Social Study - Milgram

Question 1

When was the study published?

Answer 1

1963

Question 2

when was the study carried out?

Answer 2

1962

Question 3

What is the background of the study?

Answer 3

Adolf Eichmann, a nazi officer was arrested for being a war criminal. He thought/said “wasn’t guilty because he was just following orders”. He wanted to find out whether German people were the only people that followed authority figures.

Question 4

What is obedience?

Answer 4

Compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another authority.

Question 5

What is authority?

Answer 5

The power or right to give orders, make decisions and enforce obedience

Question 6

What is experimenter?

Answer 6

A person who performs a scientific procedure especially in a laboratory, to determine something.

Question 7

What was the aim?

Answer 7

To investigate the process of obedience by testing how far ordinary Americans would go in obedience an authority figure.

Question 8

What was the research method?

Answer 8

Controlled observation - Milgram was watching to see how people react. He watched through a one way mirror. Milgram had full control of everything other than the people’s reaction.

Question 9

Describe the sample used.

Answer 9

Aged 20-50 males. Wanted 500 got 40. Worked as factory workers, labourers, barbers, city clerks, professional workers etc. They were all around Yale University.

Question 10

What was the sampling method?

Answer 10

Self-selecting. In New Haven. Participants were paid $4.00 with 50 c car fare.

Question 11

What were the weaknesses of the study?

Answer 11

Didn’t get enough people (small sample size)
Not a large variety (gender)
Only from New Haven - wealthy area
Missing gender difference

Question 12

What were the strengths of the study?

Answer 12

Various professions
Generalisable to the Nazi officers
Ages

Question 13

What were the weaknesses of obtaining the sample?

Answer 13

Rich area - don’t need money
Might not get a wide variety
Getting people who are currently obedient
Expensive

Question 14

What were the strengths of obtaining the sample?

Answer 14

Lots of people would view it
Get consent
No researcher biased
Easy

Question 15

What is the procedure?

Answer 15

Seemingly pick a role - you got teacher Mr Walace is learner
See electrodes strapped to him
Given trial shock of 45 v
Learner has word pairs to remember - teacher asked
If learner got incorrect - get shocked 15 v intervals - max. 450 v
At 300 v - banging on wall
after - no response
315 v - bangs on wall again
Experiment ends when teacher reached 450 v or refuses to continue.

Question 16

What were the prods?

Answer 16

Please continue
The experiment requires you to continue
It is absolutely essential that you continue
You have no other choice, you must go on
Then you can leave

Question 17

What were the controls?

Answer 17

Prods, how many volts in between each shock, Mr Walace, acting responses, test shock of 45V, always teacher, fixed lottery, experimenter, word pair task, shock generator.

Question 18

What was the prediction of the Yale University students?

Answer 18

1.2% would go all the way to 450V

Question 19

What were the quantitative results?

Answer 19

65% went all the way up to 450V - were obedient
0% left before 300V

Question 20

What were the qualitative results?

Answer 20

Watched through the one way mirror
Extreme stress - sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan, dig their finger nails into skin
13 showed nervous laughter
3 had seizures
“I can’t do that to a man”
“I’ll hurt his heart”

Question 21

What was the conclusion?

Answer 21

Situation produced strong tendencies to obey
Situation had caused emotional strain and tension
Germans aren’t different

Question 22

Explanation of findings

Answer 22

Took place at Yale - credible institution
Results = useful
Learner had volunteered - obliged to continue
Participants were paid
By chance, role was picked
Lack of clarity - overstepping limit
Participants were assures shocks weren’t dangerous
Researcher dresses in lab coat - competent

Question 23

Ethical guidelines broken

Answer 23

Deception - tricked about Mr Walace
Debrief - said to be about memory
Protection from harm - some suffered from harm
Right to withdraw - prods used
Informed consent - were not told the true aim

Question 24

Ethical guidelines upheld

Answer 24

Confidentiality - all evidence was kept private
Debrief - told and shown after experiment that the learner was ok.

Question 25

Was is ethnocentric?

Answer 25

Milgram study took place in America so you cannot generalise so it might not be the same in other places
Milgram went elsewhere and replicated the study - different results.

Question 26

What was the obedience of USA Female general population?

Answer 26

65%

Question 27

What was the obedience of Italian Students?

Answer 27

85%

Question 28

What was the obedience of German Male general population?

Answer 28

85%

Question 29

What was the obedience of UK Male students?

Answer 29

50%

Question 30

What was the obedience of Jordan Students?

Answer 30

62%

Question 31

What was the obedience of Austrian general population?

Answer 31

80%

Question 32

Internal Reliability - Was the procedure standardised and replicable?

Answer 32

Mr Walace - learner
Shock machine
Starter shock and shock increasing value
Prods
Responses eg. 300V - bang on wall

Question 33

External Reliability - Was the sample large enough to suggest a consistent effect?

Answer 33

Definitely replicated it after
40 men is a large sample and showed consistent results
Backed up by study replication

Question 34

Internal Validity - Was it testing obedience? Could there be any other possible reasons for the behaviour reported?

Answer 34

Payment may have been cause of obedience (bad)
Highly regarded Uni may have meant participants were more likely to obey (bad)
Demand characteristics (bad)
Controlled so no other variables influencing results (good)

Question 35

External (population) validity - Can the sample be generalised from?

Answer 35

Only US males (therefore can’t be generalised to other cultures or females) (bad)
Wide age and occupation range (good)

Question 36

External (ecological) validity - Was the scenario true to life?

Answer 36

No
Do not fear there will be personal consequences (bad)
Not everyday you shock people! (bad)