Milgram 1963 Flashcards
what was the aim of the study?
to investigate how far people obey when it involves harming people to understand the behaviour of Germans in the holocaust.
what is the ‘Germans are different’ hypothesis?
states that Germans have a basic character deficit which means that they have a readiness to obey people in authority regardless of the act they are being asked to carry out.
what was the sample and how were they gathered?
volunteer sample of 40 men ages 20-50 varied from unskilled workers to professionals.
recruited trough local newspapers and letters in the post around Yale university, New Haven.
how much were the participant offered and why?
$4.50 for simply coming to the lab and they would have the money no matter what.
this will help to increase the obedience of the participants.
procedure: what 3 things happened on arrival?
participants were told they could drop out at any pint and still keep the money.
they were introduced to 2 men who was a confederate for Milgram.
lots were drawn to decide who was the teacher but it was always the real participant. (2 men would be shocker and experimenter)
procedure: what was the teacher told to do?
how did the voltage increase?
-‘teacher’ was told to give learner electric shock for every mistake of the word recall task.
the voltage supposedly increased 15 volts at a time but were actually fake.
procedure: where did the participant teacher sit?
how did they communicate?
what happened when delivered 300v
-participant teacher sat in front of shock machine with 30 switches-15 to 450. the switches were labelled from slight shock, severe shock, XXX.
-communicated through intercom but couldn’t hear ‘learner’ -gave answers by pressing buttons.
-when delivered to 300 and 315v, learner pounded head on wall but after nothing was heard.
procedure: what happened if participants protested?
experimenter used a series of standardised prompts to urge participant to continue.
‘please continue’ ‘you have no other choice, you must go on.
if participants protested after 4th prod, they were allowed to leave and maximum shock was recorded.
procedure: how did Milgram try to make the experiment as realistic as possible?
gave the confederate a real shock of 45v to make him believe the other shocks were real. also did a draw and subject thought he had a chance to become the learner or the teacher.
they also watched volunteer be strapped to a chair in another room with electrodes being attached.
milgrams study in 6 brief bullet points
- rigged roles decided participants was a teacher.
2.confederate was given testy shock in front of participants and watched get strapped to chair.
3.a word game was played.
4.if learner made mistake, they were given a shock.
5.experiment requires you to continue 4xwhen participants disobeyed.
6.most people were able to give potentially fatal shock.
what signs were there that that participants were stressed?
3 of them had seizures and 35%/14 exhibited nervous laughter.
findings
Milgram found that 65% of his sample administered the full 450 volts shock.
a full 100% continued to 300v but 12.5% of the sample dropped out.
participants were observed to tremble, sweat and bite their lips.
conclusion
showed that ordinary Americans are surprisingly obedient to legitimate authority.
Milgram suggested that a number of factors may explain obedience such as the perceived competence and reputation of the researcher and the idea that participation was somehow avoiding science.
generalisation
sample of 40 is large but anomalies (cruel, timid people) might spoil results. Original sample was all male which cannot be generalised to women, and all-American so cannot be generalised to other cultures.
‘time-locked’ early 1960s has different culture.
contrasting research: orme and holland
counter arguments for orme and holland
participants may have only obeyed as they didn’t believe shocks were real.
they argued that participants behaved the way they did because they didn’t believe the shocks were real
when asked later, 70% of participants believed that they were giving real electric shocks.
where have they been applied to?
pilot training.
draws parallels between behaviour in the Milgram’s stages and in the commercial airplane cockpit, where first officers are often hesitant to question captain even when their behaviour is putting them at risk.
led to training to improve cockpit behaviour to save lives.
reliability of the study
standardised test-every participant had the exact same experience.
two confederates were always played by the same actor, number and timing of learners mistakes was the same for every participant
shows that study is reliable and replicable.
what conclusions did Milgram draw from his results about what makes people obey?
passing responsibility onto authority figure and presence.
Counter arguments for:
Milgram should have known that the participants would be extremely anxious whilst taking part in the research
Milgram asked psychology student and colleagues. If they thought that the participants would obey, and it generally thought that they would not expect such high levels of anxiety and stress.
Counter arguments for:Milgrams n sample was unrepresentative because it only used white male Americans
The participants were form mixed backgrounds.
The study has been replicated in other cultures with similar results to the original, although collectivist cultures are slightly more likely to obey.
Counter argument for:
Milgram broke many ethical issues so the precise procedure cannot be repeated. How do you know the results are relaible.
There have been replications of Milgram study using the same idea but with a different ‘punisment’, or with a different more ethical procedure. These studies have also shown that people obey those in authority, even when it goes against their own moral code.
Counter arguments for:
Participants were deceived about the real purpose for this experiment
Deception was necessary to make the study as internally and ecologically valid as possible. All participants were fully debriefed when the study ended.
Counter arguments for:
The study was carried out in a lab meaning the results lack ecological validity
Later studies have supported ecological validity of milgrams research .
Hofling found that 21 out of 22 nurses were willing to administer a potentially lethal dose of a drug to a patient when ordered to by a doctor.
Counter arguments for:
The money paid and the prods given to the participants meant that they were not given a right to withdraw
Milgram made it clear that participants would be paid even if they did not continue with the study. The experiment may have lacked validity if participants were constantly reminded of their right to withdraw.
