Milgram's 1963 obedience study Flashcards
where was the study conducted
Yale University
what type of observation was used
structured observation
what type of sample was used
volunteer sample
recruited through a newspaper advertisement
how much were the participants paid
$4
who was the authority figure and facts about them
Experimenter
Mr Williams
Wore a lab coat
who was the confederate and what role did they have
Mr Wallace
always assigned the learner role
the participant thought that Mr Wallace was another participant
what role did the participant have
teacher
what were participants assured about
that the shocks would not cause lasting damage
generator
switches horizontally arranged in a row
switches from 15v to 450v - increased voltage in 15v intervals
labels above switches such as ‘danger’ and ‘slight shock’
what happened to the learner at 150v
learner began verbally protesting
what happened to the learner at 300v
learner banged his head on the wall and stopped answering
were the responses from the learner live or pre recorded
pre recorded
how many prods were used and give an example of one
4 prods
‘you have no other choice but to continue’
what happened once all 4 prods had been exhausted
the observation ended
3 reasons why the observations ended
if all 4 prods had been exhausted
if the teacher got up and left
if 450v had been reached
aim
to find out if participants would obey orders from an authority that went against their values
to see if participants would deliver electric shocks to a confederate sufficiently powerful to kill somone
how many participants and info about them
40
male
american
what percentage of participants reached the 450v shock
65%
what qualitative data was produced
14 ppts showed nervous laughter
sweating, trembling and groaning
conclusions
ordinary people will obey orders in the correct situation
situational explanations for the obedience
Yale university - prestigious setting - ppts convinced nothing unethical could go on here - disputed by milgrams experiment 10 (rundown office block)
volunteers committed themselves - sense of obligation
ppts asssured the shocks were painful but not dangerous
study seemed to have a worthy cause - being done to further science
generalisability - volunteer sample
low - more likely to be obedient
volunteers tend to listen to instructions and take the procedure more seriously - representative of people in real life situations of power being misused
generalisability - sample
low - all male and all american
cannot be generalised to females and is ethnocentric
however, Milgram’s variation 8 tested women and it found that women had the same obedience rate as men (65%)
reliability
high - standardised procedure - can be replicated
e.g. the pre-scriped prods used by the experimenter (‘you have no other choice but to continue’)
allows inter-rater reliability to be established - Burger (2009) replicated Milgram’s study and followed his scripts
Application to real life
study demonstrates how obedience to authority works - can be used to increase obedience in workplaces and prisons - research displayed authority figures should wear symbols of authority (uniforms)
can apply as reasoning as to why the Nazi’s followed orders - Adolf Eichman
Validity - ecological validity
low - task is artificial - Milgram’s reply is that events such as the Holocaust were just as unusual - the participants were the same as his as they had been dropped into a situation that was unfamiliar and that they did not know how to respond to
Ethics - Deception
about the shocks and the purpose of the test
however, the study would not have been possible without deception
Ethics - informed consent
no informed consent gained - were told it was a memory test and not an obedience test
Ethics - right to withdraw
prods made it difficult to withdraw
this treatment drags science into disrepute and makes it harder to recruit for future research
ethics - debriefing
good - participants debriefed
validity - Gina Perry
Some of the participants suggested the study was fake and were ‘play-acting’
Milgram filmed his participants and they were physically shaking with distress, which clearly disputes this.
