Situational Variables Affecting Obedience

Question 1

Milgram (1963) aim

Answer 1

To research how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person

Question 1

Milgram (1963) procedure

Answer 1

40 participants. In each group, 1 participant and 2 confederates. The teacher (participant) had to give varying electric shocks to a confederate based on the answers he gave to questions. The experimenter gave encouragements

Question 2

Milgram (1963) findings

Answer 2

65% continued to maximum shock level. All participants went to 300 volts

Question 3

How does proximity effect obedience (Milgram)?

Answer 3

Both teacher and learner were in the same room, with obedience falling to 40%. In an extreme variation, the participant had to force the hand of the confederate onto a shock plate, with obedience falling to 30%.

Question 4

How does location effect obedience (Milgram)?

Answer 4

Alternate experiment in a run down building in Bridgeport. 48% gave the maximum shock

Question 5

How does the power of uniform effect obedience in Bushman (1988)?

Answer 5

Either a police officer, beggar or business man stopped people in the street and told them to give change to a male researcher for an expired parking meter.

Question 6

Internal validity - a lack of realism (Milgram)

Answer 6

Perry (2012) found that many of Milgram’s participants had been skeptical as to whether the electric shock was real. Murata found that people who believed it was real were more likely to disobey the experimenter, challenging the validity of Milgram

Question 7

Historical validity (Milgram)

Answer 7

Burger (2009) repeated the study and found that obedience levels were almost identical, showing that Milgram’s study is still valid to this day