SOCIAL - Milgram's (1963) study into obedience
- Created by: EmilyEther
- Created on: 18-11-18 17:46
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- Milgram's (1963) study into obedience
- Obedience
- complying with the demands of an authority figure
- The study
- PROCEDURE: 40 male volunteers with normal jobs, told it was exper for punishment and learning, drew rigged straws for 'teacher' and 'learner' (PP always got teacher). Confed: 40 yr old man, mild-mannered, mentioned he had heart probs in past. Learner tested on word lists.
- THE MACHINE: teacher had to shock learner if he was wrong, PP got small shock to they believed it was real, shock ranged from 15V (slight) to 450V (***). Teacher told to increase shock by 15V for every wrong answer
- PROMPTS: experimenter used prompt every time the teacher objected: 'please continue' -> 'the experiment requires you to continue' -> 'it is absolutely essential that you continue' -> 'you have no choice, you must go on'
- RESULTS: psychiatrist estimated less than 1% to go to 450V. College students guessed 9/30 shocks would be delivered) Everyone went to at least 300V, 65% went to 450V. Suggests obedience is human nature, and people will go forward with orders that go against conscience when put in certain situations
- Variations
- VENUE: run down building, decreased, 47.5% people to give 450V as it reduced validity of experiment
- TEACHER AND LEARNER IN SAME ROOM: decreased, 40%, can see the outcome of actions
- TEACHER PAIRED WITH ASSISTANT THAT PULLED SWITCHES: increase, 92.8%, autonomous state
- TEACHER HAD TO PUT LEARNERS HAND ON SHOCK PLATE: decrease, 30%
- RESEARCHER GAVE INSTRUCTIONS OVER TELEPHONE: decrease, 20.5%
- TEACHER ACCOMPANIED BY 2 CONFEDS WHO REFUSED TO CONTINUE: decrease, 10%
- Evaluation
- ETHICS: deception, lacked fully informed consent, psychological harm and stress (guilt), PPs should always have right to withdraw - experimenter didn't allow it, weren't told they could withdraw
- BURGER (2009) - ethical Milgram study - found 70% obedience rate (67% in M), highest volt= 150, 15V chock given to PP (45V in M), 70 male and female (male in M) told 3 times they could withdraw, obed rate was no different between males and females
- ORNE & HOLLAND (1968) - PPs didn't really believe they were giving real shocks; just going along with it to please experimenter - DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
- ANDROCENTRISM - study only done with males
- CULTURE BIAS: not generalisable to other cultures apart from America
- HISTORICAL VALIDITY - American culture very authoritarian at that time - doesn't reflect today
- ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY - unrepresentative of real-life situations
- PPs response
- PPs showed extreme stress, sweating, trembling, biting lips, fingernails, some protested and wanted to stop
- One PP that gave 450V said: 'good God, he's dead. Well let's finish him!'
- Although participating and being obedient, they verbally protested
- Debriefing, PPs said they were glad they took part because they learned something about themselves
- Defending his method
- 84% of PPs glad they took part
- 74% of PPs said they learnt something about themselves
- only 1.3% of PPs reported something negative
- psychiatrists interviewed 40 PPs and found no long term damage
- PPs debriefed after experiment - true nature of study made aware to them
- had the experiment showed low obed levels, wouldn't be as much controversy
- not his intention to scare PPs - not sufficient stress levels and didn't think they would go that far
- Obedience
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