Obedience: situational variables

Question 1

What are situational variables?

Answer 1

Features of the immediate physical & social environment which may influence a persons behaviour

Question 2

What three situational variations did Milgram conduct?

Answer 2

• proximity
• location
• uniform

Question 3

When teacher and learner were in the same room what did the obedience rate fall to? (proximity)

Answer 3

65% to 40%

Question 4

Touch proximity & obedience rate (proximity)

Answer 4

• Teacher had to force learners hand onto a shock plate when he refused to answer question
• obedience dropped to 30%

Question 5

Remote instruction & obedience level (proximity)

Answer 5

• experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone
• obedience dropped to 20.5%

Question 6

Explanation of proximity variation

Answer 6

• decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions
• when teacher & learner separated ,teacher less aware of harm they were causing to another person so more obedient

Question 7

Explain the location variation and what was the obedience rate

Answer 7

• Milgram conducted a variation in a run-down office block rather than in the prestigious Yale university
• obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 8

Explanation of obedience rate in location variation

Answer 8

• Prestigious university environment gave Milgram’s study legitimacy & authority
• pp’s perceived that the experimenter shared legitimacy & that obedience was expected
  =obedience still high in office block as they perceive ‘scientific nature’

Question 9

Explain uniform variation and what was the obedience rate?

Answer 9

baseline study> experiment wore grey lab coat as a symbol of authority
- in variation experimenter called away due to inconvenient phone call at start of procedure
- experiment taken over by ‘ordinary member of public’ in everyday clothes
- obedience rate = 20%

Question 10

Explanation of obedience rate in uniform variation

Answer 10

• uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognised symbols of authority
• someone in uniform can expect obedience (authority is legitimate) compared to someone without

Question 11

What research support is there for the role of uniform on obedience?

Answer 11

• Bickman conducted a field experiment
• three male confederates dress as a milkman, guard or as a civilian & made requests of passers-by in a street
  e.g. pick up litter
• more likely to obey guard and least likely to obey civilian

Question 12

What is a strength of Milgrams study?

Answer 12

• Researchers studied obedience in dutch participants
• participants ordered to say stressful things in an interview to someone desperate for a job (90%) obeyed
• when person giving orders not present obedience decreased (proximity)
• valid across cultures

Question 13

Why is Milgram’s study criticised by Holland & Orne?

Answer 13

• argue that participants had realised the shocks weren’t real and just went along
• extra manipulation in the variations, even Milgram himself admitted that participants would have realised the shocks to not be real.
• Example- uniform variation.
  »we are unsure as to whether the results reflect genuine obedience or whether participants saw through the deception.

Question 14

Why does Mandel argue that Milgram’s findings supporting a situational explanation offer a ‘obedience alibi’?

Answer 14

• offensive to survivors of the holocaust to say the Nazis were simply obeying orders & were in fact victims themselves of situational factors beyond their control.
• By arguing situational variables result in obedient behaviour, removes personal responsibility from the perpetrators.
• runs the risk of trivialising genocide.