Burger's Modification of Milgram's Study
A prominent example of modifying a research design to reduce participant risk is Jerry Burger's replication of Stanley Milgram's obedience study. To avoid the severe psychological stress caused by the original experiment, Burger stopped the procedure just before participants administered a -volt shock, rather than allowing them to proceed to the -volt maximum. This modification was effective because past data showed that participants who reached volts typically continued to the maximum, allowing Burger to validly compare obedience rates while minimizing harm.
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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU
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Burger's Modification of Milgram's Study
Weighing Risks Against Benefits
Research Protocol
Addressing IRB Concerns
How can researchers effectively minimize psychological risks to participants after identifying potential hazards in their study design?
Match each risk-reduction strategy with the specific participant concern it is designed to address in a psychological research study.
A researcher studying the effects of frustration on problem-solving realizes that their original plan to use an impossible 2-hour task is causing participants excessive distress. Arrange the steps the researcher should take to apply the strategy of 'minimizing risks through research design modification' to this study.
A researcher studying cognitive performance identifies that a planned 2-hour uninterrupted testing session is likely to cause excessive participant frustration. To address this, they break the task into four 30-minute sessions with rest periods. True or False: This change effectively applies a risk-minimization strategy by analyzing the procedure to isolate and reduce a specific hazard (duration) while maintaining the study's focus on the primary variable (cognitive performance).
According to the strategy of minimizing risks through research design modification, how can researchers reduce potential hazards to participants while keeping the study effective?
If a researcher identifies that their planned experimental procedure might cause severe participant frustration, the strategy of research design modification requires them to completely abandon their research question.
A researcher evaluates a study and determines that a planned task causes excessive frustration in participants. By choosing to simplify the task to reduce stress while ensuring the study remains effective, the researcher is utilizing research design _____ as an ethical strategy.
Match each researcher's modification scenario to the specific risk-minimization strategy they are applying.
A researcher decides to simplify a highly complex experimental procedure to prevent participant frustration. By implementing this risk minimization strategy, the researcher ensures the study remains _____ while subjecting participants to less stress.
Order the steps a researcher should follow to evaluate and modify their research design to address participant risk while maintaining the study's validity.
Learn After
In Jerry Burger’s 2009 replication of Milgram’s obedience study, participants were stopped just before they could administer a 150-volt shock. What methodological justification allowed Burger to use this lower threshold as a valid proxy for the original 450-volt maximum?
Match each component of Jerry Burger's 2009 modification of the Milgram obedience study to the specific research-methodology goal it was designed to achieve.
To validly modify the Milgram obedience study while protecting participants, Jerry Burger had to analyze the relationship between voltage levels and participant behavior. Arrange the steps of his research design modification in the logical order of their analytical and ethical justification.
From the perspective of evaluating research methodology and ethics, Jerry Burger's modification of the Milgram study is considered a successful design because it balanced the need to minimize participant risk with the need for scientific validity by using the -volt mark as a statistically grounded proxy for total obedience.
In Jerry Burger's modification of the Milgram obedience study, he reduced the shock threshold to minimize participant risk. What was the maximum shock level used in Stanley Milgram's original procedure that Burger's design was modified to avoid?
In Jerry Burger's modification of the Milgram obedience study, the procedure was stopped just before participants administered a -volt shock because historical data indicated that this point served as a reliable predictor of total obedience.
In Jerry Burger's 2009 replication of the Milgram obedience study, the procedure was stopped just before participants administered a _____-volt shock, rather than allowing them to continue to the 450-volt maximum.
Match each methodological challenge facing Burger's 2009 replication of the Milgram obedience study to the specific design decision he used to address it.
Burger's 2009 replication illustrates that a design modification reducing participant risk is scientifically defensible only when it is grounded in _____ evidence connecting the modified procedure to the outcomes of the original study—without such evidence, the 150-volt stopping point would have been arbitrary rather than justified.
Arrange the following criteria in the order they should be applied when evaluating whether a research design modification—such as Burger's 150-volt stopping point—successfully balances ethical responsibility with scientific validity.
Recall and describe the specific modification Jerry Burger made to Stanley Milgram's obedience study design in his replication. What were the specific voltage thresholds involved, and what was the ethical purpose of this modification?
Based on the provided context of Jerry Burger's study, explain how a researcher can justify stopping a replication earlier than the original study's maximum threshold. Specifically, what empirical pattern in historical data allows for a valid comparison of obedience rates while reducing participant risk?
How can a researcher apply the design logic of Jerry Burger's study to modify a different high-risk psychological experiment? Describe how historical data from the original experiment should be used to establish a safer stopping point without losing scientific validity.