Milgram's Research

• AO1 Milgram


  Aim - wanted to investigate whether a normal person would give someone a potential lethal electric shock if told to by an authority figure to see why so many Germans obeyed Hitler. He thought they could be different for other people.

  
  

  Method - 40 men aged 20 to 50 from a range of jobs paid $4.50. A confederate was always the leaner and the participant was the teacher. The teacher asked the learner questions and each time the learner could not recall a (fake) shock was given.It started at 15v and rise to 450v. If the teacher asked the experimenter for guidance they were told to carry on.

  Prod 1 - 'please continue'

  Prod 2 - 'the experiment requires that you continue'

  Prod 3 - 'it is absolutely essential that you continue'

  Prod 4 - 'you have no other choice, you must go on'

  
  

  Results - None of the participants stopped below 300V. 12.5% stopped at 30V and 65% continued to the full 450V. He also saw that participants showed signs of extreme tension such as sweating, stuttering and digger their fingernails into their hands. Three had uncontrollable seizures.

  
  

  Conclusion - Obedience had little to do with disposition and was more dependent on the situation. He said the Germans were not different as he thought there were factors in the situation encouraging obedience.
• AO3 Milgram


  Strength

  P - His findings are supported by other research

  E - A French reality TV show has people give electric shocks to confederates in front of an audience. He found 80% gave the maximum shock of 460V. Their behaviours were almost identical as well e.g. nail biting

  C - This supports Milgrams findings and increases their external validity as it shows they were not due to special circumstances

  
  

  Weakness

  P - The study had low internal validity as he may have not been testing what he thought

  E - research in to the tape recordings found that 2/3 of participants did not believe the shocks were real. They thought they acted how they did because they were 'play acting'

  C - This suggests the participants may have been responding to demand characteristics, trying to fulfil the aims of the study

  
  

  Weakness

  P - The study had ethical issues

  E - the participants were deceived as they thought the allocation of the roles was random and they also thought the shocks were real. They may also be left with psychological damage from the experience

  C - even though milgram debriefed them the experiment could still have effected them afterwards