Milgram's research - essay plan

Question 1

AO1 - procedure and findings

Answer 1

• Milgram carried out the study to try and answer the question of why a significant portion of the German population obeyed Hitler’s commands
• study involved 40 American men
  
  • they were individually taken into a room and met another ‘participant’
  • both drew straws to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner - but the participant was always the teacher
  • the learner was in a different room
  • teacher was shown an electric shock generator and a row of switches - marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 375 volts (Danger: Severe Shock) to 450 volts (XXX)
  • teacher tested the learner on pairs of words they’d had to learn - teacher had to administer a shock when the learner made a mistake (shock level increased each time)
  • if the teacher refused to administer the shock the experimenter would give a series of prods so they’d continued
• Milgram predicted only 2% would continue to the highest level and most would quite fairly early on
• actually all participants shocked up to 300 volts and 65% went all the way to 450 volts

Question 2

AO3 - research support (strength)

Answer 2

• Hofling’s field study with nurses
• 21/22 nurses obeyed orders that were unjustified - proves high levels of obedience in a more realistic setting
• this mirrors Milgram’s results of higher levels of obedience - suggesting Milgram’s results are reliable
• HOWEVER Rank and Jacobson (1977) repeated Hofling’s study with a real drug nurses had heard of and found only 1 out of 18 obeyed
  
  • this suggests Hofling’s study may also lack ecological validity - therefore questions the validity of Milgram’s findings

Question 3

AO3 - low internal validity (AO3)

Answer 3

• procedure may not be what he was intending to test
• 75% of participants believed the shocks were genuine (as reported by Milgram)
  
  • but Orne and Holland argued participants didn’t believe the set up and were just acting
  • further backed up by Gina Perry’s research - after listening to tapes concluded only 50% believed shocks were real and 2/3 of these participants were disobedient
• this suggests that particpants were simply responding to demand characteristics in order to fulfil the aims of the study
• HOWEVER Sheridan and King (1972) conducted a similar study - giving real shocks to a puppy
  
  • 54% male and 100% female participants gave a fatal shock
  • this suggests Milgram’s study was genuine because people obeyed even when shocks were real

Question 4

AO3 - ethical issues (limitation)

Answer 4

• participants were decieved
• although Milgram dealt with this by debriefing particpants
• HOWEVER Baumrind criticised Milgram for deceiving participants
  
  • she argued deception in psychological studies can have severe consequences for participants and researchers