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8 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Finding/Conclusion 1
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Milgram surveyed 14 of his psychology students and they estimated that between 0–3% of the participants would administer 450 volts.
This suggests that they had very low expectations for how far up the voltage the participants would go. |
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Finding/Conclusion 2
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At 300 volts, five (12.5%) of the participants refused to continue (the learner protested) but 26 of the 40 participants (65%) went on to administer the full 450 volts.
This sort of level of obedience was a great deal higher than that expected. |
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Finding/Conclusion 3
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Many participants showed nervousness, and a large number showed extreme tension: 'Subjects were observed to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan and dig their finger-nails into their flesh'. Fourteen participants displayed 'nervous laughter and smiling'.
Their observable behaviour indicated the participants were acting against their own values in punishing the learner. |
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Finding/Conclusion 4
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Three participants had 'full-blown uncontrollable seizures' and one participant had such a violent convulsion that the research session had to be stopped.
This indicates that these participants were exceedingly anxious about their participation in the research. |
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Finding/Conclusion 5
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Participants replied with statements like ‘I don't think this is very humane … I'm sorry, I can't do that to a man. You take your [money].' Whereas some participants simply got up and left, without saying anything. Those who continued to the end often heaved a sigh of relief, mopped their brows, some shook their heads apparently in regret, some remained calm throughout.
This indicates there were individual differences in the way in which people responded. |
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Finding/Conclusion 6
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92% of participants' completed a post research questionnaire and of those who responded 84% were 'glad/very glad'; 15% were 'neutral' and 2% were
'sorry/very sorry' to have taken part. 80% said more experiments like this should be carried out and 74% felt they had learned something of personal importance. Milgram used this information to help justify his research to those who thought it unethical. |
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Bonus 1
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Three explanations for observed obedience, for example
The location of the study at a prestigious university provided authority. Participants assumed that the experimenter knew what he was doing and had a worthy purpose, so should be followed. It was a novel situation for the participant, who therefore didn't know how to behave. If it had been possible to discuss the situation with others the participant might have behaved differently. |
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Bonus 2
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The situation which Milgram created was one which overwhelmingly induced obedience.
But even with this, 35% of the participants were able to disobey the direct orders of the experimenter, suggesting that many people were strongly inclined to disobey. |