Situational Variables Affecting Obedience (Milgram) Flashcards
1
Q
When did Milgram’s experiment take place?
A
1963.
2
Q
What was the procedure of Milgram’s experiment?
A
- participants told it was a study of how punishment affects learning
- a confederate played the role of learner and the real participant played role of teacher
- placed in separate rooms, with “learner” attached to electrodes
- another confederate who was the “researcher” stayed in the same room as the participant
- learner had to state the correct word pair from a list of words given by participant
- if they got it wrong, participant had to shock them
- researcher gave verbal prompts if participant refused
3
Q
What were the findings of Milgram’s experiment?
A
- people previously predicted that very few participants would exceed 150volts and only 1 in 1000 would administer 450volts
- 65% continued to 450volts
- all participants went to 300volts
- only 12.5% stopped at 300volts (this was were learner began to object , e.g. screaming in pain)
4
Q
What were the results of the proximity variable?
A
- when participant and learner in same room, obedience fell to 40%
- touch proximity lowered to 30%
- experimenter absent from room lowered obedience to 21%
5
Q
What were the results of location variable?
A
- psych lab saw higher obedience levels than in a run-down office
6
Q
What were the results of uniform variable?
A
- Bushman (1988) found that people were more likely to give change to a confederate if the person asking them to was dressed as a police woman (72%) than as a beggar (52%)
7
Q
What are the strengths of Milgram’s experiment?
A
- many variations on experiment which increases internal validity
- results can be seen in many real life scenarios (Major Trapp’s offer for other tasks instead of murdering)
8
Q
What are the weaknesses of Milgram’s experiment?
A
- deception was used which could make their consent uninformed
- psychological harm was suffered by some participants
- lack of mundane realism
