Milgrams Obediencd study (1963) volts Flashcards
Sample
40 people. found through newspapers and adverts and were offered $4.50 to take part.
Procedure
2 confederates (experimenter + learner) the responses from the learner were fake.
the “teacher” was instructed to read word pairs to the learner, if they were incorrect, the teacher would then give shocks.
If teacher denied, the experimenter would’ve told them to continue.
Findings.
No participants stopped below 300V.
12.5% stopped at 300v, 65% continued to full (450v)
Milgram’s study on obedience to authority found that many participants were willing to administer what they believed to be harmful electric shocks to the learner simply because an authority figure instructed them to do so.
This demonstrated the powerful impact of authority on people’s behavior, even when it goes against their own moral beliefs.
Weaknesses (ethical concerns)
caused stress and anxiety for participants raising questions about their well being also raised ethical concerns because it made people very upset by tricking them and putting them under pressure to harm others.
Weaknesses ( limited sample)
mostly used white middle class people. may not represent all people.
Weaknesses (deception)
participants were misused, can harm trust in psychological research.
also deception was used by tricking people about the true nature of the experiment, causing distress and pressure to harm others.
Strengths (important findings)
showed how people obeyed authority, even when it seems wrong.
highlighting their power.
strengths (variety of participants)
Both men and women from different backgrounds. improves generalisation of results.
Strengths (realistic setting)
used a lab, it created a real-life setting that made participants believe they were actually giving shocks, making the study more authentic.
