Milligrams research Flashcards
Why did he carry out his research?
to test obedience to authoritivefigures
What was his study?
Milgram got 40 American male volunteers to take part in a study, supposedly on memory. When each volunteer arrived, they would be introduced to another participant (except this was a confederate of milligrams) they are lots to see who would be the teacher and he would be the learner. However, the drawer was fixing. The participant would always be the teacher. There was also an experimenter, who was also a confederate priest in a grey lab coat. The authoritative figure( the expiremter) ordered the participant (teacher) to give an increasingly strong shock to Alana located in a different room where they can’t see them, but can still hear their reactions. The Strokes increase in voltage. The shocks were fake, but the teacher didn’t know this.
What were the findings?
every participant delivered all the shocks up to 300 V , five participants stopped at 300,65% continued to the highest level 450 V i.e. they were fully obedient
what else did Milgram observe?
Observations of the participants they showed signs of extreme tension. Many of them seem to sweat tremble in stutter bite their lips. Take That finger nails into the hands, three, even had a full, blown seizures.
Conclusions..
People obey either out of fear or out of desire to appear cooperative, even if it goes against their own judgement or moral ideas
One strength of milligrams findings?
Milgram’s findings were replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality TV. That behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants to support Milgram’s original findings about obedience to authority, and demonstrates that the findings were not just due to special circumstances.
One limitation of milligrams study ?
It may have not been testing what he intended to test, people argue that the participants behaved as they did because they didn’t really believe in the set up so they were playacting. This suggests that the participants may have been responding to demand characteristics trying to fulfil the names of the study.
Ethical issues?
participants experience some discomfort and could have potentially later had psychological damage
Deception, and informed consent
