Miligram

• what was the aim of miligrams study?

  to investigate how far people would be willing to go in obeying an authority figure when asked to administer electric shocks to another person.
• METHOD: how many people took part in the study? how old were they?

  40 men aged 20-50
• METHOD: what did the men volunteer to participate in?

  a study into learning and memory
• METHOD: where was the experiment conducted?

  yale university
• METHOD: what happened when participants arrived at yale uni?

  they were greeted by the experimenter who wore a grey lab coat.
• METHOD: how much were participants paid to take part?

  $4.50
• METHOD: what was the draw used to do?

  decide who would be the learner or the teacher, the draw was fixed as the other 'participant' they were introduced to was secretely a stooge, and so the participant was always the teacher.
• METHOD: the participant watched as the leaner was ____?

  strapped into a chair and attached to electrodes linked to a shock generator.
• METHOD: what were the participants given to convince them the shock generator was real?

  - a shock of 45 volts
• METHOD: what was the teacher requied to do during the procedure?

  the teacher was required to test the learners on word-pairs and give them an increasingly severe electric shock each time they made a mistake.
• METHOD: what volatage did the shock level start at and what did it go up to?

  it started at 15v and went up to 450 volts in 15 volt intervals.
• METHOD: did the learner really recieve electric shocks? what did they do at certain intervals?

  - no they just acted as if they did - at 315 volts the learner let out a violent scream and at 330 volts there was complete silence.
• METHOD: what happened in the teacher hesitated in giving a shock?

  the experimenter used verbal prods to encourage them to continue
• RESULTS: what voltage did members of staff predict volunteers would stop at? what percentage did they predict would go up to 450?

  150v voltage, they predicted that 1% would continue up to 450 volts.
• RESULTS: what percentage of participants went up to at least 300 volts?

  100%
• RESULTS: what percentage of participants went up to 450 volts?

  65%
• what is one limitation of miligrams study? (restricted sample)

  P) restricted sample of participants. it was a volunteer sample which means that particpants were self-selecting, which is a weakness as these volunteers may have a certain type of personality and thus not be representative of the population as a whole.

  
  

  e) miligrams participants were obtained by placing an advert in a local newspaper, they were all men aged 20-50 from new haven.

  
  

  t) this is a limitation as it means this study may lack generalisability, although miligram did later repeat the experiment with female participants and found similar high levels of obediance.
• what is another limitation of miligram's study? (deception+debriefing)


  p) miligram breached the ethical issue of deception.

  
  

  e) he told participants the study they were looking at the 'effects of punishment on learning'. participants were also led to believe the shocks were real and that the learner was a participant like them.

  
  

  t) however there is possible justification for this use of deception as revealing the true nature of the experiment wouldn't result in finding out how people really behave. miligram may have argued that his research was of such importance to understanding obediance that is qualified as an exceptional circumstance.

  
  

  miligram fully debriefed and reassured his participants and showed them that mr wallace was ok and explained that the shocks weren't real.

  
  

  when asked, around 80% of participants said that more experiments like this should be conducted and about 75% said they learnt something of personal value from their experience?
• what is another limitation of miligram's study? (protection from harm)

  p) miligram breached the ethical issue of protecting participants from psychological and physical harm.

  
  

  e) participants suffered psychological distress both during the study and potentially afterwards as well. they took part in an experiment where they discovered they are capable of killing someone and showed signs of distress such as shaking, trembling etc.

  
  

  t) therefore miligrams participants may have suffered long term psychologcal effects as a result of taking part in the experiment.

  
  

  however when later asked, over 80% of participants said they were happy to take part in the experiment. furthermore, participants were examined by a psychiatrist 1 year later who found no signs of harm.
• what is another limitation of miligrams study? (validity)


  p) miligrams study has been criticised for lacking ecological validity

  
  

  e) it was conducted in a lab study which involves articial situation/tasks in highly controlled environents, they're very different to real life situations of obediance, where people are often asked to follow more subtle instructions rather than administrating electric shocks.

  
  

  t) the task itself has low mundane realism as its a highly unrealistic task for participants to carry out. however the central feature of this situation was the relationship between the authority figure and the participant. miligram argued that the lab environment accurately reflected wider authority relationships in real life.
• What is another strength of milgram's study? (Research support - french documentary)

  P) further research support

  
  

  E) in a french documentary contestants in a reality to game show were paid to give fake electric shocks - when ordered by the presenter - to other partipants (actors). 80% gave the maximum 450v to an apparently unconscious man.

  
  

  T) improves validity of milligrams research.
• who conducted supporting research is there for miligrams argument?

  hofling et al (1966).
• what did hofling et al (1966) do?

  they studied nurses on a hospital ward and found that levels of obedience to unjustified demands by doctors were very high (with 21/22 nurses obeying).
• what does hofling et al's findings suggest about miligrams study?

  the processes of obedience to authority that occcured in miligrams lab study can be generalised to other situations.
• What is another evaluation of milligrams research (Sheridan and king)


  P) once and Holland suggest participants guessed that the electric shocks were fake. So milligram was not testing what he intended to test.

  
  

  E) however, Sheridan and king's participants gave real shocks to a puppy:54% of males and 100% of females delivered what they thought was a fatal shock.

  
  

  T) so the obedience in milligrams study might be genuine, 70% of mini grams participants believed the shock was genuine.