Describe and evaluate Milgram’s research into obedience
- 40 male participants
- They were all told they were in a study for memory, the draw for leaner or teacher was
rigged so the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was always the
confederate
- There was an experimenter who was in a lab coat who always sat next to the participant
and claimed that they could leave the experiment at any time they wanted
- The teacher was told they had to give electric shocks between 15 volts and 450 volts
when the learner made a mistake in the memory test.
- The confederate learner pounded on the wall at 300 volts and went silent at 315 volts to
see if participant would continue
- Prior to the study students thought that only 3% of the participants would go up to 450
volts, however no participants stopped lower than 300 volts and 12.5% went to 300
volts, 65% went to 450 volts.
A03
There’s supporting evidence
- A French documentary replicated Milgram’s study where participants went on game
show and were paid to give shocks, seeing the presenter as the authority, 80% gave up
to 460 volts of shocks
Limitation
ethical issues
- Milgram led the participants to believe that the allocation of roles was random, and the
shocks were real which is deception so the betrayal of trust can lead to damage to a
representation of psychologists.
Low internal validity
- The participants didn’t belove the set up and already guessed the experiment wasn’t
real, this was evident by someone called perry who looked at tapes of participants after
experiment and they showed doubts as half the participants didn’t believe the shocks
were real in the first place
- 40 male participants
- They were all told they were in a study for memory, the draw for leaner or teacher was
rigged so the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was always the
confederate
- There was an experimenter who was in a lab coat who always sat next to the participant
and claimed that they could leave the experiment at any time they wanted
- The teacher was told they had to give electric shocks between 15 volts and 450 volts
when the learner made a mistake in the memory test.
- The confederate learner pounded on the wall at 300 volts and went silent at 315 volts to
see if participant would continue
- Prior to the study students thought that only 3% of the participants would go up to 450
volts, however no participants stopped lower than 300 volts and 12.5% went to 300
volts, 65% went to 450 volts.
A03
There’s supporting evidence
- A French documentary replicated Milgram’s study where participants went on game
show and were paid to give shocks, seeing the presenter as the authority, 80% gave up
to 460 volts of shocks
Limitation
ethical issues
- Milgram led the participants to believe that the allocation of roles was random, and the
shocks were real which is deception so the betrayal of trust can lead to damage to a
representation of psychologists.
Low internal validity
- The participants didn’t belove the set up and already guessed the experiment wasn’t
real, this was evident by someone called perry who looked at tapes of participants after
experiment and they showed doubts as half the participants didn’t believe the shocks
were real in the first place
