Milgram's obedience study Flashcards
when did Milgram conduct his study?
1963/4
why did Milgram conduct his study?
Milgram aimed to understand the behaviour of those in Holocaust Germany who followed orders to kill over 10 million people. he wanted to explore the belief that germans were different.
what was Milgram’s sample?
a volunteer sample of 40 men aged 20-50 from New Haven, recruited through newspapers and letters. a variation of unskilled workers to professionals. the men were offered $4.50 for participation.
what was Milgram’s procedure?
- participants were told they could drop out any time and keep the money.
- introduced to two confederates - one experimenter and one ‘other ppt’
- rigged lots drawn on who would be the student and who would be the teacher (ppt always the teacher.
- teacher was told that his job was to give the learner an increasingly electric shock every wrong answer
- sat infront of a shock machine from 15v to 450v
- teacher communicated through intercom and at 300v there was banging heard and at 315v no further communication from the student
- the experimenter used 4 standard prompts to encourage the teacher to continue and after the 4th the teacher was allowed to leave
- post study interviews were conducted and film footage was collected
what were the findings of Milgram’s study?
65% of the sample administered 450v whilst 100% of the sample administered 300V but at this point 12.5% had dropped out.
participants showed moral strain with nervous laughter and sweating, 3 ppts had SEIZURES
what is a strength of Milgram’s study?
Milgram’s study was standardised, and every ppt had the same experience. this means that the study is replicable and it has been tested successfully - BURGER
what is a competing argument against the strength?
Gina Perry (2012) argues that there were occasions when the experimenter deviated off script and allegedly gave 20 prods before allowing the ppt to leave.
- this suggests his study is not as standardised as he may have claimed.
what is a weakness of his study?
the ppt may have only obeyed because they did not believe that the shocks were real.
- ORNE AND HOLLAND (1968) argued that ppt behaved that way because the set-up was not believable.
- this is supported by PERRY (2012) as unseen footage shows ppts questioning the set up
this calls internal validity into question
how could his study be applicated?
his findings have been used to improve PILOT TRAINING.
- TARNOW (2000) describes how first officers often fail to challenge errors made by the captain due to fear of his authority.
he believed that training the officers in how to challenge authority could prevent up to 20% of plane crashes
what are the ethical issues raised?
BAUMRIND (1964) argued that just because someone volunteered for the study does not mean that the researcher’s responsibility is taken away.
she felt that the level of psychological harm was unacceptable and although he claimed to debrief, PERRY believes that some ppts left the study believing that the learner had died.
