Obedience : Milgram’s Study (original) Flashcards
What is one strength of Milgram’s original study ?
P - One strength is that replications have supported Milgram’s research findings
E - In a French TV game show, contestants were paid to give electric shocks when ordered by the presenter to other participants. 80% gave the maximum 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man. Their behaviour was like that of Milgram’s participants.e.g. Many signs of anxiety
E - this supports Milgram’s original findings about obedience to authority
What is a limitation of Milgram’s original study ?
P - One limitation is that Milgram’s study lacks internal validity
E - Orne and Holland argued that participants guessed the electric shocks were fake. So they were play-acting. This was supported by Perry’s study that only half of the participants believed the shocks were real.
E - This suggests that participants may have been responding to demand characteristics.
What is another limitation of Milgram’s original study ?
P - One limitation is that the findings are not due to blind obedience
E - Haslam et al found that every participant given the first three prods obeyed the experimenter , but those given the fourth prod disobeyed. according to social identity theory , the first three prods required identification with the science of the research but the fourth prod required blin obedience.
E - This shows that the findings are best explained in terms of identification with scientific aims and not as blind obedience to authority
What is another limitation of Milgram’s original study ?
P - One limitation is that there are ethical issues around the procedures of his study
E - The participants in this study were deceived e.g. they thought the hocks were real. Milgram dealt with this by debriefing. Baumrind felt this deception could have been serious consequences for participants and researchers e.g. mo informed consent possible. For example, many of the participants didn’t know that the shocks weren’t re for months after making them think they killed someone.
What were the procedures for Milgram’s original study ?
Stanley Milgram recruited 40 male American participants supposedly for a study of memory
Procedure :Each participant arrived at Milgram’s lab and drew lots for their role. A confederate (Mr.Wallace) was always the ‘learner’ while the true participants was the teacher. An ‘experimenter’ (another confederate) wore a lab coat. The leaner was strapped into a chair in a separate room wired with electrodes. The learners task was to remember the word pairs. The teacher delivered shocks by pressing switch’s on a shock machine labelled from slight shock to danger-severe shock. If the teacher felt unsure about continuing , the experimenter used a sequence of standard ‘prods’:
Prod 1 - please continue or please go on
Prod 2 - the experiment requires that you continue
Prod 3 - it is absolutely essential that you continue
Prod 4 - you have no other choice but to go on
The shocks increased as they continued.
The shocks ere fake but the shock machine was labelled to make them look increasingly severe
What were the findings from Milgram’s original study ?
Key findings - 12.5% stopped at 300 volts
65% continued to 450 volts
Observations - participants showed signs of extreme tension. Three had ‘full blown uncontrollable seizures’
Other findings :
Before the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict how they thought the naive participants would respond. The students estimated no more than 3% would continue too 450 volts.
After the study , participants were debriefed. Follow-up questionnaire showed 84% were glad they had participated
What was the conclusion from Milgram’s original study ?
Conclusions :
We obey legitimate authority even if it means that our behaviour causes harm to someone else.
Certain situational factors encourage obedience
