Milgram's Study

Explain the key aspects of the procedure of Milgram’s study of obedience

• 40 US men given role of teacher through fixed draw

• Ordered by experimenter to shock learner when they made a mistake in a word recall task

• Shocks increased 15V with each mistake up to 450V

Explain the findings of the baseline variation

• 65% went to the top of the shock scale (450V)

• 100% went to 300V

• Many participants showed signs of stress and objected but continued anyway

• Prior survey suggested only 3% would obey

Explain what conclusions can be drawn from the baseline variation of the experiment

• People are much more likely to obey than we think

• People underestimate the impact of situation on behaviour and overestimate the impact of personality

Identify:

• where the location variation took place

• obedient %

• why obedience changed

• run-down office block

• Obedience dropped to 47.5%

• Business lacked authority of science present at Yale

Identify:

• procedure of the proximity variation

• Obedience %

• Why the obedience changed

• teacher and learner in the same room

• Obedience dropped to 40%

• Teacher could see the learner’s suffering

Explain reasons why some psychologists believe that participants were reacting to demand characteristics

• participants wouldn’t think that researchers would actually harm participants during experiments

• Screams on tape might sound fake

• Unconvincing acting from experimenter

• Perry found evidence of participants questioning experimenter on tapes

Explain reasons why some psychologists believe that participants weren’t reacting to demand characteristics

• participants showed stressed behaviour during the experiments - suggesting they believed the shocks were real

• 75% of participants said afterwards that they did believe the shocks were real

• Participant gave real shocks to puppies in Sheridan & King’s experiment

Identify some standardised elements of the procedure

• feedback from learner on tape

• ‘Prods’ used by experimenter

Explain why there might have been EV’s that arose from the experimenters behaviour over time

• Hard to be a consistent actor over time/between conditions

• Perry found evidence of increased confidence/authority over time from experimenter

Explain reasons to think the study has good mundane realism

• involved an authority figure and subordinate (hierarchical relationship)

• Authority came from socially sanctioned role (uniform)

Explain reasons to think the study had bad mundane realism

• giving shocks for errors in learning is an unusual occurrence

• Reason for harming the learner isn’t really justified

Explain the procedure and results of Hofling’s study of obedience

• ‘Dr Smith’ (confederate) phoned nurses working alone on wards at different hospitals

• He instructed them to give a patient 20mg of ‘Astroten’ - which broke the hospital rules (overdose)

• 21/22 nurses obeyed the order

Explain the procedure and results of Bickman’s study of obedience to authority

• confederates dressed in jacket and tie/milkman’s outfit/security guard’s uniform

• Participants were 2x likely to obey the confederate in a uniform

Explain how Hofling and Bickman’s results are relevant to the ecological validity of Milgram’s study

• Bickman’s was a field experiment, which tests behaviour in a more realistic situation

• Both studies show that people will obey authority figures

• Even if it harms others (Hofling)

Explain 5 ways in which Milgram deceived participants

• the study was testing obedience not memory

• They were the participant, not the learner

• the learner was a confederate

• The draw for role as teacher or learner was rigged

• No shocks were given, the learners ‘responses’ were recordings

Explain how Milgram’s study can be criticised for lack of protection of participants

• participants experienced lengthy, high anxiety

• participants believed they were harming the ‘learner’

• the task was more stressful than everyday life