Zimbardo's Replication In Psychology

Replication is defined as the action of copying or reproducing something. In context to psychology, it refers to the replication of a study to ensure that the findings are accurate. In these studies by ______ Zimbardo and ______ Milgram’s they also enforce generalizable data. This means that researchers can take their conclusions and apply them to the population as a whole. Milgram replicated his obedience study on two different populations, one was unpaid college student volunteers, the other included only female participants. In both subsets, he found similar results.. By repeating the study across different subsets of the population, his ability to generalize his results was further substantiated. Research such as this is more applicable …show more content…
Since empirical methods are among the most sophisticated types of studies it gives a particular study validity and accuracy in modern science. Empirical studies begin with a hypothesis to test an observation and end with a conclusion that either supports or fails to confirm that observation. This is important for psychological research because it goes beyond simply reporting your findings, it allows ones work to stand up to others observations and objections. In Milgrams study the hypothesis is that people will obey others who are in a position of power over them, even if obeying these authority figures goes against their values and morals. Milgram used dependent variables such as the amount of shock administered, the speed of the response by the learner, and the duration of the shocks. He operationalized the responses of the learner so that every teacher was hearing the same response and there was no bias. HOW DID HE MEASURE …show more content…
The study had to ensure protection from harm of any subject, which requires that it’s the researcher 's duty to protect his subjects from any physical, emotional or mental harm they might have endured throughout the study. Milgrams simulated shock generator did not actually deliver any painful shocks which protected the learner from any harm. I do not believe that Milgram took enough precautions in this guideline because he was unaware of any predisposed mental issues that a “teacher” could possess leading to excessive emotional harm from the experiment. The guideline of “freedom to withdrawal” is a consent that all human participants in a study must be aware of. This states that at any time through the duration of the study a subject is able to leave if he/she feels uncomfortable at all. After examining this study I do believe that Milgrams precautions were sufficient in this category. He told all participants clearly that they will be paid just for showing up in the lab and that the money was theirs to keep no matter what happened. He expressed that all subjects could withdraw at any time. Another important guideline in a proper ethical experiment is debriefing. During debriefing the true goals of the study are explained to the subject. I think that Milgrims debriefing was sufficient, we saw in the video that the learners and teachers were reunited at the end of the study in a friendly environment to discuss