Obedience: Situational Variables

Question 1

What does the topic of Obedience: situational variables consist of?

Answer 1

• Milgrams variables

Question 2

What did Milgram find when he repeated his experiment but varied Proximity?

Answer 2

• In the baseline study the teacher could hear the learner but not see him
• Here the teacher and learner were in the same room
• Obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
• In the touch variation (teacher forced learners hand onto electric shock plate) obedience dropped to 30%
• Remote instruction variation experimenter gave instructions over the phone and obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 3

What did Milgram find when he repeated his experiment but varied location?

Answer 3

• Conducted at a run down office block rather than at Yale university
• Obedience fell to 47.5%
• Prestige of Yale gave authority to the experimenter

Question 4

What did Milgram find when he repeated his experiment but varied Uniform?

Answer 4

• In basline Experimenter wore a grey lab coat - a symbol of authority
• Experimenter was replaced by an ordinary member of the public wearing ordinary clothes
• Obedience fell to 20%

Question 5

What is one limitation of Milgrams study that affected it’s internal validity?

Answer 5

• Pps may have been aware the procedure was fake. Orne and Holland made this criticism suggesting in certain vartiations the situations were too contrived. e.g in the uniform variation the researcher was replaced with a random member of the public, even Milgram admitted this appeared contrived making the experiment prone to demand characteristics

Question 6

Was Milgrams experiment repeated in varying cultures, if so, which ones?

Answer 6

• Meeus and Raajmakers 1986 obeyed dutch pps. The pps were told to make someone uncomfortable (a confederate) in a job interview. 90% obeyed, this suggested Milgrams research was not limited to American men but dutch people as well

Question 7

What research supports Milgrams research?

Answer 7

• In a field experiment Bickmen had 3 confederates dress differently. Jacket and tie, milkman’s outfit and a security guards uniform. Asked random people do perform tasks such as picking up litter etc. People wee twice as likely to obey security guard than jacket and tie man. Uniform does have an effect.