PSY1HPM Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: American Psychological Association, Demand Characteristics, Construct Validity
30 Jun 2018
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HPM Lecture 11 – Methodological Foundations (2)
Nuremberg Code of Ethics
Participants should consent to participate in research
Participants should be fully informed about the nature of the research
Risks should be avoided
Research should be conducted by scientifically qualified personnel
Participants have the right to discontinue participation at any time
Milgram’s Obedience Studies
The basic procedure
A volunteer subject comes to the lab, meets the experimenter and another subject (a confederate)
Experimenter explains that this is a memory study, and assigns one subject (the real subject) to be a “teacher” and the
other (confederate) to be the “learner”
The teacher watches the experimenter strap down and attach electrodes to the “learner”
Procedure
The “teacher” is then taken to a separate booth and instructed to read a series of questions to the “learner”
The teacher can hear the “learner,” and see the “learner’s” response to the questions on a lighted board
Each time the “learner” makes an error, the “teacher” depresses a switch on a “shock generator” to shock the learner
The shocks become more intense each time
The “learner” progressively complains about pain and asks to quit the study
The experimenter orders the “teacher” to continue. How far will the subjects obey?
No shocks are actually given, but the situation appears real to the subjects (“teachers”)
The Original Findings
All subjects obeyed up to the 300-volt level (labelled extreme shock where the “learner” had been screaming in pain)
65% obeyed all the way to the 450-volt level (labelled XXX well above the “Danger” level and by which time the
“learner” has become silent)
Subjects visibly upset and nervous at the situation
In Milgram’s words
“Of the 40 subjects, 26 obeyed the orders of the experimenter to the end, proceeding to punish the victim until they
reached the most potent shock available on the generator…”
The maximum shock was labelled 450 volts, and this was two steps beyond the designation: “Danger: Severe Shock”
Other Results
Participants were asked “How painful to the learner were the last few shocks that you administered to him?”
Used a 14 Point Scale (1=Not at All to 14=Extremely Painful). Mean: 13.42. Mode: 14
Participants were distressed – Milgram 1963
In a large number of cases the degree of tension reached extremes that are rarely seen in the sociopsychological
laboratory.
Subjects were observed to sweat, tremble, stutter, bite their lips, groan, and dig their fingernails into their flesh. These
were characteristic rather than exceptional responses to the experiment
Observed regular occurrence of nervous laughing. Full-blown uncontrollable seizure were observed for 3 subjects. One
man had a seizure that was “so violently convulsive that it was necessary to call a halt to the experiment”
Criticism of Milgram’s work
Milgram was fiercely criticised. His results upset people - this may have been because they felt uncomfortable with
what it showed about ordinary Americans. Maybe if they had not been so shocking (excuse the pun!) people would not
have given Milgram’s work a second thought, perhaps the unpalatable findings made people seek to discredit the
procedures.
Milgram’s work on obedience was attacked on ethical grounds, saying he deceived people and caused
unreasonable distress. Volunteers often showed extreme stress – sweating, trembling, stammering, even having
uncontrollable fits.
The APA decided that Milgram’s work was ethically acceptable.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Participants should be fully informed about the nature of the research. Research should be conducted by scientifically qualified personnel. Participants have the right to discontinue participation at any time. A volunteer subject comes to the lab, meets the experimenter and another subject (a confederate) Experimenter explains that this is a memory study, and assigns one subject (the real subject) to be a teacher and the other (confederate) to be the learner . The teacher watches the experimenter strap down and attach electrodes to the learner . The teacher is then taken to a separate booth and instructed to read a series of questions to the learner . The teacher can hear the learner, and see the learner"s response to the questions on a lighted board. Each time the learner makes an error, the teacher depresses a switch on a shock generator to shock the learner. The learner progressively complains about pain and asks to quit the study.
