Social Appraoch - MILGRAM Flashcards
What was the IV?
There was no IV
Hypotheses and Aims of the study.
- to see whether an average American would harm under authority figure.
- to investigate what level of obedience would be shown when subjects were told by authority to administer electric shocks to another person.
What were the DVs ?
- obedience of the teacher when administering electric shocks to the learner.
- the voltage that the teacher was willing to administer (go up to)
Who were the participants?
- 40 men
- white
- variety of occupations
- between ages of 20 and 50
- recruited by newspaper article (volunteers)
What year did the experiment take place in?
Where did it take place?
1963
Yale university
How was the data collected and what type of data was it?
Observation was used to collect data, and both quantitative and qualitative data was observed.
- maximum voltage of shock administered
- recordings of sessions
- occasional pictures
- observation notes
What did the set up of the experiment look like?
Teacher (participant) was sitting in a room with a observer. In another room was the learner (stooge) acting as the person being electrocuted.
What did the allocation of roles involve?
The participant was to draw a role out of the hat first, both pieces of paper said ‘teacher’ on it, the stooge then pretended that he picked ‘learner’.
Participants thought this was a random allocation of roles yet it wasn’t.
What did the experiment involve?
Teacher was asked to read out a list of words, if the learner didn’t say the correct word in the correct order an electric shock was applied.
What was the maximum voltage available?
450V
How did the experimenter ensure the participant thought the shocks were real?
Participant was shocked lightly at the beginning of the experiment
When did the teacher hear from the stooge?
Response came after 300V
- scream and noise like a person collapsing
- no answers after that
Who was the observer?
31 years old biology teacher.
Prods which were used by the observer to ensure shocks were administered.
Standardised prods:
- please continue/go on
- the experiment requires that you continue
- it’s absolutely essential that you continue
- you have no other choice, you must go on
- although the shocks may be painful, there’s no permanent tissue damage, so please go on
- whether the learner likes it or not, you must go on
What were the Results and Conclusions ?
- most participants reached 300V
- 65% of participants reached the maximum 450V
What were the results of the debrief?
92% response rate to the debriefing
84% positive, 2% negative, 6% struggled to form an opinion.
What type of experiment was this?
Quasi under lab conditions
Evaluations:
- no IV = low reliability (extraneous variables)
- Milgram never expected such radical results
- power of obedience overweight their personal moral beliefs that it was wrong to hurt others.
- prestigious university might have influenced subjects as to worthiness of the study
Ethical problems :
- participants had the right to withdraw, but we’re very strongly encouraged to carry on
- no one was dramatically physically hurt, yet there was possible psychological damage
- subjects didn’t make a informed consent to take part - deception used
- some debriefed a year later
Milgram’s overall final conclusion:
Humans are innately obedient
What could be improved about this experiment?
1) include woman - greater external validity
2) different age groups - greater external validity
3) increase the proximity (closeness) to the learner e.g sit in the same room
