Milgram (Social Area - Behaviourism)

Question 1

Milgram Background

Answer 1

Adolf Eichmann was a key player in the final solution and was arrested in 1960. He believes he wasn’t;t guilty because he was just following orders. Milgram wanted to find whether it was just the Germans that were blindly obedient or others as well

Question 2

Milgram Aims

Answer 2

The aim of this study was to investigate the process of obedience by testing how far ordinary Americans would go in obeying an authority figure

Question 3

Milgram Research Methods

Answer 3

Controlled Observation as participants are being watched via a one way mirror

Question 4

Milgrams Sample

Answer 4

There were 40 participants aged 20-50 year olds from new haven and a range of jobs.

Strengths - it can be comparable to the nazi officer and there is a range of occupation and ages

Weaknesses - only 40 applied and was from only one place

Question 5

Milgram Sampling Method

Answer 5

it was a self selecting sample advertised in the new haven newspaper and were offered $4.00 an hour and $4.50 if drove.

Strengths - people were able to give consent and there was no researcher bias as he didn’t choose who took part

Weaknesses - wealthy people didn’t need money and people are already somewhat obedient if they choose to take part in the study

Question 6

Milgram Procedure

Answer 6

1) you and mr Wallace each pick a role in the experiment. you get the role of the teacher and he gets the role of the learner.
2) you see him strapped into a chair with electrodes attached to his arms
3) You are then given a trial shock of 45v
4) the learner has been given a set of word pairs to remember and the teachers task is to check that that he remembers them correctly.
5) if he answers incorrectly, you are told by the experimenter to give him an electric shock. Every time he gets a question wrong, you must increase the voltage
6) at 300v, the learner shows the first sign that he is distressed by banging on the wall
7) after 300v, he stops answering the question. The experimenter tells you to treat this as an incorrect answer and continue to shock
8) he bangs on the wall again at 315v, after this the learner is silent - he gives no answers and makes no noise when the shock is given. There are 4 prods given to participants

Question 7

Milgrams Quantitative results

Answer 7

65% were obedient

Question 8

Milgrams Qualitative results

Answer 8

They were watched via a one way mirror and noticed ‘ sweating, tremble, stutter, groans and participants digging their fingernails’

Question 9

Milgrams Conclusions

Answer 9

The situation produced strong tendencies to obey and it had caused emotional strain and tension and that germans are different..

Question 10

Milgram Ethnocentrism

Answer 10

Milgrams study is in one place in America so it can’t be generalised elsewhere. Milgram did replicate the study elsewhere and found very similar results

Question 11

Milgram Reliability

Answer 11

Internal Reliability - the study was replicable as Mr Wallace was always the same there was always 4 prods

External Reliability - there is a large sample of 40 men and it showed consistent results

Question 12

Milgrams Validity

Answer 12

Internal Validity - it was controlled

Population Validity - there was a variety of jobs and only men no women

Ecological Validity - it was not a common thing as there wasn’t any consequences