Social Psychology - Studies

Question 1

Aim of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 1

To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when ppts were told by a figure of authority to administer electric shocks to another person.

Question 2

Sample of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 2

Milgram recruited a volunteer group of 40 men from New Haven, aged 20-50 years old, through newspapers and letters.

Question 3

Procedure of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 3

They were introduced to 2 men; a mild mannered man and a second man; both were confederates.

A ppt was given the role of ‘teacher’ and a confederate was given the role of ‘learner’. (decided through a random allocation.)

The ppt had to ask the confederate a series of questions and when the confederate got the answer wrong, the participant had to give him an electric shock, even when no answer was given.

The electric shocks incremented by 15 volts at a time, ranging from
300V to 450V, where 330V was marked as ‘lethal’.

The experimenter’s role was to give a series of orders / prods when
the participant refused to administer a shock, which increased in
terms of demandingness for every time the participant refused to
administer a shock.

Question 4

Results of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 4

Milgram found that all of the real ppts reached at least 300 volts.

12.5% stopped at
300V and 65% of ppts remained in the experiment until 450 volts, the max voltage.

Milgram did more than one experiment.

3 people had full-blown seizures.

Question 5

Conclusions of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 5

Milgram concluded that people either obey out of fear or out of a desire to appear co-operative, even when they are aware it is against their better judgement. The results suggested that when faced with authority, people are highly obedient and influenced.

Question 6

Generalisability of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 6

All males within a specific age group, same place, was conducted in 1960s, self selected sample; not generalisable.

Question 7

Reliability of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 7

Can be replicated; variation studies, Burger’s study etc.
Standardised procedures.

Question 8

Application of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 8

Can be applied to real life situations like the Holocaust in WW2. It also could explain the behaviour of the soldiers and their obedience.

Question 9

Validity of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 9

Well standardised and obedience accurately operationalized; experimentally valid.

Artificial testing and ppts were aware they were being tested; low ecological validity.

Question 10

Ethical issues of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Answer 10

Ppts were deceived and did not give informed consent, moral strain and when the ppts tried to withdraw, the prods (pre-written commands) made it harder for the ppts.

Question 11

Aim of Milgram’s Experiment 7 (telephonic instructions)?

Answer 11

To establish whether or not the proximity of the experimenter had an influence on the level of obedience displayed.

Question 12

Aim of Milgram’s Experiment 7 (telephonic instructions)?

Answer 12

To establish whether or not the proximity of the experimenter had an influence on the level of obedience displayed.

Question 13

Procedure of Milgram’s Experiment 7 (telephonic instructions)?

Answer 13

After giving the initial instructions to the teacher face to face, the experimenter left the room and continued to give instructions and prompted the teacher by telephone from another room.

Question 14

Results of Milgram’s Experiment 7 (telephonic instructions)?

Answer 14

Milgram found that the number of ppts willing to administer the max voltage decreased from 65% to 22.5%. Many participants also cheated and missed out shocks or gave less voltage than ordered to rather than increasing the shock level when they were told.

Question 15

Conclusions of Milgram’s Experiment 7 (telephonic instructions)?

Answer 15

He concluded that when the experimenter is not face to face with the participant, it is easier not to obey. The face to face interaction could be more effective than the telephonic instructions as the physical presence of the experimenter would be more imposing.

Question 16

Aim of Milgram’s Experiment 10 (rundown office block)?

Answer 16

To see if the level of obedience was affected by the settings/surroundings.

Milgram changed the setting to Yale as many of his ppts said Yale was prestigious so they trusted the competence of the experimenter.

Question 17

Procedure of Milgram’s Experiment 10 (rundown office block)?

Answer 17

Participants were led to believe it was a private research firm ‘Research Association of Bridgeport’ without apparent connection to Yale university but in commercial office. Participants were recruited through mail-shot recruitment and paid for their time as original study.

Question 18

Results of Milgram’s Experiment 10 (rundown office block)?

Answer 18

Milgram found a slight reduction in obedience; 48%. Milgram believed this was because private research firms are viewed as less prestigious than Yale so it is easier to doubt the researcher’s ethics.

Question 19

Conclusion of Milgram’s Experiment 10 (rundown office block)?

Answer 19

Milgram concluded that the surroundings reduced the legitimacy of the study. The surroundings could have affected the study so the obedience fell.

Question 20

Aim of Milgram’s Experiment 13 (ordinary man gives orders)?

Answer 20

To study the impact of power relations.

Question 21

Procedure of Milgram’s Experiment 13 (ordinary man gives orders)?

Answer 21

3 people arrived at the lab - the participant and 2 confederates. A rigged draw designated the roles:
the learner: the first confederate.
the experimenter: the second confederate.
the ‘teacher’: the participants.

The experimenter followed instructions to strap the learner in the electric chair but did not tell the teacher what levels of shock to give during the study. The experimenter then got a phone call telling them to leave the room.

Question 22

Results of Milgram’s Experiment 13 (ordinary man gives orders)?

Answer 22

Milgram found that 80% of ppts never reached the maximum shock; the level of obedience fell to 20%.

Question 23

Conclusion of Milgram’s Experiment 13 (ordinary man gives orders)?

