milgram revision resource
Storyboard Text
- Why did participants obey?
- . Participants were told shocks were not harmful and the scientific gains were important
- What the study tell us about obedience/behaviour & implications?
- . The most important finding was that people will follow instructions of an authority figure even though it means it'll harm another person
- People can be instructed to carry out atrocities and they will be likely to carry these through if it's given by a legitimate figure so the acts of genocides we have witnessed
- With the power of an authority figure, it allows us to transfer responsibility for our actions to that person.
- Ethics
- Strengths
- . Study was a controlled experiment with a standardised procedure and controls of extraneous variables, E.g. Mr Wallace's reactions to the shocks were taped and the authority figure responded in a set way at each new prompt
- The study was ground-breaking work in this field and generalise able to real life as it shows us how people respond obediently to an authoritative figure
- . The location was at Yale uni so seemed genuine . Participants assumed the experimenter knew what he was doing so followed instructions . Believed the learner voluntarily consented to take part so the situation was 'fair' . Participant's obligation to take part was reinforced as they got paid
- Weaknesses
- Participants were paid $4.50 so they could've only done the experiment because of this and demand characteristics could have affected it.
- Study lacks ecological validity as it took place in a lab with high controls
- Participant's were deceived in thinking that the study was about memory and not obedience. Also deceived in thinking the electric shocks were real
- . All male so androcentric
- The end
- Participants had the right to withdraw (even though it wasn't obvious)
- The prods given during study suggested right to withdraw wasn't allowed
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