Milgram Flashcards
(30 cards)
Agentic state
Pp will blindly do whatever they are told, as the responsibilities of their actions are not on them. Done from the fact that obedience is rewarded - disobedience is punished
Autonomous state
Pp are fully aware of the consequences of their actions, and therefore have more choice
Aim
To see whether Pp would be more obedient to a person of authority. Specifically, if the Pp would be willing to enforce physical harm on such victims. To do this, he arranged a laboratory study involding administering electric shocks to a victim under the orders of a researcher
type of study
Observation
False aim
They were looking to see whether punishment had an effect on how people learn
Number of pp
40
demographic of Pp
- all male
- range of age - 20-50
- all from connecticut, USA
Sampling method
volunteer
Where experiments took place
Yale university
experimenter characteristics + wearing
- wore a grey technician’s coat
- manner was not rude, but stern
- 31 year old highschool teacher of biology
Victim characteristics
47 year-old accountant
- likeable manner
DV
How far each Pp would go down the shock generator
Prods given to Pp to encourage them to continue
- “please continue”
- “the experiment requires that you continue”
- “it’s absolutely essential that you must continue”
- “you have no other choice, you must go on”
Describe the shock generator
- 30 switches
- 15V-450V
- Light shock; moderate shock; strong shock; very strong shock; intense shock; high intensity shock; danger severe shock; XXX
- red light lights in correspondance to shock level, and a blue shock buzz goes off
Obediant operationalisation
- anyone who continued after 300V level
defiant operationalisation
- anyone who broke off before 300V
Example question from after interview
“how painful were the last few shocks that you administered to the learner?”
14-point scale
Link to assumption of social approach
- behaviour, cognitions and emotions can be influenced by other individuals
- Behaviour, cognitions and emtions can be influenced by groups of people, and social contexts
Two surprising findings
- the obedience level: 65%
- How much stress and tension was caused as a result
Conclusions
- people are much more obediant to authoritave figures than we might think
- Despite obedience levels, Pp find following orders extremely stressful
psychology investegated
Disposition or situation?
Agentic and autonomous state
define disposition
A person’s inherent qualities of a mind and character
Milgram’s explaination for such high amounts of obedience shown
- Yale uni, and the purpose of the (false) experiment made it seem legit
- Pp think the victim did this voluntarily
- told that the shock levels are “not dangerous”
Individual or situational?
Both
