Obedience Flashcards
(11 cards)
What were Milgram’s aims?
Investigate why German soldiers followed hitlers order to kill millions of jews even though they knew it was wrong
What were the sampling methods and designs of milligram’s study?
Advertisement put up
Told they were going to participate in a memory study
What was the baseline study?
Participants paies up with confederate
Rigged draw to see who would get teacher role and learner role.
Participants always got teacher
Leaner had to a word pairing task
Each time learner made mistake teacher had to give increasingly powerful electric shock
Ranged from 15V-450V
At 300V learner pounded on wall and gave no response to next question
Happened again at 315V but after learner stopped responding
Shocks weren’t real
Participants were debriefed and assured that their behaviour was entirely normal
Follow up questionnaire
What were participants told if they were unsure about carrying on?
Please continue
Experiment requires that you continue
Absolutely essential you continue
You have no other choice you must go on
What were the findings of the baseline study?
100% participants delivered all shocks less than 300V
12.5% stopped at 300V
65% went all the way to 450V
Participants showed signs of extreme stress, sweating, being lip, dig fingernails into hands.
What is an evaluation for Milgrams study?
Research support
Replicated in French documentary that was made about reality TV
Focused on game show made especially
Participants believed they were contestants in pilot epsilon for a new show called Le Jeu de la Mort (The game of death)
Paid to give electric shocks to other participants infant of studio audience
80% delivered maximum shock of 460 to an apparently unconscious man.
Behaviour was almost identical to Milgrams participants
Nervous laughter, nail biting and other signs of anxiety
Supporting Origional finings, demonstrates findings were not just due to special circumstances
What were the conclusions of Milgrams study?
German people are not different
American participants were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person.
What is an evaluation of milligrams study?
Low internal validity
Procedure may not have been testing what he intended to test
Reported 75% of participants said they believed shocks were genuine
Orne and Holland
Participants behaved as they did because they didn’t really believe sent up and so were play acting
Perry
Research confirms this
Listen to tapes of participants and reported that only half of them believed shocks were real,
2/3 were disobedient
Suggesting participants may have been responding to demand characteristics, trying to fulfil aims of the study.
What is an evaluation of Milgram’s study?
Counterpoint to low internal validity
Sheridan and King
Conducted study like Milgrams
Participants gave real shocks to a puppet in response to orders from experimenter
Despite real distress of animal
54% men and 100% fi women gave what they thought was a fatal shock
Suggesting effects were genuine because people behaved obediently even when shocks were real
What is an evaluation of Milgram’s study?
Alternative interpretations of findings
Milgrams conclusions about bind obedience may not be justified
Haslam et al
Milgrams participants obeyed when experimenter delivered first three verbal prods
Every participant who was given 4th prod disobeyed
Social identity theory - Participants only obeyed when they identified with the scientific aims of research.
Showing social identity theory may provide a more valid interpretation of his findings
Even Milgram himself suggested identify with the science is a reason for obedience
What is an evaluation for Milgram’s study?
Ethical issues
Participants were deceived
Participants thought that allocation of roles were random
Also thought shocks were real
Dealt with this by debriefing participants
Baumrind
Believed that deception in psychological studies can have serious consequences for participants and researchers
