Behavioural Study of Obedience - Milgram (1963)
Would you hurt another person if you were told to by someone more powerful than you?
Could you say 'no' to people who are encouraging you to act against your principles?
What would you have done if you were a German guard in Auschwitz in 1944?
Could you say 'no' to people who are encouraging you to act against your principles?
What would you have done if you were a German guard in Auschwitz in 1944?
How authoritarian are you? Take the online F-Scale test.This test is designed to show how likely you are to obey authority. It is quite an old test originally based on Freud's ideas and has some problems with it so the results should NOT be taken too seriously!
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Test your knowledge...... with these Holah quizzes
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Assignment 1 - Was Milgram's experiment justified?
There are clearly many serious problems with Milgram's experiment, both ethical and methodological. On the other hand, Milgram's experiment was incredibly informative and may have very important applications for society.
Think carefully about both the good and the bad of Milgram's experiment, using resources you find on the internet to help you. Here are some suggested ones to get you started:
● A witness’s recollections: http://www.jewishcurrents.org/2004-jan-dimow.htm
● Transcripts of some participants’ responses during the experiment:
http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html
● Audio clips of participants’ responses:
http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/socialsciences/Psychology/PsyRes13/Milgram.htm
I would like you to produce a balanced argument (one that mentions both sides of the argument), which comes to a conclusion expressing your judgement. It should be at least a page in length.
Submit your assignment through the form on the home page.
Think carefully about both the good and the bad of Milgram's experiment, using resources you find on the internet to help you. Here are some suggested ones to get you started:
● A witness’s recollections: http://www.jewishcurrents.org/2004-jan-dimow.htm
● Transcripts of some participants’ responses during the experiment:
http://home.swbell.net/revscat/perilsOfObedience.html
● Audio clips of participants’ responses:
http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/socialsciences/Psychology/PsyRes13/Milgram.htm
I would like you to produce a balanced argument (one that mentions both sides of the argument), which comes to a conclusion expressing your judgement. It should be at least a page in length.
Submit your assignment through the form on the home page.
Assignment 2 - Milgram summary1. Fill in the study summary sheet below in as much detail as you can recall without your notes.
2. Review what you've written with your notes for 10 minutes, and identify things you could add, but don't write them in yet. 3. Close your notes and add as much extra detail to the study sheet as you can from memory. 4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 once more. 5. Submit your assignment through the form on the home page.
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Alternative study - Milgram as a field experiment?Milgram conducted a lab experiment, but an alternative would have been to conduct a field experiment.
1. Describe a field experiment in Psychology. (5) 2. How could he have conducted research with a similar aim, but as a field experiment? Write a description of the study, including the who, what, where and how. (10) 2. What would the advantages and disadvantages of such an experiment be, compared to the original? Evaluate this new study in practical and ethical terms. (10) Submit your alternative study and evaluation through the form on the home page. Once you've come up with your own idea (and not before!), compare what you came up with to two real field experiments on obedience, by Hofling (1966) and Bickman (1974) |
The Milgram SongFor an enjoyable review of the experiment, listen to this song, which contains real audio from the study.
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Big Issue - Ethics in Psychology
The main ethical principles which Psychologists must follow concern:
- Consent
- Confidentiality
- Debriefing
- Deception
- Protection of participants from harm
- Right to Withdraw
- Advice
- Observation
You should know what each of these principles means for psychology researchers. Practice identifying breaches of the ethical code; watch the video above and count how many of the principles are broken. Also, imagine how the experiment could be redesigned to make sure they are not broken. Would it be possible?
Ethics Mnemonic
Create a mnemonic for the letters CCDDPAW (though it doesn't have to be in that order), which will help you to remember all of the ethical principles. For example (though you should make your own)...
Obviously Dirty Doughnuts Can Cause Problems Amongst Women
Think Milgram is bad?... Then have a look at the top ten unethical psychology experiments on Listverse. For two personal favourites of mine, look up Sheridan and King (1972) or Jouvet (1967).
- Consent
- Confidentiality
- Debriefing
- Deception
- Protection of participants from harm
- Right to Withdraw
- Advice
- Observation
You should know what each of these principles means for psychology researchers. Practice identifying breaches of the ethical code; watch the video above and count how many of the principles are broken. Also, imagine how the experiment could be redesigned to make sure they are not broken. Would it be possible?
Ethics Mnemonic
Create a mnemonic for the letters CCDDPAW (though it doesn't have to be in that order), which will help you to remember all of the ethical principles. For example (though you should make your own)...
Obviously Dirty Doughnuts Can Cause Problems Amongst Women
Think Milgram is bad?... Then have a look at the top ten unethical psychology experiments on Listverse. For two personal favourites of mine, look up Sheridan and King (1972) or Jouvet (1967).
Revision
Try these review questions from past exam papers
Watch the video below and then try to answer these questions from memory.
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ExtensionThe document below goes into more detail on Milgram's theory of why we obey in certain situations. It's mostly to do with how easily we are able to give responsibility for our actions over to someone else...
This sheet looks at one possible explanation for why we still find Milgram's results surprising, even after numerous replications. No matter how much evidence we see, we don't think that it will apply to us!
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