Socialš ā¢ Milgram's Study (1963) (+ Variations) Flashcards
Why did Milgram conduct his study of obedience in the first place?
To understand the behaviour of the Germans who followed orders to kill over 10 million people in the holocaust
Why did the study have to include ādestructiveā behaviour?
Because there is little reason not to obey a neutral or constructive order
What was the sample size and type of people in the sample group for Milgramās original study?
- Men
- Caucasian
- American
- There were 40 participants
- All between ages of 20 - 50
How did Milgram aquire his participants?
Via newspaper advertisement
How much did Milgram offer to pay his participants and how much money does that equate to in modern economy?
4.50 DOLLARS; equating to around 50 dollars nowadays
What roles did the study include?
- Learner
- Teacher
- Authority Figure/ Researcher
Explain who took certain roles and how roles were selected in the study
- Learner - participant
- Teacher - confederate of Milgram
- Selection process rigged so Milgramās confedorate was always the learner
What was the setting of the study?
- Teacher & Researcher were in one room with shock generator
- Learner was in different room (hearing distance away)
- Teacher could not see, only hear, the student
Did participants have the right to withdraw?
Yes, Milgram stated that participants have the right to withdraw throughout the entire experiment
Why would it have appeared to the participant that their right to withdraw had been revoked?
Due to the authority figure/ researcher giving āprodsā after every time the participant (teacher) refused to continue
What were all 4 prods used by the reseacher?
- Please continue.
- The experiment requires you to continue.
- It is absolutley essential that you continue.
- You have no other choice but to continue.
What actually occured in the experiment/ how did the experiment work?
- Researcher & teacher in one room with shock generator
- teacher saw learner in another room āhooked upā to generator with electrodes strapped to the learnerās wrists
- teacher was told to ask questions to learner, with every wrong answer the teacher was told to administer a shock via the generator; phony shock generator went up in 15V incraments from 0V to 450V, generator included labels going from āslight shockā all the way to just āXXXā
- learner (confedorate) would purposefully get many answers wrong, focing teacher to āshockā them, teacher would hear bangingscreams/ grunts/ voice lines from other room
- After every protest from the teacher refusing to continue, verbal prods were said to the teacher, getting them to continue up until the 450V
- If teacher still protested past the final prod (4th) they would be lead out and their final voltage administration would be recorded
Was the shock generator real?
No
Was the learner actually shocked & were they screaming themselves?
Nobody in the experiment was shocked once other than the participant (teacher) one time at 45V to trick him into thinking that the machine was real + voicelines of the ālearnerā were played after shocks, it wasnt the actual leaner speaking. Voice lines included protests to stop experiment, details such as the learner having a heart condition and banging/ grunts and after a certain voltage surpassed just silence.
How many switches did the generator have?
30
Give 3 examples of the labels on the switches on the generator
- āSlight shockā
- ādanger; severe shock
- āXXXā
What was the reason of including voice lines such as the ones that inferred the learner had a heart condition?
To envoke empathy in the learner to see if they would stop experiment and (therefore verbal prods) see if they would obey reseacher/ authority figure regardless of their own empathetic reasoning
What was the reason behind having voice lines for the learner, not an actual person speaking each time?
Replicability, so experiment could be repeated multiple times on different participants with the exact same empathetic voice lines/ grunts
What is a confedorate?
A person that is employed/ works for somebody else
What percentage of the men administerd the full 450V shock?
65% of the men
What percentage of the men continued to at least 300V and by 300V, what percentage and ammount of men had dropped out?
- 100% of men contiuned to at least 300V
- After this point 12.5% (5 men) dropped out
Give some examples of the behaviour that some of the participants exhibited during the experiment
- tremble
- sweat
- dig fingernails into their skin
- nervous laughter
What percentage of men exhibited nervous laughter?
35% of men
How many men experienced real uncontrollable seizures due to the axiety build up during the experiment?
3 men
What did Milgram conclude after his first, initial experiment?
Milgram concluded that his participants were suprisingly obedient when in a professional setting/ environment whilst also in the presence of an authority figure. He also concluded that a factor that also contributed to obediene was the illusion to the participant that due to the researcherās ābackgroundā that the study was somehow advancing science.
Where did Milgram conduct his original study?
Yale university in America
Milgramās study was standardised, what does that mean?
That all occurences of the experiement for each particiapant were identical e.g. same confedorates for the learner/ researcher and same voicelines.
Explain two ways in which Milgram collected data in his original study?
- Level of voltage reached on shock generator
- number of prods used on participant
What is the Generalisability of Milgramās study?
Study cannot be generalised to anyone that is not caucasian, male, American and between the ages 20-50 e.g. no women, no other ethnicity etc.. due to sample size having no variation
What is the Reliability of Milgramās study?
The experiment was reliable/ repeatable as it included pre-scripted prods, voice recordings for the learnerr
What is the Application of Milgramās study?
The holocaust, german soldiers who followed orders killing innocent people when in certain setting and presence of authoity speaker
What is the Validity of Milgramās study?
Milgramās original experiment did lack validity as it couldnt be true for people/ situations outside the experiment e.g lacked ecological validity (variation of location), was Androcentric (gender bais towards males) etc..
What were the Ethics of Milgramās study?
