milgram

• milgram was interested in this destructive obedience where orders are obeyed even though the individual understands the negative consequences like during world war 2 and the concentration camps
• aims are the 'germans are different' hypothesis and to test historians hypothesis that the behaviour of nazi soliders were due to a german character defect
• methodology:

  • controlled non-participant observation as there is no IV or DV
  • lab setting
  • yale university
  • structured interviews at the end
• sampling:

  • self selected
  • advert in local newspaper
  • 40 males aged between 20 and 50
  • jobs ranged from unskilled to professional
  • paid $4.50 for turning up
• when ppts arrived they meet the 'experimenter' and another 'participant' called mr wallace. Both of these men where milgrams confederates
• The ppts drew slips of paper to decide who was learner or teacher but it was rigged
• The confederate was always the the learner and the ppt was the teacher
• They were both taken to the experimental room where the learner was strapped into an electric chair and linked to shock generator
• The teacher was taken to the adjoining room
• The shock machine started at 15 volts and went up to 450 volts
• Mr Wallace learnt a list of word pairs and the teacher said one and the learner recalled its partner
• The teacher was told to give and an electric shock at every mistake and increase by 15 volts every time
• The learner gave mostly wrong answers, when the teacher refused to give the shock they were given a series of verbal prods
• The four verbal prods

  • Please continue
  • this experiment requires you to continue
  • it is absolutely essential that you continue
  • you have no choice but to continue
• After the research, the teacher was thoroughly debriefed and reunited with learner
• at the end they were interviewed
• At 300 volts, the learner pounded on the wall and made no further comment
• 14 Yale psychology student estimated that 0-3% would get to 450 volts
• All participants got to 300 volts
• 65% got to 450 volts
• Many ppts showed sweating and trembling
• 14 ppts displayed nervous laughter and smiling
• 3 ppts had full blown seizures
• In conclusion, ordinary people are shockingly obedient to destructive orders
• In conclusion , in certain situations people would kill a stranger
• In conclusion , the situation cause people to be highly obedient
• milgram proposed there were factors that contributed to high levels of obedience

  • Experimenter perceived authority
  • ppts assumed experimenter knew what he was doing
  • ppts assumed the learner had voluntarily consented to take part
• Due to prestigious Yale settings may encourage social desirability
• Use of interviews can give social desirability
• Volunteer bias could lead to social desirability if ppts were eager to please
• Lab location and picked up clues to change their behaviour and give demand characteristics
• Milgrams own expectations may have influenced the research
• Social desirability and demand characteristics lower the internal validity of the study
• Yale setting might have meant the ppts felt under pressure and could trust yale which lowers the ecological validity
• Milgram replicated the study in a run down office block and 47.5% went to 450 volts
• Artificial lab setting lowers the ecological validity
• Androcentric sample means the results can’t be generalised to females which lowers population validity
• Milgram selected male ppts to replicate nazi soldiers and replicated the study on females and found the same % went to 450 volts
• Sample bias due to volunterr sampling
• Milgram ensured his ppts didn’t have any history of antisocial behaviour so it could reflect ordinary Americans