Milgram - Obedience

Question 1

Apparatus

Answer 1

2 lab rooms at Yale university
1 room = learner with electric chair and answering device
2nd room= authentic looking but stipulated electric shock generator. Looked real with labelled switches.
“Slight shock”, “danger: sever shock”, “XXX”

Experimenter = actor
Learner (electrocuted) = actor
Teacher = participant

Question 2

Aim

Answer 2

To investigate whether participants would show obedience to an authority figure who told them to administer electric shocks to another person.

Question 3

Findings 1:

Answer 3

• Sheer strength of obedient tendencies that were displayed
• Learns from childhood - breach of moral conduct to hurt someone against their will… 26 abandon this under authority who had no special powers to enforce his commands
• From remarks and behaviours… Clear that many were acting against their own values. Displayed deep disapproval but most completed.
• Observers uttered expressions of disbelief as more powerful shocks administered.

Question 4

Findings 2:

Answer 4

• extraordinary tension generated by the procedures… Striking tension and emotional strained displayed
• mature and initially poised business entered lab smiling and confident. Within 29 minutes was reduced to twitching and stuttering wreck.
• rapidly approaching a point of nervous collapse.
• constantly pulled his earlobe and twisted his hands.
• one punched his fist into his forehead and muttered ‘Oh God, let’s stop it’. Yet continued to respond to experimenter and obeyed till the end.

Question 5

Conclusions

Answer 5

Findings show obedience to authority is due to situational factors….
1: experimental setting
2: status of the experimenter
3: pressure exerted on participants
….rather than dispositional factors eg. Deviant personality
Agentic state… Participant acts as ‘tool of the experimenter’= ‘I was only following orders’. This passes the responses for the consequences of his actions to the experimenter.

Question 6

Results

Answer 6

Subjects accepted situation.. Mostly convinced.
Signs of extreme tension (qualitative data)
14/40 nervous laughter
Sweating, trembling, stutter, groan, bite lips
3 subjects = violent convulsions and uncontrollable seizures.
Subjects in highly agitated state. “The guys suffering in there”
Some get up and indicate they wanted to leave.
Did administer shocks under extreme stress.
Those who continued still expressed the reluctance of those who dropped out.
Heaved sighs of relief, rubbed their fingers, mopped brows when all shocks completed. Shook head in regret.
Some calm throughout.
Debriefed at end… Reunited with the victim and answered that there were no shocks.
84% glad to have participated. 74% learnt something. = questionnaire results.
1 person sorry to have participated.

Question 7

What levels did people drop out?

Answer 7

All gave shocks to 300V.
At 300V learner kicked wall and gave no response.

Distribution of scores:
  300V = 5
  315V = 4
  330V = 2
  345V = 1
  360V = 1
  375V = 1
14 defied experimenter. 

1/3 dropped out.
65% to 450V (26/40).

Question 8

Design

Answer 8

Controlled observational study as there is no true IV.

Each participant experienced the same thing.

Question 9

Method

Answer 9

Lab experiment

Question 10

Sample

Answer 10

Volunteer
40 male
New Haven USA
Age 20/50
Recruited via newspaper
$4.50 (50 cent carfare)
Range of occupations and educational backgrounds.
YALE

Question 11

Background

Answer 11

I humane actions during holocaust.
German SS officers and Nazis in WW2.
Example that obedience bonds men to systems of authority.

Question 12

Hypothesis

Answer 12

German men are different to American men.

Question 13

IV

Answer 13

No independent variable

Question 14

DV

Answer 14

Obedience.. Max shock subject willing to administer before refusing to continue.

Question 15

Changes

Answer 15

1: use alternate locations
2: change sample used
3: improve ethical issues
4: sample not just from America, other countries.

Question 16

Procedure

Answer 16

1: questionnaire prior to experiment to predict behaviour (massively under estimated obedience)
2: rigged lottery, therefore true subject always assigned teacher
3: learner, attached to chair with electrodes attached to him
4: teacher, instructed to deliver electric shock for each wrong answer to a word association test, increase 15V each time (15V to 450V)
5: teacher demonstration of 45V to shocks machine working, this was the only time it did
6: learner pretended to receive shocks
7: teacher told shocks would not cause any permanent tissue damage
8: learner communicated answers through answering device, giving standardised responses and frequent incorrect responses
9: experimenter acted sternly throughout. If teacher showed reluctance standardised prods would be used. All in the same sequence…
- please go on. - the expire meant requires that you continue. - it’s absolutely essential you continue. - you have no other choice, you must go on (4th one to see if they follow orders)
10: refusal to continue after prod 4 = terminate experiment.
11: if asked if learner suffered = although the shocks may be painful, there is no permanent tissue damage, so please go on.
12: teacher thought learner didn’t want to continue experiment said ‘whether the learner likes it or not you ,use go on until he has learnt the word pairs correctly.’
13: wrong answer = electric shock. Shocks received in silence till level 300.
14: level 300 = pounded on the wall then gave no response to the next question.
15: when teacher turned to experimenter for instruction he said- ‘an a sense of response should be treated as a wrong answer.’
16: 315V learner pounded on the wall… After that nothing else happened.

Question 17

Advantage of sample.

Answer 17

All were volunteers, recruited via a newspaper advert and direct mailings, so were willing to participate fully and co-operatively in the study.
Sample included men from a range of occupations and educational backgrounds so was likely to be representative of the target population so findings in relation to obedience were generalisable.
Ethnocentric (all Americans) which allowed for direct comparison with Germans so he could test the ‘Germans are different hypothesis’.

Question 18

Observation method used..

Answer 18

Most sessions were filmed and occasional photographs were taken through one- way mirrors for the effects of the experimenter’s commands to be observed clearly. Notes were taken by the observers of any unusual behaviour that occurred during the experiment and, on occasions they were directed to write objective descriptions of the participants’ behaviour.

Question 19

Problem in the way obedience was measured

Answer 19

No ecological validity, therefore results can’t be said to reflect what would happen in a real life situation.

Raises serious concerns about stress and psychological harm