Milgram 1963

Milgram-Aim

His aim was to observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person

Milgram-Procedure

-randomly selected 40 male volunteers and gave them the role of either a teacher or a learner(confederate)

-the participant was placed in a different room from the learner and had to ask a series of questions

-whenever the learner got a question wrong , the participant had to give him an electric shock

-the electric shocks increased by 15 after every wrong answer

-the experimenters role was to give a series of prods for when the participant refused to administer a shock

Milgram-Findings

-all participants went up to 300V

-12.5% stopped at 300V

-65% went up to 450V

Milgram-Evaluation

+debriefing

+highly replicable

-Deception

-psychological harm

-lack of ecological validity

Extras

- Hofling et al (1966) arranged for an unknown doctor to telephone 22 nurses and ask each of them (alone) to administer the overdose of a drug they weren’t familiar with (astroten). 21 out of 22 nurses obeyed

-Rank and Jacobson replicated Hofling et al’s experiment but used the name of a known doctor and a drug they were familiar with (Valium) . 2 out of 18 nurses obeyed

Situational variables

Features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person’s behaviour

Factors affecting obedience

-proximity - the physical closeness or distance of an authority of figure and the person receiving the order. When r he teacher and learner were in the same room , obedience dropped from 65% to 40%

-Location - the place where the order is issued. When the experiment was conducted on a run down office block rather than Yale University, obedience dropped to 47.5%

-Uniform - specific outfits are a symbol of one’s authority . When the experimenter who wore a lab coat was replaced with a random member of the public , obedience fell to 20 %