Milgram Flashcards
1
Q
Background?
A
- Milgram was profoundly affected by the atrocities committed by the nazi Germany against Jewish people and other monitory groups.
- One of the features of the nazi atrocities was the extent to which people displayed destructive obedience-Milgram explained this through the situational hypothesis
2
Q
Aim?
A
Investigate how obedient people would be to destructive orders from an authority figure.
3
Q
Design
A
Lab experiment/Pre experiment and it had only one condition
4
Q
DV?
A
Obedience operationalised as the max voltage was given in response to the orders
5
Q
Sample?
A
- 40 Men ages 20-50 recruited from a newspaper ad(Volunteer sample)
- Range of backgrounds; 37.5% Manual labourers, 40% white collar workers, 22.5% professionals
- New haven, North America
6
Q
Procedure?
A
- Paid $4.50 to participate
- Introduced to another man they believed was another part who was in fact the confederate.
- Told that it was to investigate the effect of punishment on learning.
- Was fixed so that the part was always the teacher and confederate was the learner.
- Taken to another room where learner was strapped into a chair with electrodes
- Electric shock generator was in 15V intervals 15V-450V Told could be extremely painful but not dangerous.
- given 45V to demonstrate
- ordered to give shock everytime learner made a mistake
- up to 300V-didn’t signal responses
- After 300V-pounded at wall and remained silent
- parts given verbal prods
- interviewed and debrief
7
Q
Results
A
- 100% went up to 300V or more
- 65% Parts went up to full 450V
- Growning, sweating, biting lips, nervous laugh
- 1 part suffered sever seizure
8
Q
Conclusions
A
1) People are much more obedient to destructive orders
2) people find the experience of receiving and obeying destructive orders highly stressful. They obey in spite of their emotional response.
9
Q
What increased obedience ?
A
- Carried out in respectable environment
- Volunteered so had an obligation to the experiment
- Payment increase some obligations
- Parts assumes shocks weren’t dangerous
10
Q
Strengths
A
+Lab experiment-high controls
+triangulation of data
+Reliable- easily replicated
+Practical applications; Tarnow(2000) suggested 25% of plane crashes was due to pilot obeying orders from the ground
11
Q
Weaknesses
A
- Lab- artificial settings
- Unethical; No informed consent(paid),deceived, right to withdraw(prods), distress(seizure)
- Low Validity- lacks realism
- Sample bias- not representative of whole population- volunteer(Atypical people)
