Obedience - milgram's research

Question 1

What is obedience ?

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order.

Question 2

Why did milgram study obedience ?

Answer 2

He wanted to know why the german population followed the orders of hitler to slaugher 10 million jews in the holocaust.

Question 3

How many ppt did milgram recruite

Answer 3

40 male ppts

Question 4

How did he recruit ppts ?

Answer 4

Newspaper adverts and flyers in the post which said he was looking for ppt for a study about memory

Question 5

Age of ppts and job of ppts?

Answer 5

20-50
Ranged from unskilled to professional

Question 6

How much were they offered to take part ?

Answer 6

£4.50
They were paid outset

Question 7

What were the roles ?

Answer 7

The roles were rigged.
-A confederate ‘mr wallace’ was always the learner
-True ppt was the teacher
-Another confederate was the experimenter (dressed in a lab coat)

Question 8

What were the ppt told (ethics)

Answer 8

They could leave the study anytime.

Question 9

Procedure :

Answer 9

-The learner was strapped in a chair in another room with wired electrodes.
-Teacher was requred to give learner an incresingly severe shock everytime the learner made a mistake

Question 10

Were the shocks demonstrated

Answer 10

Yes , but after that they were not real.

Question 11

Shock levels ?

Answer 11

Started at 15 (slight shock) -> 30 levels to 450volts(DANGER).

Question 12

What happened when the teacher got to 300 volts?

Answer 12

The learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question

Question 13

What happened after 315 volts ?

Answer 13

Learner pounded on the wall again but there was no further response from the learner

Question 14

What instruction did the experimenter give when the teacher turned for guidance ?

Answer 14

An absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer.

Question 15

Why were the prods used ?

Answer 15

They were used when the teacher felt unsure about continuing

Question 16

What were the 4 prods ?

Answer 16

1 - ‘please continue’/ please go on.
2-The experiment requires you to go on
3-It is essential you continue
4-you have no other choice you must go on.

Question 17

Findings :

Answer 17

No ppts stopped below 300 volts
- 12.5% ppt stopped at 300 volts
-65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts
-Qualitative data was also collected, observations showed extreme tension.

Question 18

How was tension shown in ppts ?

Answer 18

Sweating,trembling,stuttering,bite their lips,groan and dig their fingernails into their hands.
Three had full blown seizures

Question 19

What were ppts asked prior to milgrams study

Answer 19

14 psychology students asked to predict ppts behaviour.

Question 20

What was said prior the study

Answer 20

No more than 3% of ppts would continue to 450 volts.
Findings were not expected

Question 21

What was done at the end (ethics)

Answer 21

All ppts were debriefed , and assured their behaviour was normal.
Follow up questionnaire ; 84% were glad to have participated