AS level Psychology The core studies

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AS level PsychologyThe core studies

• The Social Approach

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Social PsychologyThe MILGRAM Experiment
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Social ContextWW2 ended in 1945

• The behaviour of the German people during the the
  holocaust
• The Nurenberg trials
• The article by Hannah Arendt
• Eichmann in Jerusalem a report on the banality
  of evil

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Milgram's Questions ...

• Why do we obey authority?
• What conditions foster obedience?
• What conditions foster independent behaviour?

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Milgram's hypotheses ...

• That American people would not obey orders that
  led to them harming another person
• That German men are different to American men

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Milgrams method

• A LAB experiment at YALE University
• there was NO IV
• could be called a non naturalistic observation

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Milgrams participants

• A self selecting (volunteer) sample
• (answered advertisements asking for help with
  Yale university research into memory learning)
• 40 20 - 50 year old men
• They were paid 4 for one hour of their time

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Milgrams advertisement
You can see that a wide range of occupations were
sampled
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The Procedure

• The participant was paired with a colleague of
  Milgram (the stooge was Mr Wallace)
• Told they were taking part in an experiment on
  Memory / Learning
• Electric Shock machine
• slight/severe/danger of severe shock
• Volts ranged between 15 - 450 volts

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The Procedure

• The participant (teacher) given a mild 15v
  electric shock
• Then stooge wired up to the electric shock
  machine in next room
• The experiment began

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The TASK

• Teacher read series of word pairs
• e.g. blue sky, green grass, red balloon
• Learner had to memorise these
• Teacher then reads out one word
• e.g. Green ..
• Learner to respond with the pair match

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The TASK
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If a mistake was made

• Teacher told to give electric shock to learner
• Rising by 15 volts each mistake from 15 volts
  to 450 volts

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What happened?

• The participants shook, trembled, and sweated
• They were pressed to continue
• You must go on
• The experiment is important
• Please continue

FOR MORE INFO...
Read your text book and notes
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What happened?

• The learner shouted and yelled
• He could be heard through the wall
• He remained silent after 300 volts

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How many went to 450 volts?

• 65 of participants went to 450 volts!
• 26 of the 40 participants would have followed
  orders and killed the stooge for making too many
  mistakes!

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Remembering Methodology .

• What was the dependent variable?
• The level of obedience measured by the voltage of
  the electric shock that was given

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Was this experiment ethical?

• What do you think?
• If you were a member of an Ethics committee
  would you allow Milgram to repeat this study?
• Why or why not?

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Did the ends justify the means?

• Was the knowledge gained worth the pain of the
  participants?
• How can we decide this question?
• Who should decide this question?