situational variables

• Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual follows A direct order, the person issuing the order is usually someone with authority or power
• situational variables are the factors that influence the behaviour of the individual in a particular social environment
• in milligrams location variation obedience fell from 65% to 47.5%
• bickman investigated the effect of uniform on obedience and found 76% obeyed the man dressed as a guard, 47% obeyed the milkman, and 30% obeyed the pedestrian- shows the effect of uniform on obedience
• in milgrams proximity variation: teacher and learner in same room=40% obedience rate, teacher forces learners hand= 30% showing that the closer the level of proximity, the lower the obedience
• milgrams experiment was criticised because it lacked ecological validity, he used deception, and there may be demand characteristics
• In milgrams baseline study 65% of participants delivered the 350V
• In milgrams proximity variation where the teacher was forcing the learner’s hand, 30% delivered the 350V
• In milgrams proximity variation where instructions were delivered to the learner over the phone, 20.5% of participants delivered the 350V
• milligrams study is said top have low internal validity as Orne and Holland claimed that participants behaved as they did as they didn't really believe the setup. However, Sheridan and King found that 54% of men and 100% of women would deliver a fatal shock to a puppy - showing milligrams results were accurate
• Real life applications of milgrams study — This research opened our eyes to the problem of obedience and so may reduce future obedience in response to destructive authority figures e.g. obedience has resulted in negative social change - the Nazis obeyed orders and as a result, Hitler managed to get what he wanted and what he wanted was not what the majority of people wanted. Such research also gives an insight into why people were so willing to kill innocent Jews simply when told to, and so highlights how we can all easily be victims to such pressures.
• milgrams baseline procedure-

  • volunteer sample of 40 American men - payed to participate
  • lab study
  • each participant was introduced to another participant on arrival - who was actually a confederate - real participant was always allocated teacher and confederate was always allocated learner
  • experimenter gave the teacher orders to give learner an electric shock if they got a question wrong - ranging from 15-450 volts in 15 volt increments
  • if teacher resisted, experimenter gave prods eg - 'please continue' or 'you must continue'