Milgrams Study Flashcards
What was the aims of milligrams study?
Milligram wanted to find out whether Americans would fulfil an unjust order from an authority figure
What was the procedure of the study?
-40 males recruited by a newspaper were deceived into thinking they were giving electric shocks
-they were told that the study was to test the role of punishment and learning. The participant was the teacher and the confederate was the student.
-the teachers role was to administer shocks every time a mistake was made
-teacher watched them being strapped into a chair and also received one practice shock
-a shock was given every time the confederate answered wrong up till 450 volts
-experiment continued until the teacher refused or gave till 450 volts
-the participant was then debriefed and met with student
What were the findings of the study of milligram
All participants went to at least 300 v and 65% went till 450 volts
Why was demand characteristics a limitation in milligrams study?
- ## participants may have guessed that they were fake voltages which decreases internal validity of the experiment
What evidence do we have that milligrams experiment is repeatable?
Blass - analysed the findings from milligrams and other experiments which were repeated and found that obedience rates were almost identical
Why was the sample of people used in milligrams experiment a limitation?
Milligram used white males , his sample doesn’t give us an insight into other genders and cultures and how they obey. It doesn’t apply to rest of society
HOWEVER blass findings counter argue this point
Why was milligrams experiment full of ethical issues?
They will have been harmed psychologically when they were led to believe that they were harming someone. As well as this they were deceived about the true aims of the study
