Evaluation of Milgram's Obedience Study

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Evaluation of Milgram's Obedience Study

Stanley Milgram was from a Jewish background and conducted the experiment to see how people can obey to an apparent authority figure e.g. Germans in World War II. He advertised for participants in a newspaper offering payment of $4.50. Volunteers were told that the experiment was looking at the effects of punishment on learning. The participant played the role of the 'teacher' and the 'learner' was a stooge, Mr Wallace. The teacher would ask the learner questions, when answered incorrectly they administered electric shocks of increasing voltage up to 450V. When the teacher began to worry the experimenter would use several prompts to encourage their continuation. 65% of the participants continued up to 450V, no one stopped before 300V. The results were much higher than anyone had expected. However Milgram's work has been highly criticised on ethical and methodological grounds and is highly controversial due to the stress caused to the participants.

Milgram's main critic on Ethical grounds is Diane Baumrind. She criticised Milgram on 5 ethical issues; informed consent, deception, the right to withdraw, protection of the participant and debriefing.

The British Psychological Society (BPS) guidelines state that participants