A-level psychology: Milgram's study

obedience to authority

what is the meaning of a social approach?

where the presence of other people or the environment/ situation influences or affects our behaviour

what was the background of Milgram's study?

he was interested in obedience and how far people would go in obeying an instruction in which another person was harmed.

this rooted from his interest in the German Nazis and the theory that ` Germans were different' and how easily ordinary people could be in influenced in committing heinous acts.

he was Jewish so it was a personal study

what year did Milgram's study take place?

1963

what method was used in Milgram's study?

it was in a controlled observation (not an experiment)

where was the location of Milgram's study?

it was conducted in a lab in Yale University (prestigious school)

what data was gathered in Milgram's study?

quantitative data was collected on the amount of electric shocks the participant gave

what was the sample in Milgram's study?

40 male participants aged 20-50 years, it was self selected( a newspaper advert) and the participants were offered $4.50 for showing up

what was done before the study took place and what were the findings?

Milgram conducted a questionnaire beforehand and only a small minority said that they would go through with the entire shock machine (prediction 1.2%)

wha was the range of volts on the shock machine?

the volts went from 15v to 450v

how many men gave shots up to 300v?

40/40 (100%)

how many men were blindly obedient and went up to 450 volts?

26/40 (65%)

how many men were disobedient?

14/40

how did the participants react to the study?

many participants showed signs of extreme stress (sweating, trembling and 3 people had mental breakdowns)

many participants commented on how distressed they were showed signs of relief when they had stopped the study

what did the participants think the study was about?

the participants thought the study was on how punishment affected learning/ memory

What were the ethical issues in Milgram's study?

there was psychological harm as many were distressed, participants were deceived about the true nature of the study and questions regarding the right to withdraw ('prod' statements),

How did Milgram deal with the ethical issues?

at the end of the study the participants were debriefed about the true nature of the study and that they were not inflicting any pain with the shock machine

what did Milgram's study find in relation to people responding to authority?

he concluded that people obey out of fear despite their true morals all, because a person in uniform was giving orders from a lab setting

how was obedience measured?

obedience was measured by how many switches were clicked, the higher the voltage, the more obedient they were

what were the strengths in Milgram's study?

the laboratory setting allowed variables to be controlled and internal validity was good as well as reliability

what were the weaknesses in Milgram's study?

it lacked ecological validity because the the test on obedience was tested in a lab setting which is very different to real life situations of obedience.

the sample used was also biased as it only consisted of 40 white males