Milgram's study

Question 1

Why was milgram interested in obedience?

Answer 1

Milgram’s parents were jews during ww2 and he was interested in figuring out why most of the Nazi party were so obedient

Question 2

What is obedience?

Answer 2

obeying an order or command from a legitimate figure of authority

Question 3

What was the aim of Milgram’s study?

Answer 3

To investigate what level of obedience participants would go to when asked to deliver electric shocks to someone by a legitimate authority figure

Question 4

What research method was Milgram’s study? Why?

Answer 4

Officially it was a controlled observation because there was no independent or dependent variable

Question 5

What was the sample like in Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

40 males aged 20-50 from the new haven area and a range of occupations

Question 6

What sampling method did Milgram use to obtain his sample? and what specifically did he do?

Answer 6

He used a self selecting sampling method by putting an ad in the newspaper.

Question 7

What is a weakness of Milgram’s way of obtaining his sample?

Answer 7

As all the participants volunteered themselves, they would all be fairly outgoing or extroverted, meaning he might not have gotten a representative sample

Question 8

What is a strength of Milgram’s way of obtaining his sample?

Answer 8

It was an extremely easy method of obtaining participants because all milgram had to do was out the ad in the paper

Question 9

What were the weaknesses of Milgram’s sample?

Answer 9

The size of the sample was limited and all of the participants were from the same place, so the results may not have been reflective of the wider population.

Question 10

What were the strengths of Milgram’s sample?

Answer 10

They were all of different ages and occupations. They were all of a similar age to the soldiers in the Nazi party in WW2.

Question 11

What were the controls in Milgram’s study?

Answer 11

The prods and instructions from the experimenter
Strapping Mr Wallace to the electric chair
recorded messages from Mr Wallace
Number and order of right and wrong answers
All participants were given the trial electric shock of 45 volts

Question 12

What are three examples of the ‘prods’ given by the experimenter in Milgram’s study?

Answer 12

The experiment requires that you continue
you have no other choice but to continue
please continue

Question 13

What were the quantitative results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 13

100% of participants went to 300 volts
65% went all the was to 450 volts (26 participants)

Question 14

In Milgram’s study, what happened at and after 300 volts were reached?

Answer 14

at 300 volts, the ‘learner’ banged on the wall and after that they didn’t answer any more questions

Question 15

What are the areas of Milgram’s qualitative results?

Answer 15

signs of extreme stress
participant statements

Question 16

Explain signs of extreme stress/tension as qualitative data in milgram’s study

Answer 16

There was video evidence of tension. Participants were observed to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their arms. 14 showed nervous laughter. 3 had seizures.

Question 17

What were the conclusions of Milgram’s study?

Answer 17

The situation produced strong tendencies to obey a legitimate authority figure.
The situation caused emotional strain and tension

Question 18

What are some potential explanations of the findings of Milgram’s study?

Answer 18

It took place at a prestigious university
there was separation between learner and teacher (wall)
Participants experienced cognitive conflict between their morals for not harming people and the tendency of humans to want to obey the perceived authority figure.

Question 19

What two ethical guidelines did Milgram uphold?

Answer 19

He debriefed the participants after the study, allowing them to give retrospective consent
He allowed them to reunite with the ‘learner’ and were offered therapy in an attempt to reduce psychological damage
He allowed them to withdraw, as 35% did leave before the end

Question 20

What five ethical guidelines did Milgram break? How?

Answer 20

Deception, consent, protection from harm, withdrawal, confidentiality

Question 21

How did Milgram break withdrawal guidelines?

Answer 21

He didn’t really give participants a chance to back out easily. Whenever participants expressed a desire to back out, the experimenter would respond with prods to keep them there, such as ‘you have no other choice but to continue

Question 22

How did Milgram break deception guidelines?

Answer 22

He deceived the participants many times during the experiment, and the entire experiment was a deception as participants thought that it was a study on how punishment affects learning

Question 23

How did Milgram break confidentiality guidelines?

Answer 23

He filmed participants and released those films to the public, potentially without their permission

Question 24

How did Milgram break protection from harm guidelines?

Answer 24

He caused the participants both severe psychological harm and physical harm as they were severely distressed and some had seizures.

Question 25

What happened before the official start of Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 25

The participants met the confederate (thinking that he was another participant) where he told them that he had a bad heart. The experimenter told them that this was a study to investigate the effects of punishment on learning. They ‘randomly’ selected who would be the ‘teacher’ (always the participant) and who would be the ‘learner’ (always Mr Wallace). The participant then helped to strap Mr Wallace into the chair and electrodes. They were then taken into the next rooms and given a trial shock of 45 volts.

Question 26

What happened after Milgram’s experiment?

Answer 26

All the participants were interviewed before a friendly reconciliation was arranged between the participant and Mr Wallace. The participants were all debriefed and an effort was made to reduce any tensions that arose.

Question 27

What are some examples of participant statements as qualitative data in Milgram’s study?

Answer 27

“I don’t think this is very humane”
“I’m going to chicken out. I’d like to continue, but i can’t do that to a man, i’ll heart his heart, you take your money”

Question 28

In Milgram’s study, when was the experiment considered as finished?

Answer 28

When the ‘teacher’ either reached 450 volts or refuses to continue

Question 29

What was the name of the task carried out by the ‘learner’ in Milgram’s study, and what did this entail?

Answer 29

A ‘word pair task’. The participant read out a list of word pairs and then the first word again followed by four options. The ‘learner’ had to select which of the four went with the first word.

Question 30

Describe the machine used in Milgram’s study

Answer 30

The electric shock generator had 30 switches in a horizontal line, each clearly labeled with the voltage ranging from 15 to 450 volts.

Question 31

What was the ratio of right to wrong answers in Milgram’s study?

Answer 31

three wrong answers to one right one

Question 32

What were the instructions given to the Participants in Milgram’s study?

Answer 32

They were told to ask the ‘learner’ the questions and every time they got a wrong answer, they had to read out the voltage level, then shock the learner. With each wrong answer, the voltage increased.

Question 33

What labels were given to the people who stayed vs left in Milgram’s study?

Answer 33

Those who stayed until the end (450 volts) were called obedient and those who left were called defiant

Question 34

Did Milgram’s study have Internal reliability?

Answer 34

Yes because it was all very standardised and each of the participants had the same procedure, room, actors etc

Question 35

Did Milgram’s study have external reliability?

Answer 35

Yes, because you can see a consistent effect that has been seen in replications of the study too

Question 36

Does Milgram’s study have External (ecological) reliability?

Answer 36

No, in no way is it true to life

Question 37

Does Milgram’s study have internal validity?

Answer 37

Yes, because they used the electric shock generator to measure obedience and all of the participants showed signs of severe distress and tension, therefore it was their obedience being measured.