Milgram

Question 1

Context

Answer 1

Germans are different
Destructive Obedience, Adolf Eichman “I was just following orders” Milgram believed that Germans
Milgram argues that Germans have the authoritarian personality, this means that they are saville to people of high status and hostile to those of low status.
Adorno and Authoritarian Personality, he argues against Milgram’s belief that it is held by the Germans, but to minority groups as they displace the beliefs.

Question 2

Aims

Answer 2

The aim of Milgram’s study was to discover whether normal American men would obey orders if they could harm another person, if so then they were similar to the Germans during the Holocaust and display destructive obedience.
Milgram and other researchers believed that the rate of those to obey would be 3%

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

Milgram created an advertisement for 50 males between the ages of 20-50 to take part in a learning experiment.
They would be given the reward of $4-4.50 for participation.
When they had come to the lecture room in the university where the study was to be held they were informed that they would either be the learner or the teacher, this was fixed and each time they picked a paper out of the hat, they were to be a teacher.
The participant was then the ‘naïve participant’ and the learner was actually a ‘stooge’ hired by Milgram to play a part.
The stooge and np were introduced and the stooge informed the np that he had a heart problem, before having being taken to the other room and strapped to an electric shock chair.
The np was taken to a room directly opposite and taught about the ‘experimental’ procedure where they would shock the ppt each time they matched a pair of words incorrectly or also didn’t answer. The shocks went from 15 to 450volts increasing by 15volts each time.

Question 4

Findings

Answer 4

65% of ppts went the whole 450v

Only 3 ppts stopped at 300v and refused to go on.

Question 5

Alternative evidence

Answer 5

Milgram conducted many variations and found that females were more obedient than makes, also that people would shock puppies even when they could see that they were visibly distressed this was because of destructive obedience