Milgram's shock obedience study

• Where did Milgram's study take place?

  Yale University
• What was the main aim of the study by Milgram?

  To see if Americans would obey an unjust order to assume pain onto another
• What was the procedure of Milgram's study before it actually happened?

  • 40 male volunteers were recruited from a newspaper advertisement at Yale university
  • There were 2 participants that drew lots to determine whether they were a student or a teacher
  • The lots were always written as a teacher so the participant was guaranteed to be the teacher
  • The participant saw the confederate strapped into a chair with electrodes
• What was the actual experiment itself?

  • Teacher read out words pairs that the confederate needed to guess right and everytime he guessed wrong, there was an increase on the shock generator
  • The generator went up in 15V increments starting from 15V to 450V
  • The confederate was pounding the wall at 300V and did not respond beyond 315V
  • The researcher gave 4 prods if teacher hesitated to give shocks like "please continue", "The experiment requires that you continue"
  • Experiment ended at shock of 450V was administered or teacher refused to give any more shocks after 4 prods
• What were the findings of the experiment?

  • 100% of all p's had administered the 300V shock
  • 65% of all the p's administered 450V
  • Despite this, p's did not agree verbally but still obeyed researcher
  • There were many signs of extreme anxiety like trembling and crying
• What was the conclusion of Milgram's experiment?

  The study demonstrates how people can behave in ways that go against their conscience but are affected by situational factors rather than dispositional factors
• Who were the main criticisms of Milgram's study from?

  Orne and Holland
• What are the main ideas the evaluations revolve around?

  Internal validity and external validity
• What is a criticism of Milgram's study regarding internal validity?

  • Orne and Holland said p's did not believe the electric shocks as they were not distressed and wanted to please the experimenter
  • This was due to demand characteristics rather than obedience
  • There were hints that the experiment was fake like the researcher not in distress when there was no response from the learner
  • Milgram's study lacks internal validity
• What was Milgram's rebuttal of Orne and Holland's criticism of his experiment? (internal validity part 1)

  • Milgram said that the experiment has many clues that the p's believed that the shocks were real
  • First was the video footage showing that the p's were trembling and crying
  • Post-interview and questionnaires showed that 56.1% fully believed nature of the shocks and only 2.4% said they did not
• What was Milgram's rebuttal of Orne and Holland's criticism of his experiment? (internal validity part 2)

  • Orne and Holland did not explain why p's bothered to administer the shocks if they did not believe it was real, why would changing location also affect this?
  • Sheridan and King experiment used real puppies and the p's could see them, they found that 75% administered the shocks until the end
• What was an external validity criticism of Milgram's study?

  • Milgram's study was biased
  • It was androcentric and ethnocentric
  • Findings do not generalise to females and collectivist cultures
  • However, there have been similar conformity levels in woman
  • Experiments have also been done in other cultures as well
  • Milgram has population validity
• What was an external validity positive evaluation of Milgram?

  • Milgram's experiment and electric shocks were artificial
  • This lacks ecological validity
  • Hofling carries out a study in a hospital to show obedience does happen in real life.
  • P’s were nurses who received a phone call for an unknown doctor who asked for 20 mg of astrofen.
  • If the nurse obeyed, then they would be breaking several rules like administering 2x the allowed amount of any drug and accepting an order from a doctor without a signed order.
  • 21/22 nurses obeyed.
  • Milgram’s study does not lack eco validity
• What was a criticism of Hofling's nurse study?

  • Rank and Jacobsen (1977) were concerned that nurses had no knowledge of the drug and no opportunity to ask for advice.
  • They repeated the exact experiment with the drug Valium, a known substance and nurses could seek advice from other nurses.
  • 2/18 nurses administered Valium
  • Hoflings study lacks eco validity and does not support Milgram.
• How did 'proximity affect the obedience levels of Milgram?

  • Teacher and learner in the same room = 40%
  • Teacher forcing the hand of the learner = 30%
  • Researcher giving prods through the telephone = 20.5%
• How did 'location' change the obedience levels?

  • Location change from Yale to seedy office = 48%
• How did 'uniform' change the levels of obedience?

  • White lab coat to civilian clothing = 20%
• How did social support affect obedience levels?

  • With 2 other teachers = 10%
  • Assistant who does the switches instead of the participant = 92.5%