milgram’s study

Question 1

what was the procedure?

Answer 1

40 American men aged 20-50 volunteered to take part. each volunteer arrived at lab and was introduced to another pts (confederate). did draws to decide who was teacher and who learner. it was fixed. pts was always teacher. teacher could not see but heard learner. electric shock for mistakes. voltage from 5-450 volts, shocks fake. Teachers thought they were harming :- wanted to stop, told not to.

Question 2

what were the findings?

Answer 2

every pts delivered shocks up to 300V. 5 stopped at 300 (12.5%), 65% to highest level but expected only 3% did.
qual data + observations - from these he found pts sweating, trembling, groaning etc. and 3 uncontrollable seizures.
all debriefed and assured behaviours were normal

Question 3

one strength

Answer 3

P: research support from field studies. E: Hofling et al - 22 nurses and ask for them to administrate a trug they weren’t familiar with. 21/22 obeyed T: similar to real life situations

Question 4

one limitation

Answer 4

P: criticised for having low internal validity. E: 25% didn’t believe shocks were real and 25% did. orne and holand argued that pts behaved in the way that they did bc they didn’t believe in the set up T: responding to demand characteristics as opposed to real behaviour.

Question 5

locations effect on obedience

Answer 5

conducted in a run down office block rather than Yale- obedience fell to 47.5% because the university gave the study legitimacy and authority :- pts more obedient

Question 6

proximity effect on obedience

Answer 6

teacher could hear learner not see. rate dropped from 60% - 45%. in touch proximity version, rate dropped to 30%, in remote version it dropped to 20.5%. decreased proximity allows psychological distance from consequences

Question 7

uniform effect on obedience

Answer 7

experimenter wore grey lab coat sign of authority. when experimenter was away he was replaced by confederate in normal clothes - obedience fell to 20%. uniform encourages obedience

Question 8

are milgram’s findings replicated cross culturally?

Answer 8

P: replicated in other cultures. E: Meeus and Raajimakers used a more realistic procedure to study obedience in dutch pts. T: suggests his findings aren’t just limited to americans but valid for other cultures.

Question 9

one strength

Answer 9

P: able to be replicated in a french doc. E: in the doc, pts were believed that they were taking part in the 1st episode of a new game show. were paid to give electric (fake) shocks to pts (actors) infront of audience. 80% pts delivered highest shock. T: behaviour nearly identical to that of milgrams shows how pts show obedience to authority