Milgram - CLASSIC

Question 1

Background

Answer 1

Milgram was of jewish descent. He wanted to study destructive disobedience in relation to the holocaust.

Question 2

Method

Answer 2

Controlled observation.

+ Replicable - standardised so can be followed

• Lacks ecological validity - performed in a lab
• Demand characteristics - participants are aware they are in a study

Took place in New Haven, Connecticut at Yale university.

Question 3

Materials

Answer 3

Pre-recorded tape, 2 rooms, electric shock generator, list of word pairs.

Question 4

Sampling & bias

Answer 4

Volunteers that reach out through a newspaper advert (volunteer sampling). They were paid $4.50 for partaking and $0.50 for transportation.

Androcentric, ethnocentric, needed money.

40 male participants.

Can’t be generalised.

Question 5

Procedure

Answer 5

1) Volunteers given role as ‘teacher’ and confederates given role as ‘learner’.

2) Learners memorise word pairs which teachers test them on.

3) If learner was incorrect, teacher shocks the learner in intervals from 15V to 450V (deadly).

4) Stopped when teacher stopped/withdrew.

Question 6

IV & DV

Answer 6

IV
- levels of shock
- prods eg “please continue”
- proximity of experimenter

DV
- level of shock reached

Question 7

Results

Answer 7

100% (all 40) exceeded 300V.

65% continued until full 450V.

14 participants defied early (300V).

Question 8

Quantitive & Qualitative

Answer 8

_QUANTITIVE_

Strengths
- Large amounts of data can be quickly simplified
- Less ambiguous

Weaknesses
- Lacks depth and context

_QUALITATIVE_ (audio recording & log)
Strengths
- Includes depth and context

Weaknesses
- Open to bias/interpretation

Question 9

Ethics

Answer 9

Right to withdraw - participants felt obliged, right to withdraw was unclear

Deception - participants believed that punishment and learning was the purpose of the study

Psychological Harm - traumatising, not usual for a person to experience

Question 10

Conclusions

Answer 10

People were more obedient than what was predicted.

Majority of people are obedient to those in authority even if it means causing harm to another person.

When told to be destructive, people will experience stress.

Question 11

Validity

Answer 11

Given smaller shocks to deceive. Believed they truly were giving shocks to learner.
No extraneous variables as it was a controlled environment.
Some demand characteristics.
High internal validity.
Same prompts, same person being learner.