Milgram's(1963) original study of obedience

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  • Created by: Maggie
  • Created on: 20-05-13 10:23
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  • Milgram's (1963) Study Of Obedience
    • Aim
      • To establish a baseline measure of how obedient naïve participants would be when ordered to administer increasingly intensive electric 'shocks' to an innocent victim
    • Procedure
      • 40 male, white American participants
      • aged 20 - 50
      • advertised in a newspaper, for a fee of $4
      • at Yele University
      • Meet "Mr Wallace" cofederate
      • The participant sat around a screen from Mr Wallace, test learners ability to learn word pairs
      • Every time an error was made electric shock was addministered
        • The voltage was increased every time by 15V
          • Final shock level set at 450V and labelled '***'
    • Results
      • 100% participants continued to 300V
      • 65% delivered full 450V
      • Most showed signs of stress, but did not feel they could stop when ordered to continue
    • Conclusion
      • This study shows theat...
        • Power of authority over our behavionr
        • potential in ordinary  Americans' capable to that Nazis during the WWII (Holocaust)
    • Milgram's Features which lead to obedience
      • Diffusion of responsibility
        • participants asked the experimenter who would take responsibility for Mr Wallace. the experimenter reassured he would take the responsibility, so the participant felt more comfortable.
      • Small steps to evil
        • the generator switches went up in small intervals, so participants found it easier to obey
    • Evaluation
      • Generalizability
        • Difficult to generalise, small, culturally based sample . May not apply to other cultures or females.
      • Reliability
        • Tight controls, standardised, could be repeated, therefore reliable
      • Validity
        • Low in validity, demand characteristics may have occurred, Yele university
        • Low in ecological Validity, lacks mundane realism,

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