Obedience= situational variables

Question 1

What are situational explanations?

Answer 1

• features of immediate physical and social environment which may influence a persons behavior

Question 2

What were the situational variables Milgram investigated?

Answer 2

• Proximity
• Location
• Uniform

Question 3

How did Milgram vary proximity and what were his findings?

Answer 3

• Milgram change proximity by putting the teacher and learner in the same room. Obedience rates dropped from 65% to 40%
• The teacher also had to force the learners hand on to an electroshock plate, reducing obedience to 30%
• There was a remote instruction variation where the experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone. Obedience reduced to 20.5%

Question 4

Why did obedience decrease with increased proximity?

Answer 4

• decreased proximity allowed people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions and be less aware of the harm they caused

Question 5

How did Milgram vary location and what were his findings?

Answer 5

• Milgram ran the variation in a run down office block instead of Yale. In this location, obedience fell to 47.5%

Question 6

Why did obedience decrease when Milgram changed location?

Answer 6

• The prestigious environment gave Milgram legitimacy and authority. When Milgram changed the location, the scientific nature of the procedure was diminished

Question 7

How did Milgram vary uniform and what was the results?

Answer 7

• The Experimenter wore a grey lab coat in the baseline procedure. However in the variation, the experimenter was taken over by an ordinary member of the public. This decreased obedience to 20%

Question 8

Why did changing uniform decrease obedience?

Answer 8

• uniform was a symbol of authority and a sign that the experimenter was legitimate

Question 9

What is a strength of Milgrams research? (R)

Answer 9

• There is research support, for example Leonard Bickman had three confederates dress up in different outfits.
• A jacket and tie, a milkman and a security guard
• The confederates asked passer by’s to perform tasks such as picking up litter or handing over a coin for parking
• people were twice as likely to obey the assistant dressed as a security guard than in jacket and tie
• This shows that uniform has a powerful effect on obedience

Question 10

What is a strength of Milgrams research (C)?

Answer 10

• There are cross - cultural replications
• For example, Meeus and Raajmakers (1986) produced a more realistic obedience study in Dutch participants.
• The participants were ordered to say stressful things to a confederate in an interview that they thought was desperate for a job
• 90% of participants obeyed
• The researchers also decreased dramactically when they increased proximity
• This shows that Milgrams findings abput obedience are not just limited to american males

Question 11

What is a limitation of Milgrams study?

Answer 11

• There may be low internal validity and participants may have been aware that the procedure was faked
• Orne and Holland made this criticism and found that in Milgrams variations it may have increased the chances of demand characteristics
• for example, when an experimenter was replaced for a member of public
• Therefore, in all studies it is unclear if the findings were genuine or due to demand characteritics