Milgram Behavioural Study of Obedience Essay

The method utilise by Milgram was the laboratory experiment. The main advantage that Milgram had with this method was the amount of control he had over the stead. He controlled what the quiticipants saw, heard and experient and was able to manipulate their behavior with what they were exposed to. This method to a fault al sm wholly(a)ed stainless measurement of variables and the clear standardised procedures meant that buffet was possible.The disadvantages of this method embroil low bionomical validity and the influence of demand characteristics on the participants and it could be argued that they were behaving in the way that they estimate was expected of them rather than producing natural demeanour. Milgram has also been heavily criticised regarding the ethics of this convey (see below) . Was the consume representative? Milgrams sample was a self-selected sample of 40 manlikes obtained through advertising. This could be regarded as being a sloping sample as they we re all male Ameri sens citizens.They were also volunteers and the majority of the tribe is un likely to volunteer to take part in explore and those who do may be atypical of the target commonwealth in some way. Hence on that point may be problems generalising from these results. What case of information was collected? The data collected was quantitative in that it involved measuring participants homage level, numerically, in terms of how far up the voltage scale they were prepared to go. This type of data has the advantage of being wanton to compare and statistically analyse.However, Milgram included no qualitative descriptions of why the participants obeyed or how they entangle during the experiment although there are a few brief descriptions of participants behavior during the experiment. Does this conceive have high or low Ecological Validity? As with all laboratory experiments there are problems with Milgrams story regarding its ecological validity. It involved an extremely unusual task carried out chthonic very artificial conditions and as such, is likely to have produced very unnatural behaviour from the participants.This has implications for the uttermost to which we can generalise from these results to actually animation situations and it can be argued that the theater of operations tells us nothing about regard in everyday life nevertheless simply shows us how obedient these battalion were, in this environment, performing this task. Was the study ethical? Milgrams study was probably champion of the most unethical pieces of psychological research ever conducted. It can be criticised in terms of almost all the British Psychological Society Ethical Guidelines including cognizant consent, deception, right to withdraw and protection from harm.However, in Milgrams defence, we can argue that he did not expect the participants to obey to the extent that they did or to find the task so stressful. He also conducted a entire debriefing and follow-up monitoring of his participants. A survey conducted one year later revealed that 84% of the participants were glad to have taken part in the study and psychiatric examinations of them showed that none had suffered long term harm. What does this study tell us about individual(a) and Situational Explanations of behaviour?The individual explanation for the behaviour of the participants would be that it was something about them as spate that caused them to obey, but a more down-to-earth explanation is that the situation they were in influenced them and caused them to assume in the way that they did. Some of the aspects of the situation that may have influenced their behaviour include the formality of the location, the behaviour of the experimenter and the fact that it was an experiment for which they had volunteered and been paid. How useful is this research and to what extent can it be applied to everyday life?As stated previously, the stimulus for this study was the Holocaust and this study has contributed significantly to the discussions regarding the behaviour of the Germans at this time. In particular, it provides strong yard against the Germans are different hypothesis. It also gives a valuable insight into the power of situations and of authority. The results purport that we have a natural purpose to obey authority figures even when we tone that what we are being asked to do is virtuously wrong. However, the applications are restricted by the methodological limitations such as low ecological validity and an unrepresentative sample.