Milgram

Question 1

What was Milgrams aim?

Answer 1

To find out whether people would obey authroity and why would they obey when they knew their actions were morally wrong

Question 2

How can Milgrams study be placed in a historical context?

Answer 2

Many studies carried out after WW2, psychologists were keen to prevent events like Holocaust from happening again as they felt these happened due to obeying authority

Question 3

How can Milgrams study be placed in an academic context?

Answer 3

A case study of Eichmann - nazi responsible for transportation of Jews to death camps. Trial in Israel in 1961 revealed he wasn’t evil but had just followed orders. By 1944 he’d overseen 6 million deaths of Jews. Milgram wanted to test to see if people had authoritarian personalities

Question 4

What was Milgram’s research method?

Answer 4

Observation under controlled conditions

Question 5

What sampling method was used?

Answer 5

Volunteer

Question 6

How many pps were there and were they male or female?

Answer 6

40 males

Question 7

What were the pps told the research was about?

Answer 7

Memory

Question 8

How much were the pps paid?

Answer 8

$4.50

Question 9

What were the pps education?

Answer 9

Very low level to doctorate (Phd)

Question 10

How many people were involved in the research at one time?

Answer 10

3

Question 11

What were the 3 people involved in the research?

Answer 11

Genuine pps - teacher
Confederate 47y/o accountant - learner
Confederate 31 y/o biology teacher - experimenter

Question 12

What did the teacher and learner have to draw?

Answer 12

Rigged lots

Question 13

How many shocks were the teacher given to make sure they thought it was real?

Answer 13

45 volts

Question 14

How many switches did the shock generator have?

Answer 14

30

Question 15

How much did each switch rise by every time?

Answer 15

15 volts

Question 16

After how many volts did the learner go quiet?

Answer 16

315 volts

Question 17

How did Milgram address some ethical issues?

Answer 17

By debriefing his pps straight after the research, explaining shocks were fake afterwards and ensuring pps were in a state of well being before they left the lab

Question 18

Before the study how many psychology students thought only 0-3% of pps would give 450 volts?

Answer 18

14

Question 19

What % of pps went up to the full 450 volts?

Answer 19

65%

Question 20

What % stopped before the 450 volts?

Answer 20

35%

Question 21

How many pps withdrew at 300 volts?

Answer 21

5

Question 22

How many pps withdrew at 315 volts?

Answer 22

4

Question 23

At how many volts did 2 pps withdraw at?

Answer 23

330

Question 24

How many pps withdrew at 345, 360 and 375 volts?

Answer 24

1

Question 25

What did many pps show whilst doing the research?

Answer 25

Extreme stress

Question 26

How many pps had seizures?

Answer 26

3

Question 27

What were the 2 things that Milgram found once he'd debriefed his pps?

Answer 27

- they felt extremely stressed | - on a 14 point scale (14 extremely painful) the pps modal answer to how painful do you think the shocks were, was 14

Question 28

What were the 5 things Milgram concluded from his research?

Answer 28

- people obey due to situation - people obeyed because they were in a prestigious uni (Yale) - people obeyed because they felt obliged - people obeyed because they didnt want to disrupt the research - pps tension arose due to not wanting to harm the learner and wanting to obey

Question 29

Was reliability a strength for Milgram?

Answer 29

Yes - scientific, could be repeated | Allowed Milgram to repeat it again changing just one variable e.g. females

Question 30

Was validity a strength for Milgram?

Answer 30

No - carried out in artificial conditions

Question 31

Was Milgrams sample strong?

Answer 31

No - pps were all male and from one town - cannot generalise. However he later used females and found the same % obeyed strengthening his original study

Question 32

What data was collected from Milgrams study?

Answer 32

Both - quantitative - enables comparisons & qualitative - adds depth

Question 33

What were the 3 problems for Milgram in terms of ethics?

Answer 33

Pps didnt give informed consent Not protected from harm Milgram made it difficult for them to withdraw

Question 34

What evidence is there to support Milgram and how?

Answer 34

Eichmann - executed after being found guilty of transportation of Jews. He wasn't evil just followed orders. This evidence supports Milgram because 65% gave shocks because they were following orders. However this supporting evidence is limited because there was only 1 pp - eichmann - difficult to generalise. Horizons evidence supported Milgrams as they found 75% obeyed.

Question 35

Who else's research supports Milgram and how?

Answer 35

Hofling - found high levels of obedience in a hospital. Nurses were phoned to give double doses of drugs to patients - 95% obeyed. This supports because both found people obey authority

Question 36

Whose evidence challenges Milgrams and how?

Answer 36

Rank and Jacobson - found 89% of nurses didn't give patients Valium after being told to by a doctor. This rejects MIlgrams study, however this study is lower in reliability as it wasn't carried out in controlled conditions