Milgrams Situational variables

• Obedience


  Following direct order from someone in a position of authority, who has the power to punish disobedient behaviour
• Milgram's study procedure


  1. Advert placed in newspaper for volunteer sample of 40 male Americans aged 20-50 from Connecticut

  2. Participants arrived at Yale University lab

  3. Met by Mr Wallace (confederate with heart condition) and experimenter (in lab coat - authority)

  4. Names drawn from hat to determine 'teacher' and 'learner' (rigged so participant was always the teacher)

  5. Teacher given small shock to experience

  6. Learner (Mr Wallace) had to remember word pairs, and was 'shocked' by teacher for errors

  7. Shock generator went from 15 to 450 volts with labels like 'moderate', 'intense', 'danger'

  8. Learner was not actually receiving shocks, just pre-recorded sounds

  9. When teacher wanted to stop, they were given verbal prods from experimenter
• When the teacher said they wanted to stop they were given ‘verbal prods’ from experimenter: Prod 1 - ‘Please continue’ OR ‘Please go on’ Prod 2 - ‘The experiment requires that you continue’ Prod 3 – ‘It is absolutely essential that you continue’ Prod 4. - ‘You have no other choice, you must go on’.
• Milgram concluded that German people are not different. American participants in his study obeyed orders, even when they knew they were causing harm to others. He suspected there were certain factors in the situation that encouraged obedience, so decided to conduct further investigations.
• Milgram found that all participant went up 300 volts, 12.5 (5 participants) stopped at 300 volts and 65% went up to 450 volts. This led Milgram to conclude that German people are not different, and American’s will also obey orders that go against their morality when people in a position of authority instruct them to do so
• Proximity


  • Milgram varied his study by placing the teacher and learner in the same room, where obedience levels dropped from 65% to 40% as the teacher was forced to place the learner's hand on the shock plate, obedience rates dropped to 30%
• Location


  • The obedience study was conducted in a run-down building rather than a university setting, obedience levels fell to 47.5%
• Uniform


  • The experimenter was called away due to a telephone call and an ordinary man in everyday clothes was placed in the role, obedience rates dropped to 20%
• Milgram's study


  May not have been testing what it intended to
• Milgram reported 75% of participants thought the shocks were genuine
• Orne and Holland argued that participants play along with the set up and did not believe the shocks were real
• Gina and Perry listened to the tapes of Milgram's participants and reported only half of them believed the shocks were real
• Demand characteristics


  Participants displayed them in the study
• Limitation of Milgram's study

  • Lacks ecological validity
  • The setting was artificial and not representative of real life
  • Tested obedience in a lab which is different to real life situations of obedience