Describe and evaluate the Milgram study (12 marks)

Milgram had set out a study for an attempt to test ‘the Germans are different’ and to see whether or not participants would have authority to a person of a higher position of authority. Milgram selected the participants he was using for the study by advertising for male participants to take part in a study of learning for Yale University. He offered a payment for $4.00 for an hour of the participant’s time for taking part. Milgram had paired the participant to a ‘learner’, where the participant would be the ‘teacher’. The learners however was one of Milgrams participants, disguised as a real participant in the study. Each learner was taken into a room and had electrodes attached to his arms, where the teacher (the real participant) was taken into a room next door which contained the electric shock generator, with a row of switches marked from 15 volts to 450 volts. 450 Volts was the most dangerous shock a learner could get. The teacher did not know that this was false, they thought that the learner was the actual participant being experimented on and that the shock generator would actually give them a real shock. Each participant were told to read out pairs of words that the learner had to remember. However, if the learner got one word wrong or failed to answer a question, the teacher would be required to shock them, whilst increasing the voltage each time they get one wrong. It was set that at 180 volts, the learner shouted that he could not stand the pain, at 300 volts he began to beg to be released and after 315 volts there was no reply, just silence. Milgram had levelled the participant’s reactions in ‘prods’. Each time the participant had said something like ‘should I continue shocking him’ or ‘I do not want to continue’, Milgram counted it as one prod. After prod 4, the experiment was cancelled. The experimenter’s voice was firm but not impolite, as he replied with things like ‘Please continue’ and ‘The experiment requires that you continue’.
Milgram found that all participants had shocked each learner up to at least 300 volts, and 65% of participants shocked up to 450 volts. This made his prediction false as he had predicted that only 2% of people would shock up to 450 volts, and many people would choose to quit early on in the study. Milgrams study holds many advantages and disadvantages. He tried to make the study as realistic as possible, as he gave participants and learners a brief description of the experiment. He also made the confederates make up a story of their previous life to add realism into the study. Another strength of the study is the amount of control Milgram had over the study. Participants believed that they were randomly assigned to either a teacher or learner, they believed that they were actually performing electric shocks, and all used the same apparatus and prods. However, Milgrams study also contains many weaknesses. This is mainly due to ethical problems. Participants were deceived as they believed that they were actually giving electric shocks towards each learner, however it was necessary to deceive them as Milgram believed it would have affected the study if they were not. It is also possible that Milgrams study has had a long term effect on the participants, as they may have been against inflicting harm on other people, but they were told to do so in the experiment. Milgram had used an unrepresentative sample as he only chose to experiment on American men. It could be argued that his result is biased and it cannot be generalised. Also, the study is not ecologically valid as it was carried out in an artificial setting and does not contain reference to the real world as it was based in a lab.