situational variables affecting obedience

Question 1

What were the 3 situational variables that Milgram studied?

Answer 1

-proximity
-location
-uniform

Question 2

What happened in the proximity variations of Milgrams study?

Answer 2

-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

Question 3

What were the results of the variations where teacher and learner were in the same room?

Answer 3

-obedience dropped from 65% to 40%

Question 4

What were the results of the variations where teacher had to force Learners hand onto a shock plate?

Answer 4

-obedience dropped to 30%

Question 5

What were the results of the variations where experimenter left the room and gave instructions to the teacher by telephone?

Answer 5

-obedience dropped to 25%

Question 6

What was the effect of proximity on obedience?

Answer 6

-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

Question 7

What happened in the location variation of Milgrams study?

Answer 7

-location was changed to a rundown office block

Question 8

What were the results of the variations where the location was changed to a rundown building?

Answer 8

-obedience levels dropped to 45%

Question 9

What was the effect of location on obedience?

Answer 9

-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

Question 10

What happened in the uniform variation of Milgram’s study?

Answer 10

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

Question 11

What were the results of the variation where the experimenter was replaced by an ordinarily clothes person?

Answer 11

Obedience dropped to 20%

Question 12

Which of Milgram’s variations had the lowest obedience rate? What was it?

Answer 12

-Uniform
-20%

Question 13

Which of Milgram’s variations had the highest rate of obedience? What was it?

Answer 13

-Location
-45%

Question 14

Who else studied the effect of uniform on obedience?

Answer 14

Bickman

Question 15

What was the procedure of Bickman’s study?

Answer 15

-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

Question 16

What were the findings of Bickmans study?

Answer 16

Participants were twice as likely to obey the guard than the civilian

Question 17

What was the effect of uniform on obedience?

Answer 17

-Uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognized as symbols of authority

Question 18

What are the strengths of research on the situational variables affecting obedience?

Answer 18

-Cross cultural replications
-Control of Variables

Question 19

What are the limitations of research on the situational variables affecting obedience?

Answer 19

-Danger of situational perspective
-Counterpoint for cross cultural replications

Question 20

Explain the strength of situational variables affecting obedience that there are cross cultural replications?

Answer 20

-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

Question 21

Explain the counterpoint for the strength that there are cross-cultural replications?

Answer 21

-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

Question 22

Explain the strength of situational variables affecting obedience that there is high control of variables?

Answer 22

-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

Question 23

Explain the limitation of situational variables affecting obedience- the danger of situation perspective?

Answer 23

-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