social psychology - authority - Milgram Flashcards
the context of the study
Based around Hitlers influence on the German people for killing Jews. He wanted to know if it was only Germans that would kill because of Hitler and whether they had evil culture.
what was the method and technique used in the observation?
method:
- controlled observation
techniques:
- videos, note taking and
photographs taken
(qualitative data)
- people observing the
experiment through a one
way mirror
what was the sample like?
- all from new haven
- all males (androsentric)
- 40 men used
- upper, lower and middle
classes used - 26 to 50 years old
- ALL VOLUNTEERS
- different professions
what materials were used?
- electric shock machine
- list of words to remember
- two rooms with a desk with
- buttons on and a desk on
other side - chairs
- one room with two deck
and chairs so
experimenter could look in
on teacher - one way mirror
- pre recorded sound
- microphone to listen in
- camera to take
photographs - pen and notepad to take
notes
what was the procedure ?
1) two straws role of the teacher always given to volunteers.
2) gave the learner given shock to see what was like.
learner memorises word pairs
3) get the teacher to read out one word.
4) learner reads out pair to that word.
6) if the learner got wrong, would be electrocuted.
7) the electric shocks went up 15 volts each time learner got wrong. highest was 450 volts.
8) finished when the teacher disobeyed or when 450 volts was reached.
what were the results?
- 65% of teachers went up to
450 volts - 100% of teachers went up
to 300 volts. - was predicted by students
that only 1.2% would go
up to 450 volts. - 26 people used 450 volts
and all 40 went up to 300
what are the conclusions?
- People obey people of
authority even if they don’t
agree with what the
authoritative figure is
telling them to do. It is not
just German people, but
most humans. - Americans are more
obedient than they
expected.
pros and cons of the method
pros:
- standardised so repeatable
- lab setting so controlled
environment
- no participant variables
cons:
- no control over IV
- might miss something
during observation
- bias!
pros and cons of techniques:
pros:
- won’t miss anything
- anything that is missed
can be re-watched and
check for anything missed.
cons:
- invasive
- breaches confidentiality
what type of data was obtained?
quantitative:
- the percentages of people that go up to 450 colts
qualitative:
- the words that people said
- recordings of the peoples
reactions
pros and cons of the data obtained
quantitative
pros:
- large chunks of data can be
taken quickly and
accurately
- work out statistics and
trends
cons:
- not much depth into the
data recorded
qualitative:
pros:
- provides detail and context
more subjective to bias
cons:
- don’t fit neatly into
standing categories
what are the ethical considerations?
ethical:
- right to withdraw
- the participants were
debriefed
- presumed consent
not ethical:
- not full consent
- deception
- was not lesser harm
the validity of the study
valid:
- had internal valid
- reduced demand
characteristics
- no extraneous variables -
- very controlled conditions
same prompts, same
person being
experimented on, same
increase of voltage in
shocks.
- different professions
invalid:
- but no ecological validity
- not all as wanted to see
how people would
conform.
what is the reliability of this study
VERY RELIABLE !
- same instructions
- voltage increased the same
amount each time
- same prompts
- same environment the
teacher was put into
- same cards
- same audio
- Milgram very consistent
with his studies as kept
everything very very
controlled
- explicable because
standardised
overall a very reliable study
sample bias
- volunteer - only a certain
type of people volunteer - androcentric - all men
- ethnocentric - new haven
- small sample - 40
- set age range
- small variety of -
- professions
cant generalise the result because flaws in results due to sampling
