Milgram's original study

What is meant by internalising?

Internalising is obeying with agreement.

What results were found?

- 40 / 40 (100%) of participants continued to 300 volts. - 26 / 40 (65%) of participants continued to 450 volts. - When asked to rate the shocks out of 14, the average rating was 13.42 - Many participants showed signs of nervousness such as stuttering, sweating, trembling, groaning and digging their nails into their flesh.

Can Milgram's original study be applied to real life?

- His findings have been used by the US military to change the way that they train new army recruits. - The findings can help to explain events such as WWII and why so many German soldiers obeyed authority to kill innocent Jews. It can be said that they were not responsible for their actions and that they were just acting as agents. An example of this would be Eichman, a German soldier who was responsible for the majority of the holocaust, who argued that he was just obeying orders.

What prompts were used by Milgram?

- Please continue/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.

What was the procedure of Milgram's study?

- Participants waited in the waiting room of Yale University with another person who they believed to be a second participant (Milgram's helper) - The participant and the confederate drew lots to decide who would be the learner and who would be the participant. This was rigged so that the participant would always become the teacher and the confederate would always become the learner. - The participant received a small shock of 45 volts so that they would believe that the shocks they were giving to the confederate were real. - The participant watched the confederate-learner being strapped into a chair and wired up so that the 'shocks' could be felt. - Milgram then took the participant into another room with a long counter with an array of switches. The switches were in a row and were labelled 15 volts to 450 volts and above were labels such as 'slight shock' and 'danger'. - They were told that the shocks would be painful but that there would be no permanent tissue damage. - The task required the participants to read out word pairs such as blue-box, nice day, and wild-duck and then read out the key word and the four possible answers. - The confederate had four buttons to press and was required to press the right one. - Each time a wrong answer was given, the participant was required to administer an electric shock increasing in 15 volts each time to the confederate. - Milgram and the confederate were both working to a script.

What was the aim of Milgram's study?

- To test the idea that Germans were somehow different from other people, in that they were able to carry out barbaric acts against the Jews and other minority groups. - Milgram also wanted to see if participants would obey orders to give electric shocks to someone they thought was another participant. He wanted to answer the question 'How far would they go?'

What response was given by the confederate at 75 volts, 120 volts, 150 volts, 270 volts and 300 volts?

- Up to 75 volts, there was no indication that the shocks were causing the confederate any distress. - At 120 volts, the confederate shouted that the shocks were becoming painful. - At 150 volts, the confederate shouted that he no longer wished to continue with the study. - At 270 volts, the shouts became agonising screams. - At 300 volts, the learner refused to give answers and could now be in a bad way.

What is meant by compliance?

Compliance means going along with what someone says while not necessarily agreeing with it.

What year did Milgram carry out his original study?

1963

How many participants were there?

40

What is meant by conforming?

Conforming is doing something which is against the individual's own inclinations but not doing it because of an order.

Is Milgram's original study valid?

Experimental validity: Milgram tried to make his experiment more believable by allowing the participant to meet the 'learner' and to experience a small shock of 45 volts. This made the study experimentally valid. Ecological validity: Milgram's original study took place in an artificial laboratory setting at Yale University. This was not the participants usual setting and so the study lacks ecological validity.

How did Milgram choose his participants?

Milgram advertised for Male participants through an advert in a newspaper. They were told that they were taking part in an experiment on human learning and were paid $4.00.

Is Milgram's original study ethical?

Milgram was competent enough to run the study and also had the correct skills needed. However, fully informed consent was not gained - they believed the study was about human learning. The participants were deceived: they were lead to believe that the shocks were real, that the confederate was real and that the drawing of lots was also real. The right to withdraw was given but due to the prompts given by the experimenter, the participants felt obliged to stay.

Is Milgram's original study reliable

Milgram's original study followed a standardised procedure and therefore had tight controls throughout the experiment. Each participant was tested separately and they each had the same experience. The confederate and the experimenter were both working to a script so that the responses given by the confederate and the verbal prods used by the experimenter were all the same. The tight controls used throughout mean that the study is reliable as if it were repeated, similar results would be found. We know the study is reliable as when it was repeated, similar results were found.

Is Milgram's original study generalisable?

Milgram's original study is not generalisable as all the participants were middle class, American Males and so it can only be generalised to American males.

Is Milgram's original study subjective or objective?

Milgram's original study is objective as the results gathered from the study did not need to be interpreted by Milgram.

What is meant by obedience?

Obedience means obeying direct orders from someone in authority.

What conclusions did Milgram draw?

Social influence is strong and people will obey orders even when it causes them distress. He believed that certain features lead to obedience: - Yale University is a prestigious place that is unlikely to allow anything bad to happen. - The study seemed to have a worth cause. - The victim was not unwilling and had agreed to take part. - The participant was a volunteer. - The participant was paid and so felt an obligation. - The learners were there by chance. - It was thought that the shocks were not dangerous.