Milgrams obedience study Flashcards
What was the procedure?
40 male participants were recruited through newspapers and were assigned as teachers, with a confederate being the learner. The learner was wired with electrodes and the teacher was required to give ‘shocks’ every time the learner made a mistake in a learning task. The shocks started at 15V and went up to 450V, increasing in power every time. The experiment had set answers to keep the participant there when he tried to leave.
What were the findings?
No participant stopped below 300V and 65% continued to the highest of 450V. Qualitative data was also collected and revealed that many were sweating or trembling and 3 had seizures.
What supported the study?
Sheridan and King repeated the experiment on puppies and 100% of females administered real shocks that they thought would be fatal so findings can be generalised. In 2010 in a French show they were asked to give ‘electric shocks’ and 80% of participants gave the biggest shock, supporting Milgrams idea of authority and showing it can be repeated to get the same results.
What were the limitations of the study?
Orne and Holland said that there was low external validity as participants had guessed that the shocks weren’t real so Milgram wasn’t testing what he was trying to. There were ethical concerns as the participants believed the shocks were real and also they believed the assignment of roles was random but really they were fixed. Haslam and Reicher analysed the experiment and said that social identitty theory was important as the cues being used were changing behaviour. Every time they were told they had to continue, the participant quit.
