Obedience

Milgram

• 40 American men

• drew lots with confederates. fixed so that ppt was always teacher

• also experimenter was there

• mr wallace - learner (in a diff room)

• every ppt delivered shocks up to 300 volts

• 12.5% stopped at 300, 65% went up to 450 volts

• observations - observed sweating, trembling, stuttering, biting lips, three had seizures

• ppts fully debriefed after, 84% said they were glad to have participated

AO3

• a strength is that there is supporting research

• a french documentary (beauvois et al) replicated the study in reality tv with a game called ‘the game of death’

• the ppts were paid to give electric shocks to other fake ppts in front of an audience. 80% of the ppts delivered the max shock of 460 volts. their behaviour was identical to Milgram’s ppt - nervous laughter, nail biting and other signs of anxiety

• french ppt displayed the same behaviour as the american ones which gives milgram’s study some cultural validity

• one limitation of the study is that it lacks internal validity.

• milgram assumes that the ppts were obedient but there is some evidence to suggest that they didnt believe the shocks for example

• orne and holland suggests that the ppts thought it was fake and were just ‘play-acting’. gina perry conducted research that supports this by listening to the ppt tapes. she found that only half believed the shocks were real. two thirds were disobedient

• this reduces the validity of the findings and suggests that it was subject to demand characterisitics.