Obedience: milgrams study
- Created by: IvyVega
- Created on: 22-02-18 16:35
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- Obedience: Milgram's research
- Procedure
- Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper ads and postal flyers.
- The ad said he was looking for participants for a memory study
- Participants were aged between 20 and 50 years, in jobs ranging from unskilled to professional.
- They were given $4.50 for just turning up.
- Participants drew lots for their role.
- A confederate was always the learner while the true participant was the teacher.
- An experimenter, who was another confederate, wore a lab coat.
- Participants were told they could leave the study at any time
- A confederate was always the learner while the true participant was the teacher.
- The learner was strapped into a chair in another room and wired with electrodes.
- the teacher had to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time he made a mistake on a task
- The teachers were not told that the shocks were all fake and that Mr Wallace was an actor.
- the teacher had to give the learner an increasingly severe electric shock each time he made a mistake on a task
- Shocks started at 15 volts and rose through 30 levels to 450.
- At 300 volts the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question
- After the 315 volt shock the learner pounded on the wall again but gave no further response.
- At 300 volts the learner pounded on the wall and gave no response to the next question
- when the teacher turned to the experimenter for guidance, he gave a standard instruction
- 'Absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer.'
- If the teacher felt unsure about continuing, the experimenter used a sequence of four standard prods
- Please continue, or please go on
- the experiment requires that you continue
- it is absolutely essential that you continue
- You have no other choice, you must go on.
- If the teacher felt unsure about continuing, the experimenter used a sequence of four standard prods
- 'Absence of response should be treated as a wrong answer.'
- Milgram recruited 40 male participants through newspaper ads and postal flyers.
- Findings and conclusion
- No participants stopped below 300 volts
- Five (12.5%) stopped at 300 volts
- 65% continued to 450 volts
- Observations indicated that participants showed signs of extreme tension
- Many were seen to sweat, tremble, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingernails into their hands.
- Three had full blown uncontrollable seizures
- Prior to the study Milgram asked 14 psychology students to predict the naïve participants behaviour.
- They estimated no more than 3% of them would continue to 450 volts.
- Therefore the findings were unexpected
- They estimated no more than 3% of them would continue to 450 volts.
- Participants were debriefed, and assured that their behaviour was normal.
- In a follow-up questionnaire, 84% reported that they felt glad to have participated.
- 74% felt they had learned something of personal importance.
- In a follow-up questionnaire, 84% reported that they felt glad to have participated.
- No participants stopped below 300 volts
- Explanations for obedience based on situational variables
- Proximity
- In Milgram's original study, the teacher and learner were in the adjoining rooms.
- The teacher could hear the learner but not see him
- In the proximity variation, teacher and learner were in the same room and the obedience rate dropped from 65% to 40%
- In the touch proximity variation, the teacher had to force the learner's hand onto a shock plate
- The obedience rate dropped to 30%
- in the remote- instruction proximity variation, the experimenter left the room and gave instructions by telephone.
- the obedience rate dropped again to 20.5%.
- The participants also frequently pretended to give shocks or gave weaker ones when they were ordered to
- In Milgram's original study, the teacher and learner were in the adjoining rooms.
- Location
- The location of the obedience study was a run down building rather than the prestigious university setting where it was originally conducted.
- Obedience fell to 47.5%. This indicates that the experimenter had less authority in this setting.
- Uniform
- In the original baseline study, the experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of his authority.
- In one variation the experimenter was called away because of an inconvenient telephone call right at the start of the procedure.
- The role of the experimenter was taken over by an ordinary member of the public in everyday clothes rather than a lab coat.
- the obedience rate dropped to 20%, the lowest of these variations.
- This suggests that uniform does act as a strong visual authority symbol and a cue to behave in an obedient manner.
- Proximity
- Procedure
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