Milgram 1963 Flashcards
(11 cards)
aim
to see whether people would obey an authority figure when told to harm another person
procedure
a ppant was assigned the role of teacher and a confederate was assigned the role of learner. the ppant would ask the learner various questions and each time the learner got an answer wrong they would receive an electric shock increasing by 15v each time. the machine went up to a max of 450v and 330v was marked as lethal. the ppant prior to the start of the experiment believed the shocks to be real and would even hear various screams of pain in between the shocks.
findings
all of the 40 ppants went up to 300v and 65% went up to 450v
conclusion
social setting is a powerful determinant of behaviour, the research showed that an ordinary person will electrocute someone for getting an answer wrong if told to by an authority figure.
:) practical applications
found that 65% of people will electrocute someone for getting an answer wrong T/F this can help to explain historic events such as Abu graib or the holocaust where mass amounts of ordinary people carried out orders from an authority figure which went against their morals
:) internal validity
the study was conducted in a highly controlled lab setting of Yale university so researchers had control over the IV - verbal prods - to see changes in DV T/F cause and effect can be stablished for the obedience findings
:( androcentric sample
all 40 of the ppants were men so t/f the findings that destructive orders will be obeyed can only be generalised to men and cannot be generalised to the wider population of women
:( deception
ppants should know the true aim of the study and what’s going to happen during the experiment
a disadvantage is that milligram breached deception as the ppants believed they were taking part in research on the effects of punishment on learning and not destructive obedience, they also didn’t know they electric shocks were fake T/F breached ethics
:) debrief
the debrief is where an experimenter will fully explain the study once the experiment has concluded
an advantage is that milligram did not breach the debrief as once the experiment ended he explained the true aim to the ppants, he showed that mr Wallace hadn’t suffered any shocks and he conducted a full psychological evaluation the day of and a year later T/F didnt breach ethics
:( right to withdraw
ppants should be able to withdraw from the study at any point.
a disadvantage is that milgram breached the right too withdraw as every time a ppant felt uncomfortable with what they were doing the researcher would give a series of verbal prods such a s please continue in order to keep them obedient
:) competence
a researcher should have a full understanding of the subject in order to prevent the ppants from being at the risk of psychological harm
an advantage is that milgram did not breach competence as he was a professior at Yale university and was an ashs phd student, he even asked the opinion of other researchers before conducting the experiment
