Hi I would call it an experiment (although a poorly designed one because of lack of randomization). Quasi-experimental designs that I can think of off the top of my head tend to use pre-manipulation phase to explicit track temporal effects and take them into consideration in the analysis (e.g., control for trends, look for discontinuities, ...). Calling any poorly designed experiment a quasi-experiment would appear to do a disservice to efforts to strengthen causal inferences in quasi-experimental studies. Or perhaps I'm thinking of quasi-experimental too narrowly?
In addition to increasing intensity of shock on the shock-meter, Milgram also varied feedback from learner. But again I'm not aware of whether he looked for discontinuities at various points (e.g., when learner started to complain, comments about heart, stopped responding). My recollection is that the function relating shock intensity to percent responding was relatively smooth?? Just had a quick look at graph and there are drops, but graph collapses shock levels so difficult to identify "cause." See http://www.psych.uiuc.edu/~lyubansk/Shoah/milgram1.gif Take care Jim James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax [email protected] >>> "Lilienfeld, Scott O" <[email protected]> 04-Feb-10 3:42:41 PM >>> Hi Paul et al. ...not sure I'd describe Milgram's parametric studies as an experiment per se, though, because Milgram recruited different groups of Ss each time on a rolling basis...admittedly using the same or at least very similar ad (perhaps Thomas Blass, whom I believe is on this listserv, can verify). But he didn't strictly randomly assign Ss to conditions, as I understand it, as much as continue recruiting Ss from the community with different variations each time - under the rough assumption, I suppose, that pre-existing systematic differences across time in Ss were minimal. So the design (assuming we're talking about the various studies en masse, the ones he published as a collected set in Human Relations in 1965) seems quasi-experimental to me, although I would assume he regarded it as an approximation to an experiment given certain assumptions. Again, perhaps Thomas Blass or others on the listserv can correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding. ....Scott Scott O. Lilienfeld, Ph.D. Professor Editor, Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice Department of Psychology, Room 473 Psychology and Interdisciplinary Sciences (PAIS) Emory University 36 Eagle Row Atlanta, Georgia 30322 [email protected] (404) 727-1125 Psychology Today Blog: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-skeptical-psychologist 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-140513111X.html Scientific American Mind: Facts and Fictions in Mental Health Column: http://www.scientificamerican.com/sciammind/ The Master in the Art of Living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, his education and his recreation, his love and his intellectual passions. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing. To him - he is always doing both. - Zen Buddhist text (slightly modified) -----Original Message----- From: Paul Brandon [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, February 04, 2010 4:27 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] Milgram - what kind of a study was it? If I recall correctly, it was a functional analysis similar to many drug studies, where the effects of varying dosages (in this case shock levels) on some measure of behavior was observed. And yes, in some drub studies animal subjects are allowed to adjust their own dosages. So it was an experiment in the sense that all conditions except one (shock level) were held constant. The problem seems to be that the act of manipulation involved the subjects' own behavior. What makes it an experiment rather than a case study is the fact that a standard protocol was used across a number of subjects. On Feb 4, 2010, at 3:07 PM, Michael Britt wrote: > 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=13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a64900b&n=T&l=tips&o=341 > or send a blank email to > leave-341-13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a649...@fsulist.frostburg.edu Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. 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