milgram (1963)

• Milgram's (1963) studies were centered around obedience to authority
• the aim of milgrams study was to investigate if ordinary people would follow orders and give an innocent person a potentially harmful electric shock
• milgrams participants were all male, aged between 20-50 years old from the new haven area
• there were two roles in Milgram’s experiments; the teacher and learner
• There was a rigged draw to decide who was the teacher and who was the learner
• The teachers role was played by the participant who had been recruited through newspaper adverts
• all of the learners were confederates
• The learner pretended to be shocked but actually wasn’t
• the experiment took place in a room with a wall separating the teacher and learner
• In the experiment, the teacher was given a list of word pairs that they needed to read out to the learner, then the learner would have to remember them and answer questions about them
• the experimenter gave instructions to the teacher on how to deliver shocks to the learner if they answered questions incorrectly
• If the learner answered incorrectly, the teacher would administer an electric shock which increased in voltage with every wrong answer
• Milgram found that 65% of his participants continued with the experiment even when the learner stopped responding
• Milgram wanted to investigate obedience to authority figures
• The teacher was told that there was no real danger from the shocks
• the teacher saw learners strapped to an electric chair and the teacher was given a mild electric shock to prove it was real
• the teacher could not see the learner but could hear them
• the shocks started at 15v and continued in 15v increments up to 450v
• the learner would bang on the wall at 350v and ask for it to stop
• the experiment had standardized prompts said by the experimenter such as: 'the experiment requires you to continue' and 'you have no other choice you must go on'
• 26/40 participants went to 450 v
• all participants reached 300v
• the participants behaviour that was observed included nervous laughter, physical sweating, asking for reassurance
• one participant had a fit from the stress of the experiment
• many participants were never full debriefed and did not know the true aim of the study
• participants were paid $4.50 for taking part
• milgram repeated the studies in germany and found similar results
• milgram theorised that we are obedient to authority figure due to an agentic state
• critics argue that the study lacks ecological validity because it doesnt reflect real world situations
• an agentic state is where you are an agent of someone else's ideas or orders
• when we are obedient to authority figures and do not take responsibility for our own behaviours we can behave in terrible ways toward others
• milgram's study broke many ethical guidelines: the right to withdraw, deception, informed consent, protection from harm, debrief
• this experiment was a laboratory experiment making it unrealistic and not representative of real life
• this study is not generalizable to females, other cultures, and other classes
• the participant may have behaved how they think the experimenter wants them to act - this is called demand characteristics