘slight shock’ to ‘xxx’ were shown on the generator
what is the procedure to milgram’s study?
ppts told cover story about the relationship between punishment and learning, at the start the ppt had to draw a slip of paper to determine the role they would play but this was rigged so the ppt was always the teacher and mr wallace (confederate) was always the learner. two rooms were used - one with electric chair for learner (mr wallace) and the other with the electric shock generator for the teacher (ppt) and experimenter (jack williams), the learner learnt word pairs and the teacher read a series of word pairs to the learner and the learner trys to recall the correct word pair, if incorrect the teacher tells the learner the correct answer and tells them the level of punishment they receive and a electric shock was given, when teacher refused the experimenter gave them 4 prods, the experiment would end when all 450 volts were given or ppt walked out. obedient ppt = up to 450v defiant = broke off before 450v, after ppts debriefed and reunited with mr wallace to show he was ok.
what were the 4 prods used?
1) ‘please continue’ or ‘please go on’
2) ‘the experiment requires that you continue’
3) ‘it is absolutely essential that you continue’
4) ‘you have no other choice, you must go on’
what was the quantitative data collected by milgram?
100% of ppts went up to 300v. 65% went up to 450v. 14 ppts = defiant, 26 ppts = obedient.
what was the qualitative data collected by milgram?
many ppts showed signs of nervousness and tension, ppts sweated, trembled, stuttered, groaned, dug fingernails into their flesh. 1 ppt had a violent convulsive seizure. examples of comments from ppts = ‘i dont think this is very humane, oh i cant go on with this’, ‘hes banging in there, im gonna chicken out, id like to continue, but i cant do that to a man’
what were the explanations of the results found in milgram’s study?
high levels of obedience could have occurred due to :
1) prestigious setting (yale uni)
2) believed victim volunteered to be in study
3) ppts assured shocks were ‘painful but not dangerous’
4) victim responded to all qs until 300v indicating their willingness to take part
what are some of the sort of variations milgram carried out for this study?
change of location eg: run-down office block lowering obedience rate, closer proximity eg: wall between learner and teacher removed lowering obedience rate, increased personal responsibility eg: teacher physically put learners hand down on a shock plate to receive the electric shock lowering obedience rate, less personal responsibility eg: teacher only giving qs confederate delivers shocks increasing obedience rate
strengths of milgrams experiment
high control increasing validity
standardised procedure increasing reliability
collecting both quan and qual allowing comparisons and understanding/detail
weaknesses of milgrams study
ethics, ppts deceived and not protected from harm as 1 ppt had a seizure
unrepresentative sample, androcentric + ethnocentric therefore decreasing generalisability
lacks ecological validity
