SOCIAL: Milgram (1963) Flashcards
(35 cards)
The aim?
To investigate the tendency to obey DESTRUCTIVE orders from individuals in positions of AUTHORITY.
What are destructive orders?
Orders that lead to harming others
Why did Milgram carry out this study?
- Milgram was affected by NAZIs who displayed people obeying destructive orders
- Early psychological research focused on a DISPOSITIONAL hypothesis: something distinctive about GERMAN CULTURE/PERSONALITY led to high levels of conformity and obedience of destructive orders.
but Milgram was interested in the SOCIAL PROCESSES that take place between individuals and within groups so looks as SITUATIONAL HYPOTHESIS -> the effect of social processes depending on the SITUATION rather than the characteristics of the individual.
What did Milgram do PRIOR to procedure?
He told 14 psychology yale students about his procedure and they estimated that only 1.2% of participants would obey the orders and give ALL 450v shocks.
The design of the study?
Milgram described it as “LABORATORY experiment”
BUT
only had 1 condition so actually a PRE-EXPERIMENT
and so results served as baseline for other followup studies.
What was the DEPENDENT variable; how was it operationalised?
OBEDIENCE
operationalised by measuring the MAX VOLTAGE given in response to the orders.
What was the INDEPENDENT variable?
NONE.
only 1 condition hence why it is a PRE-EXPERIMENT
How many PARTICIPANTS?
40 MEN
- all from NEW HAVEN district of north america
- aged 20-50yrs old
- Range of jobs (manual labourers; white collar workers; professionals)
How were the participants recruited?
VOLUNTEER / SELF-SELECTING SAMPLE
-newspaper advertisement: promised $4.50 but made clear it was only for SHOWING UP not completing.
Where did the study take place?
Yale university
What machine was used?
An electric shock generator
-15V to 450V in 15V increments
What happened after participants arrived at Yale university?
Introduced to a man they believed was another participant and the two men were briefed on the SUPPOSED purpose of the experiment.
They were then given the role of a teacher/learner through a FIXED LOTTERY where the participant was always the teacher.
‘Learner’ was strapped to machine.
What was the SUPPOSED aim of the study?
To investigate the EFFECT OF PUNISHMENT ON LEARNING
Who was the CONFEDERATE / STOOGE?
MR WALLACE a 47yr old man working for milgram.
A likeable mild mannered accountant.
What was the participant told about the shocks?
That they were extremely painful but NOT dangerous.
They were given a 45V shock demonstration
Who was in what room?
The learner and teacher were in separate rooms but could talk/hear each other.
Experiment was in same room as teacher-participant.
Who was the experimenter?
THE ‘AUTHORITY’ figure
played by a 31yr old male biology teacher
What did the participant have to do?
Read out WORD PAIRS to test the confederate-learner.
Each time learner got it wrong, experimenter ordered teacher to give a shock.
Shock got larger by 15V each time
Learner got 3 wrong for every 1 right.
What did the confederate-learner during the shocks?
He wasn’t really strapped in-> recording:
-no responses until 300V & 315V pounded the wall suggesting he was hurt or unconscious
What did the experimenter do when the teacher-participant turned for guidance when the learner did not respond to next word pair?
The experimenter told them to treat it as wrong and give another shock.
What happened when the teacher-participant protested?
experimenter gave verbal prods to encourage them to continue.
When was the procedure considered to be finished?
When the participant refused to give any more shocks or when they gave all 450V.
What happened after the procedure was completed?
Participants were interviewed and asked to rate on a scale of 0-14 how painful the last few shocks they gave were and dehoaxed and told real purpose of study.
What type of data was gathered?
BOTH quantitative and qualitative
