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Summary Milgram (1963) - behavioural study of obedience
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A summary of classic key study - Milgram (1963)
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Milgram (1963): Behavioural Study of ObedienceBackground
The “Germans are different” hypothesis – stated that German’s have a basic
character deficit which means that they have a readiness to obey people in
authority, regardless of the act they are being asked to carry out. This is an example
of a dispositional hypothesis as it is arguing that the cause of behaviour is believed to
result from someone’s own personality or characteristics or disposition.
Milgram’s study can be seen as an attempt to test this hypothesis. However, he
believed that it was more to do with the situation that had led to the inhumane
behaviour of the Nazis and therefore that anybody placed in the same situation
would also commit such atrocities.
Aim
To investigate whether participants would show obedience to an authority figure
who told them to administer electric shocks to another person.
Method
This study is often described as an experiment – however there is no control
condition and there was no manipulation of an IV, therefore it is not strictly an
experiment.
It is more accurate to describe this study as a controlled observation in which
obedience was measured in terms of the voltage given to the learner.
Participants
Milgram used self-selected sampling.
Participants were obtained through newspaper adverts and direct mailings. The
advert asked for volunteer to take part in a study of memory at Yale University.
The participants consisted of 40 males aged 20-50, all were drawn from the area of
New Haven in Connecticut. They had a wide range of occupations and backgrounds.
The participants were told that they would be paid $4 for taking part regardless of
what happened after they arrived.
Procedure
The study was conducted at Yale University in 2 adjoining rooms – one room
contained an electric shock generator, the other contained an ‘electric chair’ with
restraining straps.
The role of the experimenter was a confederate, the role of the learner was a
confederate. Participants were always the teacher.
The study started out with the participants being introduced to the learner
(confederate), however they were introduced as 2 participants.
A cover story was used claiming that the study was about the effect of punishment
on learning - participants did not know the true nature of the study.
The 2 men then each drew lots to see who would play the teacher and learner. This
situation was rigged (both pieces of paper said ‘teacher’) so that the participant
always drew ‘teacher’.
To enhance the authenticity of the shock generator, all participants were given a
sample shock of 45v.
The participant had to read a series of word pairs to the learner who had to
memorise the pairs. The learner was then tested by receiving 1 of the words in a pair
along with 4 other words, they had to identify which word was originally paired with
the first.
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