Milgram

Question 1

What is the aim of the study?

Answer 1

To investigate how far people would obey when ordered by an authority figure to administer electric shocks, even when it would result in physical harm to someone.

Question 2

What is the method?

Answer 2

Controlled observation in a laboratory setting

Question 3

What is the experimental design?

Answer 3

No design as it was very simple - all the participants did the one ‘condition’ of the experiment

Question 4

What is the IV/DV

Answer 4

DV - the size of the electric shock given to the ‘learner’ by the ‘teacher’

Question 5

What was the sample?

Answer 5

• 40 males
• aged 20-50
• From New Haven
• obtained by a newspaper advertisement
• Educational level from who had not finished elementary school, to who had doctorate and other professional degrees
• 4.5 pounds were paid
• Volunteer sampling

Question 6

What was the apparatus?

Answer 6

• Very realistic shock generator

- Electrodes attached to the generator and a chair on to which the learner was strapped!

Question 7

Describe the procedure (until sample shock)

Answer 7

• One naive subject and one victim (stooge)
• Participants drew slip of paper from the hat to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner. - Both slips were ‘teacher’.
• Both of them were taken to the adjacent room, and the learner was strapped into an ‘electric chair’ apparatus.
• Participant was given a sample shock

Question 8

What did they tell the participants about the study?

Answer 8

‘learning experiment’ to study the effect of punishment on memory.

Question 9

How did they improve credibility

Answer 9

The experimenter claimed that ‘although the shocks can be extremely painful, they cause no permanent tissue damage’.

Question 10

What were the participants told to do when they generate the shocks?

Answer 10

• The participant was told to give a shock to learner each time he gives a wrong response.
• They were also told to announce voltage level before administering a shock, to remind the participant the increasing intensity of shock given to the learner

Question 11

What if participants indicate unwillingness to go on?

Answer 11

the experimenter responded with a sequence of ‘prods’.

Question 12

Is there any recording, and what did they measure about the shocks?

Answer 12

• Experimental sessions were recorded on a magnetic tape.
• Occasional photos were taken through one-way mirror.
• The latency and duration of shocks were measured by accurate timing devices.
• notes were taken for unusual behaviours

Question 13

What did they do at the ending to make it ethical?

Answer 13

• Interview and debrief. Asked using open ended questions, attitude scales, projective measures.
• Procedures were taken to ensure the participants leave the lab in a state of well being.
• A friendly meeting was arranged between the participant and the victim, and an effort was made to reduce any tensions that arose as a result of the experiment.

Question 14

What were the controls?

Answer 14

Procedure was the same for all participants including: drawing lots for teacher/learner, use of equipment, word paris and prods used.

Question 15

What were the results?

Answer 15

• All participants gave shocks up to and including 285 volts
• 26 participants went to FULL 450 volts.
• 14 defiant participants (stopped early)
• Only 5 of the 40 pps withdrew at 300 volts

Question 16

What were the surprising findings?

Answer 16

• Some participants had an uncontrollable seizures
• Sweating, nervous laughter, but still continue (inappropriate affect)
• They rate how painful they think it is = painful

Question 17

What were the hypotheses?

Answer 17

Milgram asked psychology students and some of his collegues about the procedure. Those asked believed that less than 3% of the pps would deliver the MAXIMUM voltage shock, with many stating that they felt that no one would deliver such strong punishment.

Question 18

Describe one feature of the experiment which explains the conflict felt by the participant (competing demand)

Answer 18

The subject is placed in a position in which he must respond to the competing demands of two ppl: the experimenter and the victim, the conflict must be resolved by meeting the demands of one or the other. Satisfaction of them are mutually exclusive

Moreover, the resolution must take in form of a highly visible action : continue to shock or break off

Question 19

Describe one feature of the experiment which explains the conflict felt by the participant (stems of opposition)

Answer 19

The conflict stems from the opposition of two deeply ingrained behaviour: not to harm any other people, and the tendency to obey authorities.

Question 20

4 reasons for high level of obedience

Answer 20

1. the subjects are assured that the shocks are “painful but not dangerous”, thus they assume any discomfort is momentarily
2. through shock level 20 the victim continues to provide answers, still willing to “play the game”
3. take place in Yale with unimpeachable reputation
4. subjects volunteered and were paid, strengthen the sense of obligation to the experimenter

Question 21

What did pps see after the deliver each shock?

Answer 21

• electric buzzing is heard
• electric blue light labeled ‘voltage energizer’ flashes
• dial on the voltage meter swings to the right
• various relay clicks are sounded

Question 22

Describe the sample shock

Answer 22

• 45 volts
• applied by pressing the third switch of the generator
• shock is applied to the wrist of naive subject
• has its source in a battery wired into the generator

Question 23

What is the learning task?

Answer 23

• paired associate learning task
• subject read a series of word pairs to learner
• read the 1st word of the pair along with the 4th term
• learner has to indicate which of the 4 terms had originally been paired with the 1st word
• communicate his answer by pressing 1 of the 4 switches in front of him

Question 24

Describe the preliminary run

Answer 24

• practice before regular run
• series of 10 words to read to learner, 3 neutral words (learner answered correctly)
• 7 of the words, maximum shock at 105v

Question 25

What did the experimenter tell the pps after preliminary run

Answer 25

• when you get to the bottom of the list, repeat it over again, and continue to give shocks, untill the learner has learned all the pairs correctly
• start from the 15v and increase the shock level one step each time the learner gives a wrong answer

Question 26

How did victim response to the task?

Answer 26

• predetermined set of responses
• 3 wrong 1 correct
• no vocal response untill 300v
• when 300, pounds the wall
• learner’s answer no longer appear on the four-way panel
• subject was told to treat no response as wrong response

Question 27

How is the order of prods decided?

Answer 27

• always made in sequence
• prod 1 had been unsuccessful, then prod 2
• voice was firm

Question 28

What is the prod used if subject asked if the learner was liable to suffer injury?

Answer 28

Although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on (follow by prod234 if necessary)

Question 29

What is the prod used if subject said that the learner did not want to go on?

Answer 29

Whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all the word pairs correctly (follow by prod 234 if necessary)

Question 30

What is the background of the study?

Answer 30

• Nazi holocaust, large number of people obeyed order to kill massively

Question 31

What is obedience?

Answer 31

• dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority
• psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purposes
• deeply ingrained behaviour tendency
• obedience serves numerous productive functions
• obedience may be ennobling and educative, as well as destructive