milgram eval

• limition of milgram to do with ethical issues

  Ethical issues- participants were deceived they thought the shocks were real

  But Milgram dealt with this by debriefing participants

  Baumrind (1964) felt this deception could have serious consequences for participants and researchers e.g no informed consent possible

  Therefore research can damage the reputations of psychologists and their research in the eyes of the public
• strength of milgram to do with cross-culturual replications

  Cross cultural replications - Meeus and Raajimakers used a more realistic procedure than Milgram's to study obedience in Dutch participants. The participants were ordered to say stressful things in an interview to someone (a confederate) desperate for a job.

  90% of participants obeyed. The researchers also replicated Milgram's findings concerning proximity. When the person giving orders was not present, obedience decreased dramatically.

  This suggests that Milgram's findings about obedience are not just limited to Americans or males but are valid across cultures.
• strength of milgram to do with research support

  Research support- Bickman's field experiment in NYC

  Demonstrated the influence of situational variables on obedience (uniform), he had 3 confederates dressed in 3 diff outfits- a jacket and tie, a milkman's outfit and a security guards uniform.

  They stood in the street asking passer-bys to perform tasks such as picking up litter. People were twice as likely to obey the security guard than the one dressed in jacket and tie.

  This supports the conclusion that uniform conveys authority and its a situational factor that influences obedience
• limitation of milgram to do with low internal validity

  Orne and Holland argued that participants behaved the way they did bc they didn't really believe in the set up- they guessed it wasn't real electric shocks

  In which case Milgram was not testing what he intended to test so the study lacks internal validity

  Perry's recent research confirms this, she listened to tapes of Milgram's participants and reported that many of them expressed their doubts about the shocks