Dear Tipsters, This is a great question. I deliberately assigned this paper in my research methods class to see what students would come up with.
They have often said that the prompts are independent variables and so it is an experiment. The short answer is that I think it is a laboratory observation study (as distinct from a naturalistic observation study). Of course, in other studies, Milgram did manipulate and select variables. Sincerely, Stuart -----Original Message----- From: Michael Britt [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: February 4, 2010 4:07 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Milgram - what kind of a study was it? Someone on my blog asked what kind of study was the Milgram study. In the first phase of Milgram's studies,nothing was being manipulated - Milgram was just observing the subjects to see what would happen. In later phases of the study he started manipulating the presence or absence of the "experimenter", the number of "subjects" in the room with the "learner" and others, so at that point I'd say the studies became experiments. So what would you call the first phase of the study - an observational study? Michael Michael Britt [email protected] www.thepsychfiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13510.2cc18398df2e6692fffc29a610cb72e3&n=T&l=tips&o=341 or send a blank email to leave-341-13510.2cc18398df2e6692fffc29a610cb7...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=342 or send a blank email to leave-342-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
