Unit 2; Core Studies; Milgram
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- Created on: 17-01-17 15:34
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- Milgram
- Background: in WWII, Adolf Eichmann organised the Holocaust but said he was just obeying orders
- Aim: investigate level of obedience of participants asked by an authority figure to give someone electric shocks
- Controlled observation so no IV but DV: was obedience (voltage reached before stopping)
- Sample: 40 males aged 20-50 from New Haven USA. Self-selected, responded to paper ad, earned $4.50
- Procedure
- told experiment was to investigate punishment & learning
- 'lucky dip' for who was teacher who was learner: but was fixed, participant was always teacher
- 'learner' strapped to chair & teacher told no harmful risks
- tecaher given shock of 45volts
- teacher reads series of word pairs for learner to learn
- teacher asked learner to identify correct answer from 4 option by pressing switches
- if learner got answer wrong then teacher would apply a shock, which increased by 15v each time
- if teacher showed discomfort, 'prods' were used, like 'please continue'
- experiment ended when 450v reached or teacher withdrew
- participants debriefed
- Findings: 65% went to 450v. All went to 300v, 5 refused then.
- some men sweated, cried, trembled, 3 had violent convulsions
- Conclusion & Explanation
- situation produced tendency to obey & casued emotional stress
- Most obeyed as done at credible institution, by 'competent' researcher, felt obliged to.
- Ethics: broke deception, withdrawal, informed consent, protection from harm
- Ethnocentrism: N/A but generalisable
- Reliability & Validity
- IR: many controls
- ER: could be larger but effect found
- IV: participant variables in morality
- EV: only males from New Haven, unlike real life but authority figures are common
- Summary
- Relates to social area as teacher felt obliged by authority
- Relates to responses to authority as shows we're more likely to obey
- Links to Debates: Individual vs Situational
- majority all did the same and obeyed, even if they felt it was wrong
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