Milgram: Obedience to authority

Question 1

Aim

Answer 1

• Milgram (1963) wanted to test the popular hypothesis that ‘Germans are different’ which formed due to their actions in WW2 especially the Holocaust.
• Most at the time believed German soldiers acted that way purely due to dispositional facts.
• Milgram conducted this study to investigate the level of obedience participants would show when an authority figure tells them to administer lethal electric shocks to another human.

Question 2

The teacher and learners

Answer 2

• He placed an advert in a newspaper asking for male participants to take part in a study in Yale university which was supposedly about the effects of punishment of learning.
• 40 participants were chosen and were invited to the psychology department in Yale university where they met the experimenter dressed in a white lab coat who was really a confederate.
• There was a learner and teacher and it as made to look like the roles were random.
• Learner was 47 years old with a weak heart names Mr Wallace.

Question 3

Procedure

Answer 3

• The participants were told to punish the learner if they made a mistake on a memory test by giving electric shocks that increased by 15V each time.
• Learner was taken to a separate room and the teacher was in an adjacent room with a fake shock machine.
• The max was 450V and each group of 4 switches showed the severity of the shocks ranging from ‘Slight shock’ to ‘Danger: Severe shock’. The final few had XXX on them.
• Participants were prompted to continue by the experiment who told them ‘the experiment requires you to continue’ and ‘you have no choice but to continue’

Question 4

Findings

Answer 4

• ALL participants went up to 300V and 65% went to the max.
• Milgram predicted that only 2% would shock the highest level.
• During the study, participants showed signs of distress such as sweating and nervous laughing.

Question 5

Strength: Good external validity

Answer 5

• A repeat of the experiment was conducted by another psychologist where 21/22 nurses were willing to administer a patient double the dose of a fake drug when instructed by an apparent doctor over the phone.
• This shows that Zimbardo’s study can be applied to more realistic situations
• HOWEVER when this same concept was tested again but with a known drug (Valium) only 2/18 prepared the medicine and they were allowed to consult with other nurses.
• A game show in France called ‘Game of Death’ tested Milgram’s study and 80% went to the max

Question 6

Weakness: Lacks internal validity

Answer 6

• The experiment was conducted in a lab setting which could have caused participants to show demand characteristics.

Question 7

Weakness: Ethical issues

Answer 7

• Deception was used as participants didn’t know the true nature of the experiment and didn’t give informed consent.
• But they had to be deceived to minimise demand characteristics which would make the study less valid.
• They also became extremely psychologically distressed - failed to protect from psychological harm
• Many asked to leave the experiment but experiment but the experimenter prompted them to continue. This violates their right to withdraw.

Question 8

Weakness: Lack of population validity

Answer 8

• Milgram used a bias sample of 40 male, American volunteers which means we are unable to generalise the results to other populations and cultures.