Obedience: Milgram's Original Experiment (1963)

Question 1

What were the aims of Milgram’s study?

Answer 1

• To investigate the level of obedience when told by an authority figure to give electric shocks
• To investigate whether it is just Germans who will blindly obey orders that are potentially dangerous

Question 2

Who were used in the sample?

Answer 2

• 40 males
• American
• Aged 20-50 years

Question 3

Describe the sampling method.

Answer 3

An advert was put out asking for VOLUNTEERS to take part in a study of ‘memory and learning’ at Yale University who were paid $4.

Question 4

What type of method was used?

Answer 4

Observation in a lab environment.

Question 5

Briefly describe the procedure of this original study.

Answer 5

• A ‘learner’ and ‘teacher’ were established by a researcher in a white lab coat (the learner being the confederate) and the learner was taken into a separate room
• The teacher would experience a test of 45V real volts then watch the learner being strapped into an electric chair
• The teacher would then test him on word pairings of a list he had to to learn beforehand, giving four options of the answer
• When he would get them wrong the teacher would administer a shock, increasing by 15V for every incorrect answer, ranging from 15-450V
• The teacher would hear a ‘thump on the wall’ at 300V and the learner would stop answering
• When the teacher refuses to give the shock the experimenter would give them prompts such as “please continue, you have no other choice but to continue”
• Milgram was observing all of this in a structured observation through a one-way mirror

Question 6

What was the IV and DV?

Answer 6

IV = There was none due to observation
DV = Level of voltage and stressed behaviour

Question 7

What were the results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

• 65% of ppts continued to 450V
• 100% of ppts continued to 300V
• 14 ppts dropped out between 300V and 375V due to the bang on the wall with no further response
• Ppts showed signs of stress

Question 8

Describe the conclusion of his experiment.

Answer 8

Due to being taught to obey authority from a young age, anyone has the capability to kill innocent people when following orders from an authority figure and so it’s not just German people who obey authority in extreme ways as the circumstances are situational.

Question 9

Evaluate the generalisablity using a low point.

Answer 9

P - Low
E - Only used a small sample of 40 American male volunteers
E - Not representative of females or other countries and sample shared similar traits that would mean they signed up

Question 10

Evaluate the reliability using a high and low point.

Answer 10

P - High
E - Standardised procedure such as the same word pair list
E - Easy to accurately replicate
P - Low inter-rater
E - There was only the experimenter observing stress and other behaviour
E - Therefore elements of subjectivity in what they define as stressed behaviour

Question 11

Are there any applications?

Answer 11

P - Yes
E - Milgram found that Germans aren’t the only obedient nation
E - Can help to reduce the prejudice aimed at them

Question 12

Evaluate the validity using a high and low point.

Answer 12

P - High
E - Ppts were unaware of the true aim as thought it was a test of memory not obedience
E - Which reduce risk of demand characteristics and so elicited natural behaviour
P - Low ecological/task validity
E - Artificial conditions of electrocuting people
E - Doesn’t reflect real life obedient settings (e.g. work) or tasks (e.g. homework)

Question 13

Evaluate the 2 ethical issues using PEEJ, when J = Justification.

Answer 13

P - Poor
E - Observation of nervous laughter
E - Psychological harm due to stress
J - Debrief caused relief, Milgram didn’t predict
P - Poor
E - Verbal prods used
E - The right to withdraw became questionable
J - 35% of people withdrew
- needed to be covert so that the findings were accurate (if they knew they were being tested on obedience/that the leaner wasn’t getting hurt, they might have stopped earlier)