Milgram: Behavioral Study Of Obedience

Question 1

Obedience

Answer 1

Complying with the demands of an authority figure

Question 2

Stooge

Answer 2

A person pretending to be a participant

Question 3

Authority figure

Answer 3

Someone who is perceived to have legitimate reason to give a command/order

Question 4

Aim

Answer 4

To investigate what level of obedience participants would show when asked to deliver electric shocks to someone by an authority figure

Question 5

Research methods
Controls?
Reasoning

Answer 5

Lab experiment even though the study has no IV, has many other features of an experiment e.g. controls (prods, shock generator and room)

Observation as participant was being observed on their behaviour

Question 6

Sample and sampling method
Gender
Number of participants

What did participants respond to?
How much were they paid?

Answer 6

40 white males from New Haven
Aged 20 to 50
Skilled workers and white collar professionals

Sampling method: self selecting as participants responded to an ad on the newspaper- paid $4.50 just for coming to the laboratory

Question 7

Weakness of sample

Answer 7

Ethnocentric as the experiment was only carried out in the USA therefore it can not be assumed that the level of obedience shown by Americans are the same in other cultures

Question 8

Weaknesses of sampling method
Gender?
Origin of participants?
Therefore results are..?

Answer 8

Sample did not include women
Sample was from the same part of the same country
Therefore results of high obedience is not applicable to everyone

Question 9

Features of Milgrams experiment that made it seem real to participants

Which apparatus seemed real? Why?
What were the participants given before the experiment? What did this lead them to believe?

Answer 9

Design of the electric shock generator seemed realistic due to the wires, switches and sound

The sample shock of 45 volts made participants believe that the shock generator was administering actual electric shocks

Question 10

Suggestions Milgram made about why obedience was observed

Answer 10

The experiment was conducted at Yale University, therefore due to the prestigious reputation it led to participants believing that the experiment was reputable

Participants thought that the aim of the experiment was purposeful- advancement of knowledge about learning and memory

Participants volunteered to be in the experiment = increased sense of obligation- they were also being paid

Question 11

How was obedience measured?

Answer 11

Number of participants, out of 40, who administered electric shocks up to 450 volts to the learner on the shock generator

Question 12

Procedure
What was the name of the task?
What resulted in an electric shock
How many volts did the shock increase by each time?
When did the experiment end?

Answer 12

Word pair association task
Wrong answer from the learner = electric shock
Socks increased each time by 15 volts

The experiment ended when the participants reached 450 volts or when they withdrew

Question 13

Prods used by the experimenter

Answer 13

‘Please continue’

‘The experiment requires that you continue’

Question 14

Quantitative results
How many shocked up to 450 volts?
How many withdrew?
How many went up to 300 volts?

Answer 14

65% Shocked up to 450 volts
35% withdrew
100% went up to 300 volts

Question 15

Qualitative resluts

Answer 15

Behaviours shown by the ‘teachers’: sweating, trembling, stuttering

Question 16

Ethics broken (3)

Answer 16

Informed consent: Participants responded to the ad which said that the experiment was investigating memory and learning
Protection from harm: emotional distress
Withdraw: Discouraged through the use of prods

Question 17

External population validity
Sample characteristics?
therefore?

Answer 17

Not generalisable as participants were men from the same country therefore meaning that results may only be applicable to the same sorts of people in the sample

Question 18

Ecological validity

Reasoning

Answer 18

Due to the administration of shocks, the study has low ecological validity

Question 19

Internal reliability

Evidence?

Answer 19

Standardised procedure

replicable- able to conduct experiment with 40 different participants

Question 20

External reliability

Answer 20

The sample was large to the extent of which it was manageable to conduct the experiment.

Question 21

Ethnocentrism
Only carried out in?
What could be different in cultures?
However what could be argued as being similar?

Answer 21

Only carried out in the USA
Levels of obedience could be different in other cultures
However obedience to authority figures could be argued as being similar

Question 22

Similarities with Bocchiaro
Results?
Location?
Ethics?
Features?
Sampling?

Answer 22

Quantitative and qualitative data
Both experiments conducted in a laboratory on a university campus
Both studies included deception
Lack of IVs but had features of an experiment like DVs and controls
Participants self selcected

Question 23

How does Milgrams study link to the social area?
What does Milgrams study investigate?
Evidence from the experiment?

Answer 23

Milgrams study investigates the extent to which behaviour can be influenced by the presence of others.
Although the ‘teachers’ did no want to administer the shocks to the ‘learner; the were encouraged to do so through prods by the experimenter.

Question 24

How does Mildrams study link to the freewill determinism debate?

Answer 24

65% of participants shocked up to 450 volts

35% of participants withdrew by choice