Topic > Psychological Experiments: An Analysis of Milgram's Obedience Study

Psychology can be defined as “the scientific study of experience and behavior” (Parsons, 2012). The approaches can be defined as “different schools of thought” (Parsons, 2012). Each of the different approaches has its own explanation for why individuals do what they do. A methodology is a system of methods used in an area of ​​study. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay There are numerous human experiments conducted in psychology, including Milgram with his obedience study, Asch and the study of normative social influence/conformity, Bandura and the Bobo doll experiment, and also Piaget and the experiments focused on conservation and also on the task of the three mountains. I will focus on one of these experiments which will be Milgram's study on obedience. Milgram (1963) had conducted a laboratory experiment to test factors thought to influence obedience. People had volunteered to take part in this study and thought it was a study on learning and memory (Parsons, 2012). When participants arrived, they were introduced to a confederate, who acted like another participant but was part of the set. Both the confederate and the participant drew lots to see who would act as the teacher and who would act as the learner (Parsons, 2012). However, this was corrected so that the participant was the teacher. The participant saw the accomplice tied to the chair and also connected to the shock generator, which was located in the next room (Parsons, 2012). The switches ranged from 15 volts to 450 volts. These shocks were not real, but the participant thought they were. The participant taught the confederate/student word pairs and when the confederate got them wrong; the participant should administer a shock that increases each time (Parsons, 2012). As the shocks increased, the student screamed and asked if he could be let out. After 330 volts the student made no noise. The experimenter would tell the participant to continue if he or she hesitated (Parsons, 2012). There are always evaluations of experiments, identifying strengths and limitations. A strength of human experiments is that they can be replicated, meaning that another researcher can repeat the experiment following the same method to see if they find the same or similar results. When replicating the experiment, the researcher may also want to change some variables. This in turn can be a strength. Independent variables can be manipulated and extraneous variables can also be controlled so that they do not affect the relationship between other variables. This therefore means that cause and effect can be established (Parsons, 2012). However, if the experiments are conducted in the laboratory, they do not tell us much about real-world settings and therefore it is difficult for the experiments to generalize those settings to the real world. This means that the experiments would lack ecological validity (Parsons, 2012). Additionally, demand characteristics may come into play. This means that participants could be alerted to the signals of the experiment and realize what is happening, so their actions would not be what they think, but would go along with the researcher's expectations. If this happened, the results would be partial and even unreliable (Parsons, 2012). Also there are some well known experiments done with animals, however the two I will focus on are Skinner's experiments with rats and also Pavlov's experiments with dogs. .Skinner led aexperiment using rats and also a skinner box. He conditioned rats to press a lever in the Skinner box to obtain a food reward (Birch et al., 1997). The box contained the lever on one side and as the badger moved inside the box, it accidentally hit the lever. When this happened, there would be a pellet of food released into a container next to the lever (McLeod, S.A., 2015). After entering the box several times, the rats learned to approach the lever as a result of receiving food. This showed positive reinforcement, as the rat associated the lever with a food pellet. However, Skinner increased the difficulty and introduced a light and an electrified floor. When the light flashed, the floor transmitted an electric current and the rat was shocked. Over time the mouse learned that if it had moved from the floor it would not have received the shock and therefore would not have escaped. Using this Skinner shows negative reinforcement (McLeod, S.A., 2015). This Russian physiologist began studying the salivary reflex in dogs. He found that when an unconditioned stimulus (food) was combined with other stimuli such as a buzzer, the dog salivated due to an association created (Birch et al., 1997). In the first phase of the experiment the dog was offered food alone and in response the dog salivated. In the next phase, Pavlov offered the dog food at the same time as the buzzer was sounded (conditional stimulus). After the dog was presented with this problem several times, he began to salivate when only the buzzer was sounded (Birch et al., 1997). This therefore demonstrates that an association has been established between food and the sound of the buzzer, as well as between the buzzer and salivation. There is a high degree of variable control even within these experiments, meaning there is less chance of extraneous elements influencing anything. relationship between other variables. Additionally, it will be easier to draw conclusions and identify cause and effect. Animal experiments can also be replicated by other researchers, which means that by following the method, they can repeat them several times after the first experiment. Another strength of animal experiments is that they will not show demand characteristics, as they have no desire to please, so if the research observes any possibilities these are considered more valid. A limitation of this experiment, however, is that the results cannot be generalized to humans as they are considered too different across species (Parsons, 2012). Anthropomorphism can occur because the animals are unable to tell the researcher how the experiment affected them and therefore human motivation will be attributed to non-human behavior (Psychology flipped, 2015). Case studies are also used in psychology and there are a number of well-known case studies. One such well-known study is Freud's which I will focus on. Freud often used case studies and Little Hans was one of them. Little Hans was a 5-year-old boy who had a phobia of horses. The information about Little Hans that Freud obtained came from Little Hans' father, who provided Freud with weekly reports. It was reported that since little Hans was 3 years old he had an interest in his penis, and when little Hans turned 5 years old, his mother threatened him that she would cut him off if he did not stop playing with it. Around the same time, little Hans had developed a fear that a white horse would bite him and his father reported that the fear was related to the horse's large penis (Jarvis, M. 2000). Due to the development of phobia, little Hans began to go to bed with his parents in the morning. Hans' phobia worsened until.