milgram obedience

what milgram studying

• obedience to authority

• why so many German soldiers followed hitlers orders

• people can be obedient even asked to do something that goes against their own morals

milgram obedince procedure

• 40 american men

• met another person (confedirate of milgram) and drew straws as who was learner and who was teacher. participant always teacher

• participants told it was a study of how punishment affects learning

• teacher tests learner on ability to remebr word pairs. each time wrong, teacher gives a shock

• learner mostly gave wrong answer until 300 where he pounds on wall then silent

• if teacher asks to stop, they are told to continue by experimenter

what was the range of shocks

15 V to 450V

what was the only real shock of the experiment

when the teacher was given 15 V at start if experiment

what prompts was teacher given if they didn’t want to continue

“it is absolutely essential you continue”

“you have no other choice you must go on”

findings of milgram

• milgram told beforehand by other rpos they didn’t think many would go beyond 150 volts and 1 in 1000 would do 450

• in study, 26 out of 40 did 450 V

• all participants went up to 300 V

• 5 stopped at 300

• there were warnings at 420 and 450

• all participants showed signs of extreme tension

• 3 had uncontrollable seisures

conclusions of milgram studies

• German soldiers were not different

• American participants obeyed orders even though they were immoral and harmed another person

• suspected there was more too it so he conducted more studies

EVALUATION: Orne and Holland argue milgram lacks internal validity

• They argued some of the participants worked out the teacher was not actually harming the student as the experimenter remained cool and distant

• the lack of concern from experimenter in a demand characteristic for teacher

• makes them believe they are not actually harming student so study is no longer measuring obedience

EVALUATION: counter point for orne and holland saying there was low internal validity

• some participants refused to continue with shocking

• suggests they truly believed they were harming student

• some teachers were also very stressed and anxious, suggesting they believed the shocks to be real

EVALUATION: high levels of obedience were not surprising

• Fromm claims that as milgrams p’s knew they were part of scientific experiment, this made them more likely to obey than in real life

• therefore must be cautious about generalising findings believing that majority of people would commit crimes in real life

EVAULATION: milgram study should not be compared to the holocaust

• mandel said concs lacked external validity and felt there were key differences between study and holocaust

• soldiers were punished if they didn’t go through with it. soldiers knew what they were doing whereas some teachers worked out it was fake

• therefore very different circumstances that made soldiers obey when compared to milgram

• it only really suggests people will obey if they believe they are not harming the other person, not that they would obey to extreme events such as the holocaust

EVALUATION: support for milgram from puppy study

• support for og findings

• students gave real shock to puppies= real distress

• 54 % if men and 100% of women gave what they thought was a fatal shock

• suggests milgram has internal validity