How To Evaluate Milgram's Obedience Study

Milgram’s obedience study has been around for decades and still holds up its reputation as one of the better known studies. Almost everyone who has taken an introductory class to psychology has experienced the method that Milgram used to test obedience in his human participants. Milgram (1963) used forty male participants who were between the ages of twenty and fifty in the New Haven vicinity. These participants had responded to a newspaper advertisement and direct mail solicitation for what they believed was a study of memory and learning at Yale University. Education level and occupation of the participant ranged from one end of the spectrum to the other. The participants were given four dollars and fifty cents for their attendance, but were informed that the money was merely for their presence and would not be …show more content…
Milgram used a confederate in his study to play the part of the “learner” and rigged the drawing they used to make the participant the “teacher.” The participant was then given a description of the set-up which was an electric chair where the “learner” would be strapped into, and a shock generator in an adjoining room which was attached to an electrode on the “learner.” The participant was then told that they would be teaching a lesson to the participant through word pairing. The participant read a word pair and then would read the first word with four different terms. The “learner” was instructed to press one of four buttons to indicate his response. If the “learner responded incorrectly, the participant was instructed to administer one shock and then increase the shock level for the next response he answered incorrectly. These shocks ranged from fifteen to four hundred and fifty volts and were grouped under the following categories: Slight, Moderate, Strong, Very Strong, Intense, Extreme Intensity, Danger: Severe Shock, and