Milgram's study

Question 1

what does Milgram’s original study tell us about obedience

Answer 1

shows us that people obey those they consider to be authority figures. the results suggest that obeying authority is normal behaviour in a hierarchically organised society
we will obey orders that distress us and even go against out moral code

Question 2

how many pps were involved

Answer 2

40 male pps randomly selected

Question 2

what was the aim of Milgram’s study

Answer 2

to observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person
he was attempting to test the hypothesis that ‘Germans were different’ and more obedient

Question 3

why did milgram carry out his study

Answer 3

Based on german behaviour during the holocaust
investigating the idea that obedience is more likely in the presence of legitimate authoritative figure
are germans different or could anyone obey authority figures to carry out horrific acts

Question 4

what was the procedure of Milgram study

Answer 4

• 40 American males volunteered to make part in Milgram study at Yale university - it was advertised as a study of how punishment affects learning and would be paid $4.33
• there were 2 confederates → the experimenter and Mr Wallace, a man that was introduced as another pps but knew what to do
• the two pps drew lots to see who would be the teacher and who would be the learner → this was rigged to that the real pp would be the teacher and Mr Wallace would be the learner
• the confederate was then asked to learn a set of words to which the teacher would test his knowledge
• they were placed in adjacent rooms and the teacher was positioned in front of a set of voltage controls to administer electric shocks to the learner → the shocks started at 15 volts and increased in increments of 15 volts until 400 volts
• the teacher was instructed to punish the learner with a shock after each incorrect answer the learner gave
• if the teacher did not want to administer the shocks the experimenter used 4 different prods → if the 4 prods did not work the experiment was stopped
• at 300 volts the confederates would start pounding on the wall and screaming describing that he had a weak heart

Question 5

what were the results of Milgram study

Answer 5

• prior to the study, Milgram asked colleagues to predict how long pps would go before refusing to continue. they predicted that very few would go beyond 150 volts and only 1 in 1000 would administer the full 450 volts
  →
  however all 100% of pps went up 300 volts and 65% of pps went all the way up to 450 volts (maximum)
  many pps showed signs of emotion distress → shaking, sweating, groaning

Question 6

what is the conclusion of Milgram’s study

Answer 6

under the right conditions (e.g. the presence of legitimate authority; the agentic state) people will commit acts of destructive obedience towards someone they have just met
situational factors may explain destructive obedience

Question 7

what were the 3 situational variables affecting Milgram’s study

Answer 7

proximity
location
uniform

Question 8

what type of study did Milgram carry out?

Answer 8

a controlled observation

Question 9

what type of sampling + collecting method did Milgram use

Answer 9

volunteer sample
Milgram put an advert in a local newspaper and through the post asking for pps in a memory and punishment experiment
he offered the pps $4.50 to take part

Question 10

eval point: why did Milgram’s study lack external validity

Answer 10

Orne and Holland (1968) argued that pps behaved the way they did because they didn’t really believe in the set up → they guessed it wasn’t real electric shocks
Gina perry (2013) recent research confirms this. she listened to tapes of Milgram’s pps and reported that many of them expressed their doubts about the shocks.
however Sheridan and King (1972) conducted a similar study where real work were given to a puppy → despite the real shock, 54% of men and 100% of women believed what they though was a fatal shock
→ this suggests that the effects of Milgram’s study were genuine because people behaved in the same way with real shocks. Milgram himself reported that 70% of his pps said they believed the shocks were real

Question 11

Good external valdiity

Answer 11

the central feature of this situation was the relationship between the authority figure and the pp. Milgram argued that the lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life
Hofling et al (1966) studied nurses on hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands were very high (with 21 out of 22 nurses obeying)
→ suggests that the processes of obedience to authority that occurred in Milgram’s lab study can be generalised to other situations → his findings do have something valuable to tell us about how obedience operates in real life

Question 12

ethical issues

Answer 12

Milgram deceived his pps → pps could not give their informed consent
milgram also deceived them by the allocation of the roles
deception was also used with the electric shocks and Mr Wallace response
Milgram overcome this by fully debriefing the pps after the experiment and saying their behaviour was ok

Question 13

strength of replication of Milgram findings

Answer 13

in French TV game / documentary in 2010 includes a replication of Milgram’s study
they were paid to give fake electric shocks - when ordered by the presenter in front of a studio audience
in support, 80% of the pps delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man
there behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s pps → nervous laughter, nail biting and other signs anxiety
this replication supports Milgram’s original conclusions about obedience to authority and demonstrates that his finding were not just not just a one-off occurrence