Milgram (social) Flashcards
Milgrams aim ?
To find out if people would show obedience to an authority figure who told them to administer electric shocks to another person
What was the sample ?
40 people All males 20-50 From new haven America Range of backgrounds and occupations
What was the sampling method ?
Volunteer through adverts
This is good because p’s are more willing
This is not good as it is time consuming and may attract a certain type of individual
What is the procedure?
P’s gave consent to participate in a study on memory
The participant and confederate drew their roles from a hat ( it was rigged so the p’s always got the teacher)
P’s and confederate were taken into different rooms
Experimenter wore a lab coat and read out word pairs to the learner who had to learn them
During the task if the learner got a answer wrong the p’s would give them a shock and it would go up 15 volts each time
If the p’s did not want to continue the experimenter had standardised prods to encourage them “please continue”
The p’s were then debriefed and had to leave in a state of well being
What was the range of the shock generator?
15 - 450 volts
Results quantitative ?
He asked undergrads prior to the study what they thought would happen and asked them to estimate how many people would go all the way to 450 volts
They said 3/100
65% (26) of P’s went all the way
100% went to 300 volts
5 P’s stopped at 300 volts
Results qualitative ?
P’s showed signs of tension such as sweating
Digging nails into flesh
Biting lips
14 showed nervous laughter
3 had seizures
Comments such as “its not fair to shock the guy”
Why did the p’s obey ?
Prestigious location (yale uni)
Trusted experimenter
Had given consent
Felt obliged as they were being paid
Strengths of the study ?
Effects of the experiment could be observed clearly
The participants had given consent
Ecological validity is high in terms of experimental realism - people believed the situation and thought it was real
Weaknesses of the study ?
The p’s were decieved about the true aim of the study (to eradicate demand characteristics)
Debate as to weather p’s could withdraw as the prods suggested withdrawal was not an option
Many p’s suffered from stress - conflicting ethics
Lack of ecological validity- P’s know they are taking part in a study
Criticism of sample ?
Very ethnocentric
Volunteer could mean they all have similar personalities
Absence of wommen = androcentric this restricts generalisations
