Milgram's study of obedience has been influential in the development of 'ethics'. Discuss the implications of the Milgram research in terms of the ethical issues it raises and in terms of its validity.

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Milgram’s study of obedience has been influential in the development of ‘ethics’. Discuss the implications of the Milgram research in terms of the ethical issues it raises and in terms of its validity.

        Ethics are a set of moral principles; a set of beliefs about what is right and wrong. Ethics are the moral principles, which guide research.

        There is a growing awareness that those who participate in research have rights and that researchers have responsibilities and obligations. For example, should participants be informed about the purpose of the research and what exactly their participation involves? Should researchers make every effort to ensure that participants come to no physical or psychological harm? Is it ever justifiable to deceive participants about the purpose of the research and the true nature of the tasks they may be asked to perform?

        

        One of the most unethical series of experiments in psychological research are Milgram’s obedience studies.

        Milgram’s main aim in his main study of obedience (1963) was to find out to what extent people will obey.

        The participants were 40 men aged between 20 and 50 with varying professions and skills. Participants were recruited using a false advertisement asking for volunteers to take part in a memory experiment, getting paid $4 plus expenses. Participants were deceived as to the nature of the experiment. Participants drew lots to decide whether they would be the ‘teacher’ or the ‘learner’. Again deception occurred because the participant was always a ‘teacher’. The ‘learner’ was a confederate of Milgram’s.

The participants watched while the ‘learner’ was strapped to a large generator. The participant was instructed to administer electric shocks to the learner; gradually increasing by 15 volts, for each incorrect answer the ‘learner’ gave (the participant was given a sample 45 volt shock so he knew what it felt like {!}).

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Switches were labelled as follows: - ‘slight shock’, ‘danger’, ‘intense/severe shock’ and ‘XXX’. During the experiment the confederate made increasingly more errors. The confederate pretended the shocks were real by crying out in pain and claiming he had chest pains. Milgram and his team urged the participants to continue despite all of this, and the experiment was only terminated if the participant refused to go on four times. Participants were visibly traumatised and 3 had uncontrollable seizures.

        The results of the experiment were that 100% of the participants went up to ‘severe shock’ level and 65% continued to the maximum ...

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