Milgrams Experiment

Question 1

What were Milgram particpiants

Answer 1

Randomly selected 40 male volunteers

Question 2

What was the aim

Answer 2

To observe whether people would obey a figure of authority when told to harm another person (Evaluate the influence of a destructive authority figure)

Question 3

What was the procedure

Answer 3

• The participant was the teacher, the confederate was the learner
• Participant asked learner a series of questions
• If they answered wrong the participant administered electric shocks
• They increased by 15 each time ranging from 300V to 450V
• No shocks were real, confederates were acting
• Participants were assessed on how many volts they would administer
• The experimenters role was to give a series of phrases to encourage the participant to administer the shocks

Question 4

What were the findings?

Answer 4

All participants went up to 300V and 65% went up to 450V, no one stopped below 300V and only 12.5% stopped at 300V. Showing the vast majority were prepared to give an electric shock to an innocent confederate

Question 5

Give a + of it (D)

Answer 5

Debriefing - The participants were thoroughly and carefully debriefed on the real aims and how to deal with the ethical breach

Question 6

Give a + of it (RLA)

Answer 6

Real Life Application - The research made us aweare of obedience problems especially towards destructive authority figures - helps us understand why the Nazis were willing to do what they did

Question 7

Give a + of it (HIV)

Answer 7

High Internal Validity - Found a significant number of participants raised questions about the legitimacy of the shocks. Quantitive data showed 70% believed they were real

Question 8

Give a + of it (HR)

Answer 8

Highly replicable - Repeated many times all over the world, where consistent and similar obedience levels were found. Replication increases reliability of findings

Question 9

Give a + of it (EV)

Answer 9

External Validity - Has been established by supported studies and suggests that everyday individuals are still susceptible to obeying authority figures

Question 10

Give a - (EI)

Answer 10

Ethical issues - There was deception so informed consent wasn’t obtained. There was psychological harm inflicted on them - They showed psychological stress like sweating and trembling

Question 11

Give a - (SSI)

Answer 11

Socially Sensitive Issue - The findings suggest those responsible for killing innocent people can be excused as it’s not their personality but that it’s hard to disobey - some may strongly disagree as people should take responsibility for their actions

Question 12

Give a - (LIV)

Answer 12

Lack of Internal Validity - Experiment may have been about trust rather than obedience as it was at a uni. Therefore participants may have trusted nothing was going to happen because of the prestige location. When it was run down obedience decreased to 20.5% suggesting the OG study didn’t investigate what it aimed to

Question 13

Give a - (LEV)

Answer 13

Lack of ecological validity - The tasks given weren’t realistic producing results are low in ecological validity