Situational Variable affecting Obedience

Question 1

Proximity

Answer 1

• Obedience can be increased by increasing the physical and psychological proximity of the participant to the learner.
• Physical proximity refers to the distance between the participant and learner whereas psychological proximity refers to how aware the participant is of the learner’s position.
  -We can see the importance of proximity across four situations used by Milgram.
  Remote feedback: The victim couldn’t be heard or seen (66%).
  Voice feedback: The victim could be heard but not seen (62%).
  Proximity: The victim was only one metre away from the participant (40%).
  Touch-proximity: The participant had to force the learner’s hand onto the shock plate (30%).

Question 2

Location

Answer 2

• Milgram’s original research was conducted in a lab at Yale University.
  -This prestigious location gave the experimenter social power as a legitimate authority figure.
  -Milgram then changed location to a modest office in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In this setting, 48% of the participants exhibited total obedience compared to 65% at Yale.
  -Changing the location may change the perceived legitimacy of the authority figure.
  -A more prestigious location may have higher legitimacy.

Question 3

Uniform

Answer 3

• In Milgram’s initial study, the experimenter wore a grey lab coat. - This indicated to the participants that he possessed scientific expertise and this may have increased obedience to authority.
• Milgram investigated this issue in a study in which the experimenter was called away.
• An ordinary man who appeared to be another participant (but was actually a confederate of the experimenter) took over the experimenter’s role - only 20% of P’s exhibited total obedience.
• He lacked the uniform of a scientist and the scientific expertise and credibility of the typical experimenter.

Question 4

A03 - Uniform

Answer 4

• Research supports the influence of uniform on obedience.
• Bickman investigated the power of uniforms in a field experiment conducted in New York.
  -Bickman used three male actors: one dressed as a milkman; one dressed as a security guard; and one dressed in ordinary clothes.–
  -The actors asked members of the public to follow one of three instructions: pick up a bag; give someone money for a parking metre; and stand on the other side of a bus stop sign which said ‘no standing’.
• On average the guard was obeyed on 76% of occasions, the milkman on 47% and the pedestrian on 30%.
  -These results suggest that people are more likely to obey when instructed by someone wearing a uniform.
  -This is because the uniform infers a sense of legitimate authority and power, supporting Milgram’s theory that external factors affect obedience to authority.

Question 5

A03 - Californian F Scale - Elm’s and Milgram

Answer 5

• Elms and Milgram examined the authoritarian personality and obedience by administering the Californian F Scale to 20 defiant participants and 20 obedient participants from Milgram’s earlier experiments.
  -They found that the obedient participants were more likely to score higher on the F scale, indicating they have an Authoritarian Personality, than those who were classified as defiant.
• From this research we could adopt a more interactionist approach to explaining why people obey perceived authority figures.
• Milgram could have been correct in his original theory that there are 3 key factors, namely proximity, location and uniform, but there may be an additional, internal factor that generates this obedience or defiance, in the form of the authoritarian personality, thus questioning the 3 factors as the sole contributing factors to obedience.