1.4 Situational variables affecting obedience

Question 1

What was the nature of Milgram’s 1963 research into obedience?

Answer 1

Are all Germans evil?

Situational obedience? What situational factors influenced a mans likelihood of delivering deadly shocks.

Question 2

Why did Milgram investigate situational obedience?

Answer 2

Milgram was interested in the apparent contradiction between the ordinariness of men involved in war crimes during WW2 and the terrible deeds they had carried out.

Question 3

What experimental variations did Milgram research in his obedience studies? (situational factors in obedience)

Answer 3

Clothing, the power of uniform - people more likely to obey someone on uniform (Bushman)
Location - obedience levels dropped to 48% in lower status settings
Proximity - obedience levels decreased with increasing proximity

Question 4

Define obedience?

Answer 4

A type of social influence.
Causes a person to act in response to an order given by another person. The person who gives the order usually has a perceived power/authority.

Question 5

define obedience to authority

Answer 5

obedience refers to a type of social influence whereby somebody acts in response to a direct order from a figure with perceived authority
there is also the implication that the person receiving the order is made to respond in a way that they would not otherwise have done without the order.

Question 6

Findings of Milgram’s 1963 study into situational variables affecting obedience?

Answer 6

65% of participants continued to the max shock level of 450 volts, despite 420 volts being labeled ‘danger’
100% of participants went to 300 volts, with 12.5% stopping there, the point at which the ‘learner’ first objects violently and then later becomes silent

Question 7

What were the predictions of Milgram’s 1963 study into situational variables affecting obedience?

Answer 7

Very few would go beyond 150 volts and only 1 in 1,000 would administer the full 450 volts.

Question 8

Evaluation of research on obedience?

Answer 8

ethical issues due to deception and lack of informed consent
internal validity - Orne and Holland claim many participants saw through the deception as there was a lack of realism
Individual differences - 8 out of 9 replications found no gender differences in obedience (Blass)