obedience situational variables
Cards (12)
- situational variables:
- features of immediate physical + social environment which may influence person's behaviour
- Milgram's situational variables:
- proximity
- uniform
- location
- proximity:
- physical closeness to authority figure
- refers to closeness of teacher + learner in experiment
- location:
- place where order is issued
- uniform:
- people in positions of authority have a specific outfit that is symbolic of authority
- proximity variation learner:
- original = teacher + learner in different room
- variation 1 = teacher + learner in same room - obedience dropped to 40%
- variation 2 = touch proximity - obedience dropped to 30%
- proximity variation experimenter:
- original = experiment + teacher in same room
- variation = remote instruction over phone - obedience dropped to 20.5%
- uniform variation:
- original = experimenter wore a lab coat
- variation = experimenter called away + replaced by another confederate in everyday clothes - obedience dropped to 20%
- location variation:
- original = yale university
- variation = moved to a run down office - obedience dropped to 47.5%
- EVALUATION: research support
- other studies demonstrated influence of situational variables on obedience - Bickman experiment in NYC
- 3 confederates: jacket + tie, milkman, guard - asked people to perform small task, 2x likely to obey guard
- uniform adds legitimacy to authority
- EVALUATION: cross culture replications
- meeus + raaijmakers - tested obedience through realistic procedure on dutch people - conclusion isnt limited to us males
- smith + bond - not very cross culture, replications conducted in western cultures
- not appropriate to generalise findings to all cultures
- EVALUATION: low internal validity
- aware its faked - Orne + Holland, participants didnt believe in setup
- uniform variation - even milgram recognised experimenter being replaced was contrived - demand characteristics
- may have been going along - wasnt testing what he said hed test