Unit 2- Research Methods

• Milgram - Methodology


  Controlled observation. Advertisment in a newspaper, selected 40 males aged 20-50. Advertisment led them to think they were taking part in research about memory and learning. Men in the sample had a range of jobs and education and were paid $4.50
• Milgram - procedure


  Lab at Yale university. When pps arrived, greated by 'experimenter' and another 'participant'. = Both confederates. Pps drew slips of paper to decide who played role of teacher or learner. ( Rigged, pps always got teacher) . Leaner strapped to shock machine, teacher in adjoining room sat Infront of shock generator . 30 switches on it , for every 4 switches, shock labels starting at 'slight shock ' to 'XXX'.
• Milgram- procedure

  Teacher told to shock when learner gives wrong answer. Experimenter was trained incase the teacher hesitated. After research was completed teacher was debriefed, then interviewed about their experience
• Milgram- findings


  Prior to study, he surveyed 14 Yale students- estimated 0-3% of the pps would administer 450 volts. At 300 volts, five of the pps refused to continue. 26 of the 40 pps administrated the ful, 450 volts. Many showed nervousness, large number showed extreme tensions. 14 pps displayed nervous laughter and smiling. 1 had such violent convulsion that the research session had to be stopped.
• Milgram- conclusions 


  The circumstances in which the pps found themselves that amalgamated to create a situation in which it proved difficult to disobey. He suggested 13 elements contributed to these levels of obedience, the location at a prestigious university and pps assumed experimenter knew what he was doing
• Milgram- Evaluation 


  Weakness- lacks of internal validity- pps didn't believe shocks were real however 75% stated they strongly believed the shocks were real
• Milgram - evaluation 


  Strength- Controlled observation - determines cause and effect but artificial environment so may lack ecological validity
• Milgram - evaluation 


  Criticised for going against ethics - Baumrind claimed damage wasn't justified- high distress - long time before they were debriefed. Difficult to replicate under these circumstances due to BPS guidelines - difficult to determine reliability.
• Milgram - evaluation 


  Decided as to the true sims- necessary for the purpose of the research but the damage may be already done by the time the pps find out the true aims - psychological harm may not be worth the benefits of the research
• Kohlberg - methodology

  Longitudinal cross cultural study. He undertook various studies related to moral development using interviews to collects qualitative data. Including cross cultural comparisons and a longitudinal element. Group of 75 American boys, aged10-16 and 22-28. Also studied people from great Britian, Canada. Taiwan, Mexico and turkey
• Kohlberg - procedures

  To assess moral thinking he created nine hypothetical moral dilemmas. Each dilemma had a conflict between 2 moral issues. Each pps was asked to discuss three of these dilemmas, prompted by a set of ten or more open ended questions. The boys answers were analysed and common themes were identified. Each bit was re-interviewed every three years
• Kohlberg - findings

  Stage theory was developed starting with the pre conventional level where children accept rules from authority and judge actions based on consequences. Conventional level - people understand that rules are there to be followed. Post conventional level - individuals move away from unquestioning compliance.
• Kohlberg- finding

  He found younger children, thought at the pre conventional level and as they got older their reason for moral decisions became ,less focused on themselves and more focused on doing good. Results in Mexico and Taiwan were the same except development was a little slower.
• Kohlberg- conclusions

  Key features if moral development are : stages are invading and universal- people everywhere go through the same stages in the same order.

  Each new stage represents a more equilibrated form of moral understanding, resulting in a more logically consistent and morally mature form of understanding.
• Kohlberg- evaluation

  Based on boys- Carol Gilligan suggested male morality is quite different to female mortality. She found evidence that showed women are more focused on relationships than justice. Gender biased and restricted to only one type of morality
• Kohlberg - evaluation

  ​Lacks validity- Gillian also said the evidence was not based on real life decisions. The moral dilemmas were hypothetical and may have made little sense to younger children- suggests interviewing about their own moral dilemmas may be better
• Kohlberg- research methods

  Interviews , cross cultural comparisons
• Kohlberg experimental design 


  Repeated measures