obedience: situational variables

obedience: situational variables

1. variables

   • proximity
     • teacher and learner in same room
       • 40%
   • baseline study
     • at Yale all variables normal
       • 65%
   • location
     • run down office block
       • 47.5%
   • touch proximity
     • teacher forces learners hand onto plate
       • 30%
   • remote instruction
     • experimenter not in room and gave orders over the phone
       • 20.5%
   • uniform
     • experimenter was a 'ember of the public'
       • 20%

2. evaluation

   • research support - uniform
     • Bickman - field experiment in New York
       • 3 confederates dressed as
         • milkman
         • jacket and tie
         • security guard
       • results
         • twice as likely to obey the security guard than the jacket and tie
       • the men asked for a coin for a parking meter or to pick up litter
   • lack of internal validity
     • Orne & Holland
       • baseline procedure was fake
         • participants were even more likely to realise the variations were fake due to extra manipulation
           • the situations were so unrealistic
             • did the participants just go along with it - demand characteristics
   • cross cultural replications
     • supported Milgram
       • Miranda
         • obedience rate over 90% for Spanish students
     • however
       • Smith & Bond
         • most replication were in the west - developed countries
           • similar culture to US

3. evaluation +

   • control of variables
     • Milgram only changed one thing at a time
       • study was replicated lots
         • good
   • the obedience alibi
     • Milgram said - the situation you are in effects your obedience
       • Mandel
         • said that just makes an excuse for evil behaviour
           • offensive to Holocaust survivors
             • Nazis were obeying orders and were victims of situational actors that were out of their control