Answer 23

The experimenter leaving the room and leaving the learner with the teacher could have negative effects. It proves orders must come from a legitimate source to be effective.

Question 24

Aim of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)? - CLASSIC STUDY

Answer 24

To explore how competition and frustration of a group’s goals can lead to unfavourable stereotyping of another group.

Question 25

Procedure of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 25

The sample was 22 middle class Protestant 11 year old boys from the USA. They were divided into 2 groups, later called the ‘Rattlers’ and the ‘Eagles’.
The experiment was split into 3 phases:
The in group formation - the boys took part in non-competitive activities to bond.
The friction phase - each group learned of the other’s existence and created a tournament to gain prizes.
The integration/reducing friction phase - tasks like watching movies together increased social contact.

Question 26

Results of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 26

The rattlers and eagles were established and differing social norms became apparent between the groups; the Rattlers were tough and swore a lot, whilst the Eagles were more sensitive and cried more often.
In-group members were seen as brave, tough and friendly and out group members were more likely to been seen as sneaky.

Question 27

Conclusion of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 27

Intergroup competition leads to increased ingroup favouritism and solidarity but outgroup hostility. The conclusions led to Sherif developing the realistic conflict theory.

Question 28

Generalisability of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 28

Not generalisable; small sample, all boys, sporty/competitive, all from one place (USA), 11-12 years old.

Question 29

Reliability of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 29

Boys were asked the same questions; sociometric data is reliable.
Tape recordings were made and can be checked again for further detail.
Multiple researchers = good interobserver reliability.
Difficult to replicate and previous study had different results.

Question 30

Application of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 30

Used as evidence for realistic conflict theory; however may be limited as study used 11 year old boys.

Question 31

Validity of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 31

The study has ecological validity, because these were real boys at a real summer camp, doing real activities. Was unrealistic at times; camp counselors didn’t intervene until the boys were actually ready to fight each other.

It lacked a control group as Sherif does not have a “normal” summer camp to compare his camp to.

Question 32

Ethics of Sherif’s Robbers Cave study (1954/61)?

Answer 32

The boys’ parents consented for the boys to take part.
Right to withdraw allowed and two boys actually left the experiment altogether.
However, the boys were not aware they were on a study so right to withdraw isn’t completely used.

Question 33

Aim of Burger’s study (2009)? - CONTEMPORARY STUDY

Answer 33

To investigate obedience by partially replicating Milgram’s study.
To examine whether or not obedience is affected by gender or personality traits.

Question 34

Procedure of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 34

Lab experiment; used an independent groups design.
The volunteer sample consisted of 70 adults; 29 men, 41 women aged 20-81
The sample was gathered by distributing flyers at public places and ads.
The ppts were given $50 and allowed to leave at anytime.

Question 35

Results of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 35

The obedience rate was only slightly lower than Milgram’s.
70% of ppts reached 150V, compared to the 80% for Milgram’s study.
There was no significant difference in the empathic concern scores between the defiant and obedient ppts.

Question 36

Conclusion of of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 36

These findings show that Milgram’s results are not era-bound or endocentric.

Question 37

Generalisability of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 37

High generalizability; diversity in age and gender.

Low generalizability; Volunteers who are likely to be more obedient than the other ppts.

Question 38

Reliability of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 38

Replicated from Milgram’s study, same confederates and verbal prods.

Question 39

Application of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 39

Demonstrates how obedience to authority works and can be used to increase obedience in places.

However, Elms (2009) claims that Burger’s application tells us little about real world obedience; ppts were stopped before suffering any tension or moral strain.

Question 40

Validity of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 40

Good internal validity; the number of shocks that were given was a good indicator of their obedience level.

Lacks ecological validity; involved an artificial situation (lab experiment).

Question 41

Ethics of Burger’s study (2009)?

Answer 41

A two-step screening process was used to exclude ppts who would have a negative reaction.
15V sample shock instead of Milgram’s 45V,
Highest shock was lowered from 450V to 150V to avoid high anxiety levels in ppts.
Burger deceived his participants just as Milgram had done - the shocks weren’t real.

Question 42

To investigate what level of obedience would be shown when ppts were told by a figure of authority to administer electric shocks to another person.

Answer 42

Aim of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Question 43

Milgram recruited a volunteer group of 40 men from New Haven, aged 20-50 years old, through newspapers and letters.

The volunteers were told that they could drop out at any point.

They were introduced to 2 men; a mild mannered man and a second man; both were confederates.

A ppt was given the role of ‘teacher’ and a confederate was given the role of ‘learner’. (decided through a random allocation.)

The ppt had to ask the confederate a series of questions and when the confederate got the answer wrong, the participant had to give him an electric shock, even when no answer was given.

The electric shocks incremented by 15 volts at a time, ranging from
300V to 450V, where 330V was marked as ‘lethal’.

The experimenter’s role was to give a series of orders / prods when
the participant refused to administer a shock, which increased in
terms of demandingness for every time the participant refused to
administer a shock.

Answer 43

Procedure of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?

Question 44

Milgram found that all of the real ppts reached at least 300 volts.

12.5% stopped at
300V and 65% of ppts remained in the experiment until 450 volts, the max voltage.

Milgram did more than one experiment.

3 people had full-blown seizures.

Answer 44

Results of Milgram’s baseline study (1963)?