Milgram

AIMS:

• to see what level of obedience is shown when an authority figure told participants to adminster electric shocks
• wanted to prove Americans wouldn't have done the same thing the Germans did (WW2 - Hitler)

METHOD: 

• Lab Experiment - no IV manipulated
• really is observation but controlled within lab setting

PARTICIPANTS:

• newspaper add - 500 men from New Haven area
• final group - 40 males aged 20-40 - range of jobs, range of education
• paid $4.50 regardless of what happened in the study
• SELF-SELECT

DESIGN:

• participant observation

PROCEDURE:

• took place at Yale Uni in an interaction lab, experimenter wore a grey tech. coat - aged 31, learner/victim was a 47 year old accountant - trained for role
• participants tested one at a time
• naive about true purpose - told it was a study on memory and learning
• slips of paper determining role were fixed - pp. always teacher
• PP. received control shock of 45V
• Learning task: series of word pairs (20 pairs), victim had to match 1 word with 4 choices - shocked if wrong e.g. fast bird, soft hair
• 15V (slight shock) - 450V (intense shock) - wrong answer, increase voltage
• learner had pre-determined respones - 1 correct for 3 wrong, gave no vocal response to shocks until 300V - pounding on walls then nothing, cries were pre-recorded,
• Prods if pp. showed reluctance: 1) Please Continue, 2) the experiment requires you to continue, 3) is its absolutely…