Obedience : Milgrim’s Research Flashcards
Generalisability
Weakness : Milgram only considered white males from America, a westernised country hence cannot be generalised to the rest of the population
Strength : it could have been hard to find groups of different ethnicities so just used one. They also considered their occupations and took it from a wide range
Reliability
Weakness : depending on which era, the results would have varied due to the generation
Strength : standardised procedure that can be easily reduced - it is lab controlled
Internal validity
Weakness : low external validity as it does not represent the other groups
There could be demand characteristics so lowering the internal validity
Strength : lab controlled so they have tried to eliminate the extraneous variables
External validity
Weakness : low external validity hence not representative to the real world
Low historical validity
Low mundane realism
Strength : explains historical events such as the holocaust and their experiences
Ethics - consent
Weakness : they had not given informed consent as they were being deceived
Strength : the validity would be high and could be repeatable as the participants did not know what the actual experiment was
Ethics - deception
Weakness : could affect their mental health as they have been expecting a result but it turned tables and was affecting them
Drawing out of the hat was manipulated as they wanted the participant to be the teacher
Strength : the validity and reliability would be high as no demand characteristics would have occurred
Ethics - protection from harm
Weakness : they could have been traumatised by the consequences - feeling guilty as they were conflicting pain on them without their consent
Strength : no long term harm as the participants were glad they took the experiment and milgrim did survey them after
They could help to prevent future disasters
Ethics - right to withdraw
Weakness : forced and pressured them into continuing the experiment though they did not want to
Strength : the participants were able to withdraw and still get paid for it
