situational variables affecting obedience/ milgram variations Flashcards
What were the 3 situational variables that Milgram studied?
-proximity
-location
-uniform
What happened in the proximity variations of Milgrams study?
-teacher and learner were in the same room
-teacher had to force Learners hand onto a shock plate
-experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone
What were the results of the variations where teacher and learner were in the same room?
-obedience dropped from 65% to 40%
What were the results of the variations where teacher had to force Learners hand onto a shock plate?
-obedience dropped to 30%
What were the results of the variations where experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone?
-obedience dropped to 25%
What was the effect of proximity on obedience?
-lower proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions- when teacher and learner were separated the teacher wasn’t fully aware of the harm they were causing, so obedience was higher
What happened in the location variation of Milgrams study?
-location was changed to a rundown office block
What were the results of the variations where the location was changed to a rundown building?
-obedience levels dropped to 45%
What was the effect of location on obedience?
-the original prestigious university setting had given Milgram’s study legitimacy and authority so participants were more obedient because they perceived the experimenter to share the legitimacy and obedience was expected
-Obedience was still quite high in the office block because they still perceived the scientific nature of the study
What happened in the uniform variation of Milgram’s study?
The eperimenter was called away because of a phone call right at the start of the study and was replaced by an ‘ordinary member of the public’ in everyday clothes
What were the results of the variation where the experimenter was replaced by an ordinarily clothes person?
Obedience dropped to 20%
Which of Milgram’s variations had the lowest obedience rate? What was it?
-Uniform
-20%
Which of Milgram’s variations had the highest rate of obedience? What was it?
-Location
-45%
Who else studied the effect of uniform on obedience?
Bickman
What was the procedure of Bickman’s study?
-3 male researchers gave orders to 153 randomly selected pedestrians in New York
-one dressed in a suit, one in a milkman’s uniform, one in a guard’s uniform
What were the findings of Bickmans study?
Participants were twice as likely to obey the guard than the civilian
What was the effect of uniform on obedience?
-Uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognized as symbols of authority
What are the strengths of research on the situational variables affecting obedience?
-Cross cultural replications
-Control of Variables
What are the limitations of research on the situational variables affecting obedience?
-Danger of situational perspective
-Counterpoint for cross cultural replications
Explain the strength of situational variables affecting obedience that there are cross cultural replications?
-For example Raijmakers used a more realistic procdure than Milgram’s to study obedience in Dutch participants
-The participants were ordered to sau stressful things in an interview to someone (confed) desperate for a job
-90% obeyed
-The researchers also replicated Milgram’s findings concerning proximity- wen the person giving orders was not present, obedience dramatically decreased
-This suggests that Milgram’s findings about obedience are not just limited to American men, but valid across cultures
Explain the counterpoint for the strength that there are cross-cultural replications?
-Replications aren’t very ‘cross-cultural’
-Smith and Bond identified just 2 replications between 1968-1985 that took place in countries culturally quite different to America
-therefore, it might not be appropriate to conclude that Milgram’s findings apply to people around the world
Explain the strength of situational variables affecting obedience that there is high control of variables?
-He systematically altered one variable at a time to see the specific effect it had on obedience levels
-all other variables kept the same as the study was replicated over and over again with more than 1000 participants in total
-This gives in population validity and reduces the chance of extraneous variables
Explain the limitation of situational variables affecting obedience- the danger of situation perspective?
-This perspective has been criticized by Mandel who argues that it offers an excuse or ‘alibi’ for evil behaviour
-In his view, it is offensive to survivors of the Holocaust to suggest that the Nazis were simply obeying orders
-Milgram’s explanation also ignored the role of dispositional factors such as personality, implying that the Nazis were victims of situational factors beyond their control
