situational variables

• What are situational variables?

  Features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person's behaviour.

  The alternative is dispositional variables where behaviour is explained in terms of personality.
• What are 3 types of situational variables?

  Proximity

  location

  uniform
• What happened in the proximity variation of the study?


  when teacher and learner were in the same room obedience fell from 65% to 40%

  When the teacher had to put the learner's hand on the plate obedience fell to 30%

  When the experimenter gave the instructions via the phone obedience reduced to 20.5%

  Decreased proximity allows people to distance themselves from the consequence of their actions
• What happened in the location variation of the study?


  When the experiment was conducted in a run down office block obedience fell to 47.5%

  The university environment gave Milgram legitimacy and authority however obedience was still high in the office block because the participants perceived the scientific nature of the procedure
• What happened in the uniform variation of the study?

  The role of the experimenter was taken over by an ordinary member of the public in ordinary clothes and obedience dropped to 20%

  Uniform's encourage obedience because they are widely recognised as a symbol of authority.
• Give one strength of situational variables?

  Research support

  Bickman had 3 confederates dress in different outfits , jacket and tie, milkman and security guard.

  Asked passers by to perform tasks and people were twice more likely to obey security guard than the jacket and tie

  Supports view that situational variables have a powerful effect on obedience
• Give on strength and one counterargument of situational variables?


  findings have been replicated in other cultures

  Meeus and Raaijmakers did a more realistic procedure on dutch participants.

  participants were ordered to say stressful things in an interview.

  90% obeyed

  researchers also applied proximity and when person given orders wasn't there, obedience decreased

  counterpoint = replications of milgram's study aren't cross cultural. only 2 replications that took place in India and Jordan. Whereas other countries involved were similar to the US.
• Give on limitation of milgram's situational variables?


  Participants may have been aware the procedure was fake.

  Orne and Holland pointed out its more likely in his variations. A good example is the variation where experimenter was replaced by a member of the public.

  It's unclear whether the findings are genuinely due to the operation of obedience or because the participants saw through the deception and showed demand characteristics