Edexcel AS - Social Psychology

Social Psychology

Milgram (1963)

Aim:

• To test how far an individual will go in obeying an authority.
• To also test the idea that German people are different in obedience

Method:

• 40 Males aged 20-40.
• Newspaper advertisement, offered $4.50 pay.
• Yale University, an experiment testing the effect of punishment on learning.
• The participant was the teacher and the confederate a learner.
• The teacher tested the voltage at 45v in the electric shock generator.
• It was a word game based on memory and for every wrong answer the voltage went up by 15v and they were in two separate rooms.
• A painful pre-recorded scream was played through speaker phone.
• At 300v the learner became silent which meant they were unconscious or dead.
• There were verbal prods when the participant objected.
• The experiment stopped when the participant kept objecting or when they reached 450v
• The participant was debriefed at the end. 

Results:

• 65% administered the shocks to 450v
• 100% administered the shocks to 300v
• Some participants experienced lip biting, trembling, sweating, fits and nervous laughter as a result of their anxiety in doing the experiment.

Conclusion:

• It is possible for any individual to go against their moral code and cause harm as a result of obeying an authority figure.

Evaluation:

+ Clear controls, cause and effect and replicable due to standardised procedure

+ Reliable as there were variations that shows similar results

+ No bias, same situation

- Unethical as there was deception, no full right to withdraw, no informed consent caused distress (harm)

- Lacks ecological validity as the setting is artificial

Milgram Variations (1963)

Aim:

• To investigate the reasons for the high level of obedience in a systematic way

1st Variation - Opposed to the victim being remote from the participant, the participant holds the victims hand to receive the shock - 30% administered the shock to 450v

2nd Variation - To see if the presence of two colleagues who refuse to continue will affect the participants decision to continue - 10% administered the shocks to 450v

3rd Variation - Aimed to see if the participants decision to continue would be affected by one experimenter telling them to continue and the other telling them not to - None administered the shocks to 450v

Meeus and Raaijmaker (1986)

Aim:

• To investigate destructive obedience in an everyday situation of a job interview

Method:

• 39 participants both male and female
• 15 in the control group, 24 in the experimental group
• Newspaper advertisement, paid $13
• Conducted in a university
• The participant was required to harass an applicant (confederate) by saying 15 stress remarks, which were displayed on a TV and when to say them, for every wrong answer.
• There were 4 verbal prods if the participant wished to withdraw from the experiment
• The applicants (confederates) responses were scripted and they had to answer 32 multiple choice questions
• They communicated through speaker phones
• The tension was measured through electrodes on the skull

Results:

• 22/24 of the experimental group obeyed and said all 15 remarks
• 56%…