Milgram (1963) Study of Obedience
Aim: To see whether people would obey and inflict harm on each another person using electric shocks, by following the orders of an authority figure. This was to see whether all individuals had the potential to cause harm like the Germans and the Nazi’s or if they were different.
Procedure: A volunteer sample was recruited by placing an advert in a newspaper offering a $4,00 reward and travelling expenses. 40 male pp’s took part and were introduced to who they believed to be another pp (confederate). In a rigged draw the pp was allocated the role of teacher in an experiment they were told was about human learning and memory. PP’s were shown to a room with the shock generator and given a test shock at 45v to create realism. The shock generator was marked in 15v stages up to 450v with comments such as ‘slight shock’ and ‘danger’. PP’s were asked to read word pairs to the learner had 4 options to choose from. If the learner gave a wrong answer the pp’s were told to shock them. At 150v the pp’s heard the learner (actually a recording) say ‘ouch that hurts, these shocks are becoming painful’ and at 300v refused to answer and became silent, to which the teacher was told to treat it as a wrong answer.
If the pp wanted to stop they were prompted to continue, such as ‘please continue’ and ‘the experiment requires you to continue’. The experiment ended if the pp reached 450v or asked to stop after asking 5 times.
Findings: 65% of pp’s gave shocks to 450v. All pp’s gave shocks to 300v.
Conclusion: People will obey an authority figure even when this causes harm to another individual.
Evaluation
Generalisability: As onlymale pp’s were used, and it took place in American, the findings cannot be generalised to other cultures and to women. However when the study was repeated with female pp’s the same finding of 65% was found.
Reliability: It was a controlled procedure as it took place in a lab setting – Milgram ensured a standardised procedure was followed, with set prompts and the same confederate (Mr Wallace) being used and the same tape recording. This makes the experiment reliable as the experiment can be repeated and measured for consistency. The experiment was repeated for each of the 40 pps and Milgram went on to use this procedure in other variations.
Application: This study can be applied to the Nazi’s. They were, like the pp’s, in the agentic state and saw Hitler as the authority figure.
Validity: The experiment required pp’s to give shocks to another person, this is not something people do in everyday life so lacks ecological validity. PP’s may have guessed the experiment was not real and shown demand characteristics. They may have given the shocks because they thought that was what Milgram wanted. However when asked in a follow up survey pp’s said they did believe it was real.
Ethics: This experiment could not be repeated today due to the ethical issues that were broken. In this experiment pps were not protected for harm and incredibly distressed as they believed they killed another person. They also were deceived as they were not told the true aim of the experiment and did not give informed consent. However if fully informed consent occurred the experiment would not have worked. Due to the prompts such as ‘the experiment requires you to continue’ it was difficult for pps to have the right to withdraw, however 35% did leave, so it could be argued the right was given. In the follow up survey the majority of pp’s (84%) said they were glad to have taken part, suggesting that although ethics may have been broken, the research was seen as beneficial.
Aim: To see whether people would obey and inflict harm on each another person using electric shocks, by following the orders of an authority figure. This was to see whether all individuals had the potential to cause harm like the Germans and the Nazi’s or if they were different.
Procedure: A volunteer sample was recruited by placing an advert in a newspaper offering a $4,00 reward and travelling expenses. 40 male pp’s took part and were introduced to who they believed to be another pp (confederate). In a rigged draw the pp was allocated the role of teacher in an experiment they were told was about human learning and memory. PP’s were shown to a room with the shock generator and given a test shock at 45v to create realism. The shock generator was marked in 15v stages up to 450v with comments such as ‘slight shock’ and ‘danger’. PP’s were asked to read word pairs to the learner had 4 options to choose from. If the learner gave a wrong answer the pp’s were told to shock them. At 150v the pp’s heard the learner (actually a recording) say ‘ouch that hurts, these shocks are becoming painful’ and at 300v refused to answer and became silent, to which the teacher was told to treat it as a wrong answer.
If the pp wanted to stop they were prompted to continue, such as ‘please continue’ and ‘the experiment requires you to continue’. The experiment ended if the pp reached 450v or asked to stop after asking 5 times.
Findings: 65% of pp’s gave shocks to 450v. All pp’s gave shocks to 300v.
Conclusion: People will obey an authority figure even when this causes harm to another individual.
Evaluation
Generalisability: As onlymale pp’s were used, and it took place in American, the findings cannot be generalised to other cultures and to women. However when the study was repeated with female pp’s the same finding of 65% was found.
Reliability: It was a controlled procedure as it took place in a lab setting – Milgram ensured a standardised procedure was followed, with set prompts and the same confederate (Mr Wallace) being used and the same tape recording. This makes the experiment reliable as the experiment can be repeated and measured for consistency. The experiment was repeated for each of the 40 pps and Milgram went on to use this procedure in other variations.
Application: This study can be applied to the Nazi’s. They were, like the pp’s, in the agentic state and saw Hitler as the authority figure.
Validity: The experiment required pp’s to give shocks to another person, this is not something people do in everyday life so lacks ecological validity. PP’s may have guessed the experiment was not real and shown demand characteristics. They may have given the shocks because they thought that was what Milgram wanted. However when asked in a follow up survey pp’s said they did believe it was real.
Ethics: This experiment could not be repeated today due to the ethical issues that were broken. In this experiment pps were not protected for harm and incredibly distressed as they believed they killed another person. They also were deceived as they were not told the true aim of the experiment and did not give informed consent. However if fully informed consent occurred the experiment would not have worked. Due to the prompts such as ‘the experiment requires you to continue’ it was difficult for pps to have the right to withdraw, however 35% did leave, so it could be argued the right was given. In the follow up survey the majority of pp’s (84%) said they were glad to have taken part, suggesting that although ethics may have been broken, the research was seen as beneficial.