Milgram's Study Flashcards
What is Obedience a form of?
It’s a form of social influence
What is Obedience?
When an individual follows a direct order from an individual (normally figure of authority) who has power to punish when obedient behaviour doesn’t occur
What is Destructive Obedience?
When an individual obeys an order to do an immoral act, which causes them distress as they don’t want to do it
What was the Aim of Milgram’s Experiment?
[2]
- Whether Germans were different, and more obedient than people in other countries
- See whether normal ordinary American citizens would obey an unjust order from authroity figure and inflict pain on a person
Where did Milgram’s Study take place?
Yale Uni
How many people took part in Milgram’s Study?
40 male participants
Even though participants were told they would be randomly assigned, which role were they always assigned?
Teacher
How did the experimenter make the ‘teacher’ believe the electric shock was real?
The teacher watched the learner be strapped to an eletcric shock and be given a “sample” electric shock
How would the learner indicate his choice to the teacher?
By using a system of lights
What was the teacher instructed to do every time the participant made a mistake?
Administrator an electric shock and increase the voltage after each mistake
What happened when:
- 300 V
- 315 V
- 330 V
was administered?
- 300 V - Learner complained of weak heart
- 315 V - learner started banging on wall demanding to leave
- 330 V - He became silent (dead?)
When did experiment stop?
[2]
- Until teacher refused to stop
- Or 450 V was reached
What happened if teacher tried to stop experiment?
The experimenter would respond with prod “the experiment requires that you continue”
What was procedure of Milgram’s study?
[10]
- 40 random male participants
- Invited to Yale Uni and met by Mr Wallace
- Experimenter said a person is randomly assigned to teacher or learner. But real participant was always teacher
- Teacher watched the learner be strapped and given ‘sample’ electric shock to say it’s real
- Teacher would test word recall of learner and indicate answer using system of lights
- When learner made pre-determined mistake, teacher had to give shock and increase voltage after every shock
- 300 V - weak heart
- 315 V - banged on wall and said to leave
- 330 V - silent
- After 450 V no more
What were the finding of Milgram’s study?
[4]
- All people went upto at least 300 V
- 65% went to full 450 V
- People showed ‘extreme tension’, ‘sweat’, ‘tremble’, ‘bite lip’
- Very different to results guessed - he thought no more than 3% would go higher
What are the conclusions of Milgram’s Study?
[2]
- Under right circumstances people would obey unjust orders
- Germans aren’t different to other countries. Hitler in England, still same consequences
high reliability - sheridan and king puppy
What is a Strength of Milgram’s Study?
[4]
- High reliability
- Sheridan and King did similiar study with shocking a puppy
- Similiar results - 54% of males gave shock and 100% of females gave shock
- Suggests effect in Milgram’s study was real because people behaved differenyly even when shocks were real
participants decieved
What is a Limitation of Milgram’s Study?
[4]
- Participants in study were decieved
- For e.g. participants thought allocation of roles (teacher and learner) was random, but it was fixed
- Also thought shocks were real - Milgram dealt with this by debriefing participants
- However, Baumrind said that deception in psychological studies can have serious consequences for participants and researcher
real life application
What is Strength of Milgram’s Study?
[4]
- Real life applications
- Opened eyes to problem of obedience
- Reduce future destructive obedience
- Nazis
lacked population validity
What is a Limitation of Milgram’s Study?
[4]
- Lacked population validity
- Bias sample of 40 male American people
- Doesn’t represent whole population
- Other countries (China) can have higher obedience