It was not 100% clear to participants that their right to withdraw still stood when they were actually doing experiment due to the somewhat passive agressive prods, this therfore could subject particiapnts to psychological harm or psychological deception. Although Milgram did follow some participants up and provided counsiling a year later - Milgram did debrief after experiment
What are the 3 main things to write about with Variations of a study?
- Difference in method
- Difference in results
- Difference in conclusion
Explain Variation #7 of Milgramās study
- # 7: Absent Authority (phone call variation)
- In this variation, differing form original, experimenter gives teacher/ participant instructions at the start then leaves the teacher alone in the room with the generator and a telephone
- If teacher had concerns/ questions, they were told to phone on telephone; experimenter would still deliver prods, just over the phone instead, removing the physical immediacy and human face/ e.g. lab coat appearance from the prods
What were the results from Variaton #7 of Milgramās Study?
- There was a significant drop in obedience
- Original study had a 65% obedience rate whereas this variation presented Milgram with a mere 22.5% obedeience rate with 9 out of the 40 participantsobeying, a massive decrease
- Could be explained with participants administering a lower shock than they were supposed to as they thought they were alone - when in reality they were being observed on a hidden camera
What did Milgram conclude from Variation #7 of his study?
That the presence of the authority figure (physical immediacy) is important in obedience
Explain Variation #10 of Milgramās study
- # 10: Institutional Context (Bridgeport variaton)
- In this variation the study took place in a run-down office the town of Bridgeport (rougher/ less put-together) where the original took place in rather prestigious surroundings, Yale Uni
- Milgram made nothing to suggest a relation to the university, stating that the experimenter was from a private firm
- Overall, Milgram removed the legitimacy of the setting putting some doubt or concern into participants mind in some cases
What were the results from Variaton #10 of Milgramās Study?
- There was again a decrease in obedeince
- Original study had a 65% obedience rate whereas this variation presented Milgram with a 45.5% obedience rate, 19 out of the 40 partitipants obeying
- Milgam didnt think this a great enough decrease
- Participants showed more dobut and asked more questions
- one made notes as if he intented to complain at the end
- one objected claiming that the experiment was āheatlessā
What did Milgram conclude from Variation #10 of his study?
That the legitimacy of the setting is not as important for the obedience as the social status of the authority figure or the presence of the authority figure like in #7
Explain Variation #13 of Milgramās study
- # 13: Ordinary Authority Figure
- In this variation of the study experimenter explains the procecdure to the participant but is then called away, importantly experimenter doesnt tell participant to increase shock by 15V incraments with each correct answer
- There was a second confedorate with no apparent legitimate authority that appears to be an other participant tasked with āwriting down the times of each test
- With the experimenter gone the new confedorate, disguised as another participant suggests a ānewā way of doing the experiment, taking the voltage up by 15V incraments per every mistake from the learner
- Confedorate was āsuggestingā a ānewā way of doing the experiment which is actually the original way to make it seem to participant (who hasnt ever been told actual way in this variation by experimenter) that its an alternate way
What were the results from Variaton #13 of Milgramās Study?
- There were only 20 participants in this study with 4 out of 20 following the request of the other confederate (20%) and the other āgoodā participants (16) choosing not to follow the ānewā proposed way of shocking people
- Therefore only 4 people decided to follow the illegitimate authority - those people may have been anomalous e.g. enjoyed hurting people
What did Milgram conclude from Variation #13 of his study?
Milgram concluded that the status of the authority figure/ presence is important, but other features of the situation e.g. instructions - still create obedience
Explain Variation #13a of Milgramās study
- # 13a: rebel variaton
- Milgram took the 16 āgoodā volunteers from the 20 that took part in #13 and seamlessly (from their perspective) as soon as they decided not to obey transformed the experiment from #13 to #13a
- In this sub-variation the second confedorate/ āparticipantā from #13 suggests that him and actual participant swap roles e.g. the confedorate administering the shocks and participant recording the times; the participant was now a bystander to the confedorates shocks e.g. they now watched confedorate mercilessly shock the learner
What were the results from Variaton #13a of Milgramās Study?
- From this new perspective, all 16 participants protested to the shocking at some point
- 5 attempted to unplug generator or physically restrain confedorate to prevent further shocks
- 68.75%, (11 out of 16) allowed the confedorate to administer full 450V shock
What did Milgram conclude from Variation #13a of his study?
Milgram therefore concluded that people are more likely to be bystanders (68.75% of participants) than to intervine to prevent abuse of authority
What was Variation #8 of Milgramās study?
- Variation #8: Female Participants
- This variation was identical to Milgramās original study just with female participants
- This variation was conducted to enforce the entire studies representability/ generalisability outside the original samples of men
What were the results of Variation #8 of Milgramās Study?
The variation yielded results identical to that of the original study - 65% obedience rates for the women, the same as the original experiment with the male participants
What was Variation #5 of Milgramās study?
- Variation #5: Empathetic Variation
- When learner and teacher were being chosen before experiment began, Mr Wallace (the learner/ actor) told experimenter and participant about his āheart conditionā
- Same as original study other than when 150V was reached, Mr Wallace (learner) started to ācomplainā via the pre-recorded voice recordings about his heart condition and that he shouldnt be doing this (done in an attempt to evoke empathy)
What were the results of Variation #5 of Milgramās Study?
- Most participants (teachers) either:
- refused to continue past 150V due to complains about heart from learner
- felt obliged to continue all the way to the end
NO QUANTATIVE DATA FOR THIS VARIATION
