Milgram's study

what was Milgram’s incentive into studying obedience?

after the war , Germans were questioned as to why they would obey orders from someone commuting mass genocide , Milgram wanted to know if Germans were intrinsically different and obedience was more likely than other groups

what was milgram’s aim ?

to investigate whether ordinary people would obey a morally wrong order from an authority figure that would harm a innocent stranger

what was milgram’s sample like ?

• 40 American men aged 20-50 from New Haven Connecticut

how did he recruit his sample ?

through newspaper advert

what was the incentive for volunteers?

paid $4.50

where did the original study take place in?

lab at Yale university

After meeting the ‘experimenter’ and another ‘participant’ (all confederates) , what happened next ?

• ‘drew lots’ to see who would be assigned role of ‘teacher’ or ‘learner’

what role did the participant always get ?

‘teacher’ role

what was the ‘teacher’ adminstered to do ?

give electric shock of increasing strength after an incorrect answer was given

what was the ‘learner’ tasked to do and what was his ‘name’?

• had to recall a list of word pairs

• named ‘ Mr Wallace ‘

what was the ‘experimenter’ wearing?

grey lab coat

what was ‘the learner’s surroundings?

strapped into chair and attached to electrodes in the next room

what did the ‘teacher’ experience before any shocks were given to the learner?

‘teacher’ given a small , genuine shock to appear real throughout

when the ‘learner’ gave an incorrect answer what was the teacher expected to do ?

manually press switches with increasing voltages from 15V (slight shock) to 450V(deathly shock )

what happened after 300V (intense shock )?

the learner would bang on the walls and complain , giving no response

what happened after 315V?

no further responses were heard from the learner

the experiment continued until ……(two option)

• participant refused to continue

• or max level of 450 V reached

If the participant wanted to end experiment what would the experimenter say to them ? (4 prods )

• prod 1 - “please continue “

• prod 2 - “the experiment requires that you continue”

• prod 3 - “it is absolutely essential that you continue “

• prod 4 - “you have no other choice, you must go on “

what did Milgram find ?

• all participants went to atleast 300 V

• 65% continued to the full 450V

• 12.5% stopped at 300V

what qualitative data did he find ?

participants how’d signs of distress and tension , through sweating , shaking and stuttering

three had seizures

what did Milgram conclude ?

under pressure from an authority figure , ordinary people can obey despite harm to themselves and others

also that the notion that ‘germans are different’ is wrong , American men just as easily obey

what is a weakness of his study ?

• ethical issues

• deceived participants , didn’t say true aim of study , believed they were giving deathly shocks

• psychological harm - real distress , felt guilty afterward

• Baumrind (1964) said that deception in psychology can have serious consequence for all involved

• Milgram dealt with this through debriefing

what did Milgram’s debrief cover ?

• interviewed participants over reasoning behind obedience

• told them true nature of study

what is another weakness of his study ? hint . internal validity

• lacks internal validity

• Orne and Holland (1968) believed that participants didn’t think shocks were real and were ‘play acting’ despite Milgram claiming 75 % did

• Perry (2013) confirmed this by listening to tapes from Milgram’s study dining that 50 % believe the shocks were real and 66% of the disbelievers were also disobedient

• links demand characteristics to the results and therefore reduces the internal validity

what is a strength of Milgram’s study ?

• findings have been replicated

• high external validity

• Burger (2009) used ‘Obedience Lite’ procedure to avoid ethical issues

• after participants teacher 150V data collection ended

• If participant went this far then classed as fully obedient as Milgram found that 79% of people that continued passed 150V went to the full shock

• findings weren’t limited to particular setting and context .