Milgram’s research into obedience Flashcards
What was the aim of Milgram’s original study?
To observe to what extent people obey an authority figure
Who were the participants of Milgram’s original study? (3 points)
40 men aged 20-50 from the New Haven area
They volunteered by responding to an advertisement - paid $4.50 per hour for participating
Range of jobs: unskilled to professional, factory workers to businessmen
What was the methodology of Milgram’s original study?
Laboratory experiment at the Interaction Laboratory, Yale University
Structured observation
What was the procedure of Milgram’s original study? (5 steps)
- Participants draw straws to determine their roles as the ‘learner’ or ‘teacher’ - a confederate was fixed as the ‘learner’
- In one of the rooms, the ‘learner’ was sat with electrodes attached to their arm; in another room, the ‘teacher’ was sat next to an electric shock generator with 30 switches ranging from 15-450 V
- Learner was given a sample shock of 45 V after learning a list of word pairs
- The ‘teacher’ tested the ‘learner’ using a word-pair recall exercise and administered an electric shock for every incorrect response - voltage increased with every mistake
- An “experimenter” dressed in a white laboratory coat played by an actor was present in the room with the ‘teacher’ - provided verbal prods e.g. ‘you must continue’
What were the results of Milgram’s original study?
100% went up to 300V
65% went up to 450V
What was the conclusion of Milgram’s original study? (4 points)
Provides supporting evidence for agency theory - demonstrates how an ordinary man in the agentic state will follow an authority figure’s orders to harm another man
Participants claimed they administered the shocks for 3 reasons:
1. Authority figure seemed trustworthy
2. Good cause - scientific research
3. They believed the researcher would take responsibility if anything happened.
How generalisable was Milgram’s original study? (2 points)
Androcentric and ethnocentric sample of 40 men aged 20-50 from individualistic USA
Not representative of obedience in females or in different collectivist countries
How reliable was Milgram’s original study? (4 points)
Standardised procedure increases reliability
+ Same standardised script was read aloud to all participants by the experimenter
+ Same procedure used to assign ‘teacher’ and ‘learner’ roles
+ Same verbal prods (‘you must continue’) and script read aloud by experimenter
Allowed for the study to be replicated by Milgram himself and by others like Burger (2009), who found the similar levels of obedience were still exhibited 50 years later
Can the results of Milgram’s original study be applied to real life? (3 points)
Findings provide an explanation for human obedience exhibited in war crimes and in everyday life
E.g. World War II - soldiers believed to be in the agentic state obeyed orders from the authority figure Hitler, to harm millions of innocent Jewish people
Can be directly applied to the hierarchies present in society that provide a backdrop for human obedience through agency theory
How internally valid was Milgram’s original study? (2 points)
Laboratory environment and standardised procedure - strong control over extraneous variables
Cause and effect between the presence of an authority figure and obedience to instruction can be established
How ecologically valid is Milgram’s original study? (3 points)
Low ecological validity
The setting used at Yale Interaction Laboratory is artificial - doesn’t reflect real-life settings when testing the nature of obedience to an authority figure
Makes it difficult to apply findings to real-life contexts
How ethical was Milgram’s original study? (4 points)
Lack of fully informed consent to avoid demand characteristics- participants were deceived and told the study was about ‘memory and learning’
Verbal prods like ‘you must continue’ removed the right to withdraw
Milgram has been criticised by psychologists like Baumrind (1964) for not protecting the welfare of participants - found to be weeping, upset and emotionally distressed during the study, causing psychological harm
However, in a follow up survey, 83.7% of Milgram’s participants were ‘very glad’ to have taken part
