Lesson 7 - Situational Variables Affecting Obedience Flashcards
What are the three situational variables that affect obedience ?
Proximity, Location and Uniform
How does proximity affect obedience ?
In the original study the teacher and the learner were in adjoining rooms so the teacher could hear the learner but not see him. In this they were in the same room. In this condition the rate dropped from 65% to 40%. In the touch proximity variant the teacher had to force the hand on to the electro shock plate which reduced the obedience rate to 30%. In the final remote instruction variant, the experimenter gave instructions to the teacher by call which resulted in a further drop of obedience to 20.5%.
How does location affect obedience ?
In another variant, Milgram changed the location to a run down building rather than a prestigious university. In this he saw the obedience rates go down to 47.5% which is still high but less than the original 65%.
How does uniform affect obedience ?
In the original study the experimenter wore a uniform (grey lab coat). In this variant of the study, the experimenter was called out and was replaced by a ordinary member of the public with normal clothes on. This caused the conformity rates to drop down to 20%. This was the lowest of the variations.
What are the strengths of Milgram’s variations ?
There is research support. A study was taken out by Bickman in 1974 where he dressed up in a guard’s uniform and he gave orders to 153 random civilians. 80% of the people obeyed when he was in a guard uniform in oppose to when he was in civilian clothing or milk man clothing where only 40% obeyed.
There are cross cultural replications. When a similar study was carried out among Spanish students, the result was the same.
There was a lot of control among the variables that Milgram had among the variations. For example when changing the variations of the study, he only had to change one variable.
What were the weaknesses of Milgram’s variations ?
There is a lack of internal validity. Orne and Holland criticised this study on the grounds that the participants had worked out it was a set-up. This is a criticism as we do not know if the participants acted to demand characteristics or were being real.
