Milgram et al

• Milgram and Piliavin are very detailed studies with a lot of information, which is challenging to summarize in slides
• Obedience


  Following what people tell you to do
• In World War II, millions of people were slaughtered, and obedience sometimes overrode morality, ethics, and sympathy
• Obedience


  Can be useful, as it can be educative and teach kindness and charity
• Controlled observation


  A research method that is close to an experiment but not quite, as it lacks some key experimental features
• Dependent variable (DV)


  Level of obedience, operationally defined as the maximum shock or voltage administered before refusing to go any further
• The study was located at Yale University
• Reasons why it's not an experimental study


  • Doesn't treat the IV like a proper IV with at least two levels, no random allocation of participants to conditions
• Sample characteristics


  • 40 participants between ages 20-50
  • All male
  • From New Haven and surrounding communities
  • Volunteer sampling
  • Variety of job backgrounds and education levels
  • Paid $4.50 for participation
• Job backgrounds mentioned in the newspaper ad


  • Postal clerks
  • High school teachers
  • Salesmen
• The newspaper ad was deceptive, as it claimed the study was about memory when it was actually about obedience
• Personnel involved


  • Experimenter (31-year-old high school biology teacher with a stern appearance, wearing a technician's coat)
  • Victim/Learner (47-year-old accountant, trained for the role, mild-mannered and likeable)
• Procedure


  1. Subjects brought individually to the lab

  2. Subject told they would be the "teacher" and the victim/learner would be the "learner"

  3. Subject given a sample shock to feel what the learner would experience

  4. Subject instructed to administer shocks to the learner for incorrect answers, increasing the voltage with each wrong answer

  5. Learner would protest and eventually stop responding, but the experimenter would urge the subject to continue

  6. Experiment ended when subject refused to administer further shocks
• The victim is known as the stooge, he is pretending to be a learner
• The victim is a 47 year old accountant who was trained for the role
• The victim looks very nice, friendly, mild-mannered and likeable
• The subject is brought individually to the lab and introduced to the victim
• The cover story is that the study is about punishment and memory
• The real purpose is to study obedience, but the participants are deceived about this
• Procedure


  1. Subject brought individually to lab

  2. Subject introduced to victim

  3. Cover story given about punishment and memory
• The roles of teacher and learner are rigged, with both participants being given the 'teacher' role
• The victim, who is the learner, is a stooge who is in on the deception
• The setup includes an electric chair, electrodes, and a shock generator that appears real but is actually fake
• Shock generator


  • 30 level switches
  • Voltage levels from 15 to 450 volts
  • Verbal designations for shock levels
  • Lights, sounds, and meter to appear authentic
• The purpose of the detailed shock generator is to make the participants believe the shocks are real
• No participants suspected the electric shocks were fake
• A similar experiment was being conducted by another researcher, Bus, at the same time as Milgram's study
• Sample shock procedure


  1. Subject receives 45 volt shock to wrist

  2. To make subject believe the shocks are real
• Instructions for the task


  1. For every wrong answer, shock the learner and move up one shock level

  2. Announce the voltage level before giving the shock
• Milgram ran a pre-test to review the procedure before the main experiment
• 00 volts boom shot 315 volts boom shot right why announce it why do they have to announce it remember they can't hear they can't they can't hear each other verbally there's no speaker in their rooms there's a wall separating them all they can see is what answers the learner is given
• there is a speaker in the room because the person has to speak out the words but why do they have to announce the voltage level well again it's to remind the subject it's not so that the learner can hear it the learner doesn't need to know because the learner is the stooge he doesn't receive any shocks it's fake right
• the reason why that you need to announce the voltage level is so that the subject realizes what they're doing that the subject knows right
• Milgram did run a pre-test and if you read the journal do you know what the pre-test reviewed
• Pre-test


  To test the procedure of a study to ensure that it works smoothly
• the pre-test revealed that participants needed some time to figure things out before they could do it smoothly
• Preliminary run


  1. Subjects were given a 10 word list to read to the learner, with 3 neutral words that the learner would answer correctly and 7 wrong answers that would result in shocks up to 105 volts

  2. After this preliminary run, almost all subjects mastered the procedure
• In the actual experiment, the subject is given a second list of words and instructed to read it together with the learner, repeating it until the learner has learned all the pairs correctly
• The subject is told to start at 15 volts and increase the shock level one step each time the learner gives a wrong answer
• Before the shock level of 300 volts, there are no verbal or physical protests heard from the learner