milgrams baseline study

Question 1

what was the aim of milgrams study?

Answer 1

to understand behaviour of German soldiers in the Holocaust `

Question 2

who was included in the study?

Answer 2

• 40 men

- aged 20-25 years old

Question 3

what was the procedure?

Answer 3

1. offered $4.50 to participate
2. told they could drop out at any point and keep $
3. introduced to 2 men
   >experimenter
   >Mr. Wallace (learner)
4. teacher was told his job was to give learner electric shock for every mistake on a word recall test
5. voltage increased by 15V, only real one was 45V
6. learner gave answers through pressing buttons
7. when teacher delivered 300V, learner could be heard pounding on wall and from 315V, no sound

Question 4

what verbal prods were used and why ?

Answer 4

if the teacher protested :
1. ‘please continue’
2. ‘the experiment requires you to continue’
3. …..
4. ‘you have no other choice you must go on’
after 4th prod if participants still contested, they were allowed to leave

Question 5

describe the shock machine

Answer 5

• 30 switches from 15V to 450V

- switches labelled from ‘slight shock’ to ‘danger: severe shock’ and ‘XXX’

Question 6

what were milgrams findings?

Answer 6

-65% of his sample administrated full 450V
-100% continued to 300V
ALTHOUGH,
12% at this point had dropped out
-observed to tremble, sweat and dig fingernails into skin
3 had full blown uncontrollable seizures

Question 7

what were the conclusions?

Answer 7

ordinary americans are obedient to legitimate authority surprisingly and a number of factors affect obedience:
reputation of researcher
idea that participation was advancing science

Question 8

strength?

Answer 8

STANDARDISED - everyone had same experience
-2 confederates played by same actors
-prods were tightly scripted and were delivered in same order and tone
-number of learners mistakes were same
THIS MEANS,
replicable and has been successfully tested -Berger

Question 9

BUT…?

Answer 9

others argue there were occasions where experimenter deviated from script
EG. in one instance he gave as many as 20 prods before allowing one to leave
SO,
not as standardised as Milgram claims

Question 10

weakness?

Answer 10

PARTICIPANTS MAY HAVE ONLY OBEYED BECAUSE THEY KNEW SHOCKS WERE FAKE
Holland argued ptcp behaved this way because they found out shocks weren’t real since experimenter didn’t administer learning task himself and showed little concern for learner
AND,
unseen footage shows ptcps expressing suspicion regarding authenticity of machine
SO THIS QUESTIONS…
internal validity of findings -not testing what he intended to test

Question 11

application?

Answer 11

PILOT TRAINING
Tarnow describes how first officers often fail to challenge errors made by captain due to authority, even when his/her behaviour puts others at risk
Believes that training 1st officers in challenging authority of pilot and questioning could prevent 20% crashes
led to training to improve cockpit behaviour

Question 12

ISUUES AND DEBATES

Answer 12

ETHICS
Just because someone volunteers for study doesn’t take away researchers responsibility towards them
-level of psychological harm was unacceptable
-Milgram claims to have debriefed BUT Perry found one left thinking learner had died
SO,
this deception could lead public to lose faith in authority and jeopardise reputation of psyhch research