Obedience : Situational variables

Question 1

what is situational variables ?

Answer 1

features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person’s behaviour

Question 2

what are the situational variables ?

Answer 2

Proximity
Location
Uniform

Question 3

How did proximity affect obedience?

Answer 3

• in baseline study, teacher could hear the learner but not see him
• in the proximity variation teacher and learner were in the same room
• obedience rate went from 65% to 40%

Question 4

What was the obedience rate when the teacher had to force the learners hand onto an electric shock plate?

Answer 4

30%

Question 5

What was the obedience rate when the experimenter instructions by telephone?

Answer 5

20.5%

Question 6

Why did obedience decrease when proximity increased?

Answer 6

• allowed for people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions

Question 7

How did location affect obedience?

Answer 7

performing the experiment in a run-down office block rather than Yale dropped obedience to 47.5%

Question 8

Why did obedience decrease with a Change of location?

Answer 8

• the prestigious uni environment gave Milgram’s study legitimacy and authority
• ppts more obedient because they perceived the experimenter shared this legitimacy and that obedience was expected
• however obedience was still quite high in the office block because the ppts perceived the ‘scientific’ nature of the procedure

Question 9

How did uniform affect obedience?

Answer 9

A grey lab coat was worn as a symbol and then another came with ordinary clothes rather than a lab coat - obedience then dropped to 20%

Question 10

Why did uniform affect obedience?

Answer 10

Uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognised as symbols of authority
- we accept that someone in a uniform is entitles to expect obedience because their authority is legitimate
- someone without a uniform has less right to expect our obedience

Question 11

Evaluation - what does research support do for situational variables? - strength

Answer 11

P: research support
E: Bickman - Three confed in different outfits - suit, milkman outfit and security guard
E: asked ppl to pick up litter
L: people were twice as likely to obey the security guard than the suit

Question 12

Evaluation - what does low internal validity do to situational variables? (+counter)

Answer 12

• ppts may have been aware the procedure was faked
• situation was so contrived and so unrealistic that ppts could have worked out the truth
• possible ppts saw through the deception and just ‘play-acted’
  COUNTER
• one ppt came in very confident, chatty etc.
• by the end he was very anxious (nibbling at fingers, sweating, playing with hands, nervous etc.)
• did not seem as if he was play acting