Milgrams Research Flashcards
Obedience
Form of social influence where an individual follows a direct order.
Internal validity
A measure of whether results obtained in a research study are solely affected by changes in the variable being manipulated in a cause and effect relationship
External validity
A measure of whether data gathered can be generalised o other situations outside of the research environment they were originally gathered in
Participants/sample
40 male Americans recruited through a newspaper advert (volunteer sampling)
Aim
To investigate whether ordinary people would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain on an innocent person
Type of experiment/variables
Lab with iv= degree of authority, dv= participants willingness to obey authority figure
Ethics
Participants given the right to withdraw at any time
Procedure
- given their role of learner or teacher which was rigged, confederate always learner
- experimenter also a confederate and dressed in a lab coat. Role was to give orders and prods if the participants hesitated.
- teacher was to give the learner an electric shock each time the learner made a mistake (raged from 15-450, lethal)
Results/conclusion
- all p’s went to 350 volts, 64% continued to 450
- p’s showed signs of distress
- under the right situational circumstances, ordinary people will obey unjust order from someone perceived to be an authority figure
- all p’s debriefed and sent a follow up questionnaire where 84% reported they felt glad to have participated
Graves evaluation
G - all male sample
R - research by hofling et al
A - can be applied to real life settings like hospitals
V - lab experiment so argued to lack ecological validity. Has external validity due to Hoflings research.
E - ethical guidelines breached (protection from harm, deception)
Internal validity
- criticised by orne and Holland for lacking internal validity as they argued p’s went to higher voltages as they didn’t believe the shocks were real so milgram may not have been testing what he intended to investigate
- milgram argued 70% of the p’s did believe the shocks were real
Limitation - LACKS ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY
P - lacks ecological validity
E - conducted a lab experiment very different to real life situations of obedience. In real life we obey more harmless instructions rather than giving people electric shocks.
C - can’t generalise findings to real life situations of obedience
Counter argument - milgram argues the lab can reflect wider authority relationships seen in real life situations. For example, hofling et al found nurses were obedient to unjustified instructions from a doctor in a hospital.
Limitation - ETHICAL ISSUES
P - broke several ethical guidelines
E - deceived participants as the believed they were taking part in a study about memory as stated in the newspaper ad. Not protected from harm due to p’s showing signs of distress.
I&D - p’s were debriefed and said they suffered no long term effects. Argued that his research is socially sensitive as people obeyed orders that they dont want to.
Limitation - POPULATION VALIDITY
P - lacks population validity
E - biased sample of 40 male American volunteers
I&D - can’t be generalised to females so his research shows beta bias and androcentrism
C - unable to generalise to other populations like collectivist cultures or to plain the behaviour of females and whether they would respond similarly.
