Milgrims baseline study
AIM = To see if people would obey and give electric shocks to harm another person, when ordered to do so by an authority figure.
STRENGTHS + WEAKNESSES
RESULTS
PROCEDURE
obedience = a form of social influence, where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another who is usually an authority figure.
advertisement placed in newspaper about experiment investigating the effects of punishment on learning at Yale university, pay $4.50
40 MALES, aged 20 - 50, with wide range of educational backgrounds.
Each participant was given a sample shock of 45v
In fact, this was the only shock actually given throughout the entire experiment.
No spoken response of protest was heard from learner until 300v when he began to pound on the wall
The electric shock generator looked and sounded real
The experiment would end when all four prompts were used or the ppts has got to 450v
"you must go on"
"it is absolutely essential that you continue"
"please go on"
"the experiment requires that you continue"
At the end of the study, a FRIENDLY RECONCILIATION was arranged to show no harm had come to the learner
The participants were also debriefed and interviewed to ensure no mental harm was done
HOWEVER this was done months later after the experiment.
STANDARDIZED PROCEDURE = every single participant had the exact same experience meaning that his studies are replicable and therefore can be tested for reliability.
However= Gina Perry argues that the experimenter strays of the script and one time even used 20 prods before ending the experiment. This suggest that Milgrams study may not be as standardized and questions the reliability.
UNREPRESENTATIVE SAMPLE = participants were volunteers, the people who applied may have been different to the general population and therefore unrepresentative sample the results cannot be generalized to all people.
However, Milgrams procedure has been replicated in many different cultures and found very similar results.
BETA BIAS (ANDROCENTRIC) = Milgram only used male participants which shows beta bias, as his research may have ignored or minimized the differences between men and women in relation to the conclusions drawn regarding obedience to authority.
HIGHLY CONTROLLED EXPERIMENT = confounding variables were avoided by conducting the procedure in an artificial setting, therefore increasing the INTERNAL VALIDITY as it is clear what effect the prods (IV) is having on the levels of obedience (DV)
LACK OF ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY = it was not similar to real life and lacked MUNDANE REALISM. People don't usually have to give electric shocks to strangers, therefore we have to be careful generalising the findings to real life situations as people may behave differently to an authority figure in a more realistic situation.
TASK LACKED INTERNAL VALIDITY = some participants may have only obeyed the experimenter because they did not believe that the shocks were real . In the film footage Gina Perry noticed some ppts voicing their suspicion regarding the legitimacy of the shock machine
QUANTITATIVE = all 40 ppts administered shocks up to 300v, at this point 5 refused to go any further, the remaining 35 continued to 450v.
QUALITATIVE = signs of extreme tension were observed: "sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their fingers into their flesh"
AUTONOMOUS + AGENTIC STATES