milgram’s research into obedience

Question 1

what did Milgram want to investigate?

Answer 1

• whether ordinary people would follow orders and give innocent person a potentially harmful electric shock

Question 2

what did Milgram criticise and what else did he want to investigate?

Answer 2

• criticised earlier research into conformity by Asch as being unrealistic
• because he was attempting to investigate why ordinary people would commit acts of atrocity in real life, he wanted to make his exp as close to real ‘obedience to commit harm as possible

Question 3

what did Milgram also want to establish?

Answer 3

• under what conditions people would display more obedience or dissent
• he varied his original exp to test different factors

Question 4

what is the sample?

Answer 4

• placed an advert is local newspaper
• asked for male ppts of certain occupations, educational level and ages
• asked them to take part in a memory and learning study
• offered $4 as an incentive for an hour of their time
• 296 responded, with 160 asked to participate
• four original conditions, so 40 ppts each

Question 5

where did the study take place?

Answer 5

• Yale University

Question 6

how many confederates were there and who were they?

Answer 6

• there were 2 confederates
• biology teacher who played role of experimenter
• middle aged accountant who played role of Mr Wallace
• ppts believed Mr Wallace was ppt like the,

Question 7

what happened with the teacher/learner design?

Answer 7

• it was explained after the brief
• which meant roles had to be appointed
• the lots were always rigged, so that ppt was always the teacher and Mr Wallace was always the learner

Question 8

what happened after the rigging of roles?

Answer 8

• the learner was seated in a chair, with arms strapped down
• teacher was told that the shocks given would be painful but not dangerous
• there was no real shocks given, apart from when the teacher received a 45 volt shock to convince them of the task

Question 9

what happened after the learner was sat down?

Answer 9

• a wrist electrode was attached to Mr Wallace, linked to a shock generator in the next room
• there were 30 switches in a horizontal line, increasing in 15 volts, with each switch labelled from 15v to 450v

Question 10

what happened after the wrist electrode was attached to learner?

Answer 10

• ppts were told to teach the learning a list of word pairs, by reading them out and then reading one of the first pair with four possible options
• teacher was to administer shocks if incorrect pair was given
• all responses from learner were scripted
• if they reached 450v, they were asked to repeat that level of volts
• learner banged on wall when 300v was given and refused to answer pair task after 315v

Question 11

what were the 4 verbal prods used to encourage obedience?

Answer 11

1. please continue
2. the experiment requires that you continue
3. it is absolutely essential that you continue
4. you have no other choice, you must go on

Question 12

what were the special prods?

Answer 12

• in particular to particular responses from the teacher, eg whether procedure was harmful, or that learner refused to continue, the experimenter replied with special prods:
  1. although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on
  2. whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on until he has learned all word pairs correctly. so please go on.

Question 13

how many variations of this exp did Milgram carry out?

Answer 13

• 18 variations
• all he did was alter the situation (iv) and how this affected obedience (dv)

Question 14

what happened at the end of the exps?

Answer 14

• there was a thorough debrief given
• ppts were told no real shocks were given and their behaviour was explained
• they were asked to complete follow-up questionnaire

Question 15

what were the results of the questionnaire?

Answer 15

• he was interested to see whether people’s expectations matched actual recordings found in exp
• invited 39 psychiatrists, 31 college students and 40 middle class adults to lecture on obedience and nature of exp
• then presented them with diagram from shock generator panel
• all asked to predict how far up the shock generator they thought they would go before dissenting
• 5 ppts claimed they would refuse to administer shocks and most claimed they would break off earlier on in exp; none would pass 300v level
• Milgram speculated that perhaps ppts responded in socially desirable way
• then asked sample of psychiatrists, students and middle class adults to plot predictions for 100 average Americans
• psychiatrists predicted that most of the 100 Americans would not persist beyond 150v shock and only 4% would continue to end

Question 16

what were the results of exps 1, 2, 3, and 4?

Answer 16

• in remote feedback condition, all ppts gave 300v shocks and 26/40 ppts (65%) went to end of shock generator and continued administering 450v for three trials before exp was ended
• exp 2: in verbal feedback condition, 25 out of 40 ppts (62.5%) went to 450v
• fell to 40% in proximity condition (exp 3)
• fell to 30% on touch-proximity condition (exp 4)
• during all exps, people were observed to protest, twitch nervously and show signs of anxiety

Question 17

what were the conclusions of the study?

Answer 17

• when learner could not be seen or heard, ppts are more likely to follow orders to cause harm. when learner could be seen the ppts emphasised more with learner, resulting is less obedience
• the research does produce evidence that people will obey orders given by somebody in role of authority
• ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by somebody in role of authority, even to extent of killing innocent human being
• obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up
• people tend to obey orders from other people if they recognise their authority as morally right/legally based