Situational variables

• Situational variables - AO1

  - Features of an environment that affect the degree to which individuals yield to group pressures
• Proximity - AO1

  - Proximity variation - teacher and learner were in the same room. - Obedience dropped from the original 65% to 40%.

  - When told to force the learners hand on the shock plate - Obedience dropped by a further 30%.

  - The experimenter left the room and gave instructions via phone - Obedience fell by 20.5%

  - Decreased proximity allows people to psychologically distance themselves from the consequences of their actions.
• Location - AO1

  - Variation in a run-down office block rather than the prestigious yale university.

  - Obedience fell by 47.5%

  - The university location gave Milgram's study legitimacy and authority.
• Uniform - AO3

  - Baseline study the experimenter wore a grey lab coat to show authority.

  - Experimenter called away to take a call and returned as an ordinary member of the public in 'normal clothes'

  - Obedience dropped to 20% - lowest

  - Uniforms encourage obedience because they are widely recognised symbols of authority.
• Research support - AO3

  - Field study in NYC - Brickman had three confederates dressed in different outfits. - Jacket and tie, milkman's outfit and security guard uniform.

  - Confederates individually stood and asked people in the street to perform various tasks.

  - People were twice as likely to obey a confederate dressed as a security guard than one dressed in a jacket and tie.
• Cross-cultural replications - AO3

  - Study replicated by Psychologists looking at a Dutch participants who used a more realistic study.

  - participants ordered to say stressful things to a confederate looking for a job - 90% obeyed.

  - When the person giving orders is not present - obedience declines dramatically.
• Low internal validity - AO3

  - Participants were aware that the study was fake.

  - Psychologists criticized the extra manipulation of the variations as participants were likely to guess the aims of the study.

  - For example the part where the experimenter leaves. - Milgram himself believed the situation was contrived.

  - Milgram's study may make it unclear whether findings are due to obedience or participants saw deception and acted - demand characteristics.