Describe and Evaluate Milgram's (1963) experiment

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Psychology Tahir Ahmed

Question: Describe and Evaluate Milgram (1963) experiment

Milgram (1963)

Aim

This was to test the idea that the Germans were somehow different from other people, in that they were able carry out barbaric acts against Jews and other minorities.

Procedure

Milgram advertise and told participants that they were taking part in a real experiment. He had a helper who was learner who would "receive" the fake shocks. At the start the participants were given a 45 volts shock in order to convince them the shocks were real. Experiment took place at Yale University.

Participants arrived and waited with helper in a room. The participant was led to believe that the learner was also a participant. They drew lots to decide who would be the learner; however this was rigged so the helper would always be the learner.

Learner was placed in different room to the participants. The generator has switches with labels such as "slight shock", "danger" etc. and went from 15 volts to 450 volts.

Participants were required to read word pairs such as blue-box etc. and then read out key word and four possible pairs.