situational variables

• situational variables 


  proximity to authority figure

  location

  power of uniform
• proximity


  when both teacher and learner were in the same room - obedience was 40%

  when the teacher had to force learners' hand on the electroshock plate - obedience was 30%

  when the experimenter left the room and gave the teacher instructions through a telephone - obedience was 20.5%
• proximity explanation 


  when proximity is decreased the participant can psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions

  i.e. when the teacher and learner were not in the same room, the teacher was unaware of the consequences of being shocked so obedience was higher
• location 


  when the study was conducted in a run-down building instead of Yale university, obedience dropped to 47.5%
• location explanation

  Yale university gave both the experimenter and Milgram's research legitimacy and authority

  however obedience was still high in the run-down building due to the scientific nature of the experiment
• uniform 


  when the experimenter wore a grey lab coat, obedience was high

  however when replaced with a member of public wearing ordinary clothes, obedience fell to 20%
• uniform explanation 


  uniforms are seen as legitimate and automatically give a person authority expecting obedience
• research support

  P: strength - research support

  E: a field experiment with confederates dressed in jackets and tie, security guard uniforms, and milkman outfits and asked passers-by to pick up litter for example

  E: passers-by were twice as likely to obey an assistant dressed in a security guard uniform compared to the one dressed in a jacket and tie

  L: therefore situational variables does affect obedience
• cross-cultural replications 


  P: strength - Milgra's study has been replicated in other cultures

  E: Dutch participants were asked to say stressful things to a confederate desperate for a job and found that 90% of participants h obeyed

  E: Milgram's findings concerning proximity were also replicated and they found that when the researcher was not present in the room, obedience had decreased

  L: therefore this proves that Milgram's research is also valid in other cultures
• counterpoint

  P: limitation - Milgram's findings are not cross-cultural

  E: researchers identified only two replications of Milgram's study in countries dissimilar to the US - India and Jordan

  E: however other replications of Milgram's study were conducted in countries such as Spain, and Australia, countries that are culturally similar to the USA

  L:therefore the means that Milgrams findings cannot apply to all people of all cultures
• low internal validity

  P: limitation - participants may be aware that the experiment was fake

  E: this is more likely in the variations as the variables were more controlled

  E:for example, when the researcher was replaced by a member of the public, participants may have worked out the aim of the study

  L: therefore we are unaware of whether participants saw through the deception