Milgram

• Milgram ( 1963 ) investigated situational factors affecting obedience and how far people are willing to go when obeying an authority figure.
• Milgram ( 1963 ) conduced an electric shock study where the ppt was a " teacher " and there was a confederate " learner "
• Milgram ( 1953 ) used 40 male ppts and rigged drawing a straw so that the ppt was always the teacher, however the ppt believed it was random
• The teacher and student were in separate rooms, and the observer was in the same room as the teacher
• The teacher was instructed to " shock " the student every time they gave a wrong answer in a spelling test, however the shocks were fake.
• The experimenter used " prompts " to prevent the teacher ppt from leaving when they hesitated such as " please continue ". After four prompts, the experiment was terminated
• The teacher and student could not see each other, however the teacher could hear the student
• The shocks in the experiment went up to 450 v, and the voltage increased every time the student gave a wrong answer.
• Milgram ( 1963 ) found that 100 % of ppts went up to 300 v and 65 % went up to 450 v (max)
• Milgram's variations affecting obedience:

  Uniform

  Location

  Proximity
• Uniform - Bushman conducted a study on whether people would give money to someone depending on what they were wearing.

  Police officer - 72 %

  Beggar - 52 %

  Business woman - 48 %
• Location - Milgram conducted the experiment again in a run down office rather than the prestigious Yale university and found that obedience went down by 48 %
• Proximity - if the teacher and the learner were in the same room, obedience decreased by 40 %
• AO3. There are many ethical issues in Milgram's study. Baumrind criticised Milgram for a lack of protection from psychological harm, as participants believed they were really hurting someone, as well as deception and no right to withdraw due to the use of prompts. However, Milgram responded and said that ppts said the study helped them understand the destruction of OB rather than being hurt, and nothing was physically was preventing them from leaving
• AO3. Milgram's study lacks external validity. Teachers shocking students for incorrect answers is a highly unrealistic situation, and would not happen every day meaning ppts may have acted differently. Also, there were no consequences, and there are consequences in real life to obedience which could mean that ppts obeyed more. The study was also conducted in a lab setting, lowering the external validity.
• AO3. Milgram's study lacks internal validity. Perry ( 2012 ) reviewed the tapes of the study and found that many ppts expressed doubts about the confederate actually being shocked, and one of Milgram's researchers found that those who believed the shocks were real were less likely to obey. This shows that the ppts may have been displaying demand characteristics or may not have taken the study seriously.
• AO3. Milgram's study lacks population validity. The study involved only men, making the study androcentric. This means that the findings of the study can only be generalised to men, showing gender bias. However, Milgram repeated the study with female participants and found that they shocked to a higher voltage, but obedience was the same overall.