Situational Variables affecting Obedience Flashcards
What is the key study for situational variables affecting obedience?
Milgram (1963)
Describe Milgram’s study
Milgram conducted a study whereby participants were asked to administer an electric shock to another participant (who was actually a confederate) upon incorrectly pairing words. Each time a the pairing was incorrect, the voltage of the electric shock increased to deadly levels.
There were 40 ppts
What were the participants in Milgram’s experiment told the aim was?
to investigate how punishment affects learning
What are the findings of Milgram’s study?
65% continued to 450V
All ppts went to 300V
12.5% stopped at 300V
What are situational variables affecting obedience?
Proximity, Location, The power of uniform
What happened in the Proximity study?
both the teacher and learner were in the same room
What were the findings of the Proximity study?
obedience levels dropped to 40% as the teacher was able to see the learner’s pain/anguish for themselves.
What happened in the Location study?
the studies were conducted at a run-down office instead of in the psychology lab at Yale University
What were the findings of the Location study?
obedience levels dropped slightly with 48% still delivering the 450V shock
What happened in the Power of Uniform study?
Bushman (1988) conducted a study where a female researcher dressed either in police uniform, as a business executive or as a beggar
What were the findings of the Power of Uniform Study?
Police Uniform: 72% obeyed
Business Executive: 48% obeyed
Beggar: 52% obeyed
Evaluation points for situational variables affecting obedience
- ecological validity
- ethical issues - deception + protection from harm + right to withdraw
3.lacks internal validity - historical validity (would the same thing happen today)
Why did Milgram’s ppts not have the right to withdraw?
When the participants asked to leave the study, they were prodded by the researchers, saying anything from ‘please continue’ to ‘you have no choice but to continue’. This meant that the participants did not feel as though they had a right to withdraw, violating ethical guidelines.
Why was Milgram’s study decieving?
Milgram deceived volunteers into first thinking they were participating in a memory study. Then, he deceived the volunteers into thinking that they were harming another human being with electric shocks.
Why is Milgram’s study ecological invalid?
Milgram tested obedience in a laboratory, which is very different to real-life situations of obedience, where people are often asked to follow more subtle instructions, rather than administering electric shocks. As a result we are unable to generalise his findings to real life situations of obedience and cannot conclude that people would obey less severe instructions in the same way.
