Milgram study

Question 1

Aim of Milgram’s Study

Answer 1

• It was a study on obedience to a legitimate authority to shock someone every time they got a word from the word list wrong

Question 2

Participants in Milgram’s study

Answer 2

• 40 white men between the ages 20-50 in New Haven, USA

Question 3

Procedure of Milgram’s study

Answer 3

• Participants were introduced to a fake participant. They were told that they were randomly given ‘’Learner’’ and ‘’Teacher’’ roles, however the participants were always had the ‘’Teacher’’ role
• The ‘’Learner’’ had to learn a list of word pairs
• . The ‘’Teacher’’ and ‘’Learner’’ were in separate rooms and communicate through a two way microphone
• Every time the ‘’Learner’’ gets an answer wrong the ‘’Teacher’’ would have to administer a electric shock, the shock given increased with each wrong answer, the shock ranged from 15V to 450V
• Eventually the ‘’Learner’’ would stop responding to the ‘’Teacher’’
• A man wearing a lab coat would instruct the ‘’Teacher’’ to continue to administer the electric shocks with some instructions if they stopped. Prod 1: Please continue, Prod 2: The experiment requires you to continue, Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue, Prod 4: You have no other choice but to continue
• . The experiment ends when either the participants has administer the highest shock which is 450V or when the participants keeps protesting after the 4th Prod is given
• Afterwards the participants are told the ‘’Learner’’ was never shocked

Question 4

Findings of Milgram’s study

Answer 4

• Found that 65% of the sample administered the full 450V and a full 100% continued to 300V
• Participants were noted to tremble, sweat, bite their lips

Question 5

Conclusions of Milgram’s study

Answer 5

• Most people would harms others as long as they are being instructed by an authority figure
• Obedience to authority is ingrained in most people

Question 6

Strength of Milgram’s study

Answer 6

• One strength of the study is that the experiment was highly controlled
• The researcher’s instructions given to the confederate, the prods used and the shock machine were all the same throughout the experiment for each of the participants
• This suggests that the participants obeyed due to the experiment’s procedure, demonstrating the cause effect relationship between authority and obedience

Question 7

Weakness of Milgram’s study

Answer 7

• One weakness of the study is that the tasks were highly artificial, meaning it lacked mundane realism
• The task of being told to shock another person under the instructions of an authority figure is not an everyday example of obedience, unlike being told to do something by your boss
• Therefore the finding of obedience demonstrated from this task might not be applicable to explain obedience or defiance of more mundane tasks.