Milgram Flashcards
Milgrams key theme + area
Key theme = responses to people in authority
Area = social area
Aim
To investigate the tendency for destructive obedience
Context
In relation as to why German soldiers followed hitler.
Method
40 male volunteers told they were asking part in a learning experiment. They took role of teacher + confederate took role of learner (rigged that way). Teacher giving what they thought were painful shocks to confederate whom they believed to be a ppt too. Shocks increased 15v for every wrong answer and went to a max of 450v.
At 300v learner banged on wall c begged. After they went silent
Standardised prompts
- “Please continue”
- “The experiment requires you to continue”
- “ it is absolutely essential that you continue”
- “ you have no other choice to continue”
Results
100% of ppts went up to 300v
65% gave full 450v
Most ppts showed signs of stress when giving shocks = sweating, breakdowns, asking for reassurance, seizures
Conclusion
People are surprisingly obedient to orders given by people in authority. However become distressed when obeying orders to hurt another person
Usefulness
Useful as it created a change in attitudes about factors causing wars, not disposition of people that cause wars but obedience to authority
Ethics
Debriefed but after, caused psychological + physical harm
Ecological validity
Low as rare that you’d be giving someone shocks for answering a question wrong. But ppts showed higher demand characteristics due to prestigious nature of Yale
Generalisability
Low as all were men, similar ages, all from north east America
Reliability
Highly replicable as it was standardised
