Milgram’s study was criticized on the following grounds:
A) use of placebo treatment
B) lack of debriefing
C) lack of follow-up with participants
D) use of deception
The correct answer and explanation is:
The correct answer is D) use of deception.
Milgram’s study, conducted in the early 1960s, focused on obedience to authority. Participants believed they were administering increasingly severe electric shocks to another person, who was actually an actor and not receiving any shocks. The study was designed to investigate how far individuals would go in obeying an authority figure, even when their actions seemed to harm another person.
One major criticism of Milgram’s study was the use of deception. Participants were misled about the true nature of the experiment, as they were told they were participating in a study on learning and memory, rather than an investigation of obedience. The participants were also unaware that the shocks were not real, leading to significant ethical concerns. This deception violated ethical standards of informed consent, where participants are supposed to be fully informed of the nature and risks of the study before consenting to participate.
The study also raised concerns about the psychological harm to participants. Many experienced significant distress during the experiment, believing they were harming another person. Some were visibly upset, sweating, trembling, or showing signs of anxiety as they continued to obey the experimenter’s instructions to administer shocks.
Moreover, the study lacked proper debriefing immediately after the experiment, though Milgram did follow up with participants later to assess their reactions and relieve any distress. Nevertheless, the ethical concerns regarding the emotional impact on participants and the extent to which they were deceived were significant.
Overall, while Milgram’s study provided valuable insights into human behavior, it also highlighted the importance of ethical considerations in psychological research. These concerns led to the establishment of more stringent ethical guidelines for research involving human participants.