SOC 08 - Experiment Types (MET) and Milgram

Question 1

What is a laboratory experiment?

Answer 1

An experiment that takes place in a controlled environment within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV, whilst maintaining strict control of extraneous variables.

Question 2

What is a field experiment?

Answer 2

An experiment that takes place in a natural setting within which the researcher manipulates the IV and records the effect on the DV.

Question 3

What is a natural experiment?

Answer 3

An experiment where the change in IV is not brought about by the researcher but would have happened even if the researcher had not been there. The researcher records the effect on a DV they have decided on.

Question 4

What is a quasi-experiment?

Answer 4

A study that is almost an experiment but lacks key ingredients. The IV has not been determined by anyone (the researcher or any other person). The variables simply ‘exist’, such as being old or young. Strictly speaking this is not an experiment.

Question 5

What studies increase the external validity of Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

• Replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality TV in 2012 -> increases population validity (conducted outside of America with French individuals) & temporal validity (replicated 50 years later)
• Field experiment conducted in New York -> increases ecological validity (investigation of uniform increases credibility of Milgram’s study)
• Dutch interview study -> increases ecological validity as they applied it to a different setting and situation. This increases the external validity of Milgram’s experiment as the findings of Meeus and Raaijmakers’ study proves that Milgram’s study can be generalised to different research settings and situations. Their findings also provided evidence for when Milgram investigated proximity which increases the external validity

Question 6

What was the procedure of the French documentary replication of Milgram?

Answer 6

• Milgram’s findings were replicated in a French documentary that was made about reality TV in 2012- This documentary focused on a game show made especially for the programme
• The participants in the ‘game’ believed they were contestants in a pilot episode for a new show called Le Jeu de la Mort (The Game of Death)
• They were paid to give (fake) electric shocks (ordered by the presenter) to other participants (who were actually actors) in front of a studio audience
• 80% of the participants delivered the maximum shock of 460 volts to an apparently unconscious man.
• Their behaviour was almost identical to that of Milgram’s participants – nervous laughter, nail-biting and other signs of anxiety

Question 7

What was the procedure of the field experiment conducted in New York City?

Answer 7

• In a field experiment in New York City, Bickman (1974) had three confederates dress in different outfits – jacket and tie, a milkman’s outfit, and a security guard’s uniform
• The confederates individually stood in the stress and asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or handing over a coin for the parking meter
• People were twice as likely to obey the confederate dressed as a security guard than the one dressed in jacket and tie