milgram

• defining principles of social area


  assumes behaviour is determined by the situation, in particular the real or imagined presence of others.
• Why did participants obey?

  location of prestigious place, pps assumed learner had voluntarily consented to take part, sense of obligation as they had volunteered and were paid, pps believed role of learner was determined by chance, pps believed experimenter knew what he was doing
• research method strength


  lab environment allowed for control over extraneous variables which could affect obedience
• research method weakness


  because of lab setting, pps aware they were studied so there were demand characteristics - affects external and ecological validity
• ethics strength


  milgram gave the participants a debrief and check up after 1 year, good cost to benefit analysis reduced prejudice against Germans
• ethics weakness


  deception- pps told it was on how punishment affects learning , no informed consent due to deception, physical harm- 3 pps had uncontrollable seizures. no right to withdraw as they were paid, psychological harm due to many pps left distressed
• reliability strength


  standardised, controlled procedure easy to replicate and test for reliability
• validity strength


  lab study controlled extraneous variables which gave internal validity
• validity weakness


  Yale lab study lacked ecological validity as participants many have 'unnatural' behaviour, P's disobeyed after 4th prompt-conclusion of blind obedience is invalid
• sample strength


  representative of target population meaning results could be generalised to wider population
• sample weakness


  no women included in sample and may be gender differences in obedience .sample of 40 possibly not large enough to be representative
• quantitative data strength and weakness

  objective, scientific and easy to analyse

  simplistic, reduces human complexity to numbers
• qualitative data strength and weakness


  contains rich detail of how they behaved etc

  difficult to display , analyse and conclude from
• what is obedience


  Complying with the demands of an authority figure
• Background of the Milgram Study

  after ww2, nazis were put on trial for the genocide of jews. many said they should not be punished bc they were just following orders- suggests an individual explanation for behaviour
• milgrams aims and hypothesis

  the 'Germans are more obedient' hypothesis , study wanted to investigate process of obedience
• what design was used

  controlled observation in a lab using self report
• what sampling method was used

  self selected, millgram put ad in newspaper
• what did the advert say

  it would be a 'scientific study of memory', males must be between 20-50, they would be paid $4.50
• sample


  40 male participants from new haven , between 20-50
• role of the experimenter

  played by a 47 year old stern biology teacher mr wallace, a confederate trained for the role
• materials


  shock generator - machine with 30 switches each labelled in increments of 15 to 450v, and labels to show intensity eg strong shock, 450V labelled as XXX suggesting death
• what volt of shock was the pp given

  45v
• what were the pps told the experiment was on

  investigating how punishment affected learning
• how were teacher and learner roles decided

  draw was rigged, both pieces of paper said teacher
• where the experiment take place

  yale university
• what did the experimenter say about the shocks

  although the shocks may be painful they cause no permanent tissue damage
• what was the learning task

  paired-associate learning task. the participant read word pairs to the learner and read the first word of the pair with 4 terms and the learner had to indicate which of the 4 terms was originally paired with the first term
• what were the learners standardised responses

  3 wrong answers to every correct, made no sign of protest until 300v when he pounded on the wall
• experimenter prods


  please continue, the experiment requires that you continue, it is absolutely essential that you continue, you have no other choice you must continue
• how was qualitative data acquired


  most sessions taped and photographed, notes kept of unusual behaviour
• how were pps debriefed

  debriefed after study, given some psychological tests and ensured they left in same mental wellbeing as when they entered , 1 year follow up, 86% said they were glad they did it
• how many psychology undergraduates did milgram ask

  14
• what percent of participants did the undergraduates predict would go to 450v

  3%
• what percent of pps went to 300v

  100%
• what percentage of pps went to 450v

  65%
• what percentage of pps were not obedient

  35%
• signs of extreme tension observed


  3 pps had uncontrollable seizures, pps observed to sweat, stutter, bite their lips and dig their fingernails into their flesh , 14 displayed nervous laughter
• comment example from pp

  'it'll hurt his heart... i'm sorry i can't do that to a man. you take your money
• situational vs individual


  situational argument,

  social context- obligation, payment and other person believed to have volunteered

  real/imagined authority figure- authority figure in lab coat