These notes include content from AQA A-level Psychology and focus on 'Situational Variables'. It covers all AO1 content, as well as evaluations (AO3) and application (AO2). The main points Milgram's research on proximity, location and uniform and how these factors affect obedience. I have made note...
Paper 1 - SOCIAL INFLUENCE
Obedience: Situational Variables
What do I need to know?
How do proximity, location and uniform affect Milgram’s results?
How can the variations research be evaluated?
Questions to answer in class:
1. Obedience Questionnaire
For Mohammed’s second time being a steward at the new White Hart Lane football
stadium, it was another hot sunny day.
This time, all of the fans followed his instructions to remain seated during the game.
At half-time, Mohammed removed his high-visibility jacket because it was so hot.
During the second half, Tottenham scored a goal and the supporters started jumping
up and down.
Mohammed told them to sit down, but most of them ignored him and remained
standing for the rest of the game.
In terms of research into situational variables affecting obedience, explain the
Tottenham fans’ behaviour. (4 marks)
Milgram found out that when the experimenter was wearing a lab coat, the obedience
level was quite high (65%). Therefore, when Mohammed was wearing his high -
visibility jacket, people obeyed the orders as the uniform showed his authority was
legitimate. Milgram, also, found that people are more likely to obey when they see
someone is uniform as they see their authority as legitimate. In the obedience
experiment, he found that the obedience level from the participants decreased from
65% to 20% when the role of experimenter carried out by an ordinary person/
member of public. This could explain why most of the supporters ignored Mohammed
because he didn’t have his uniform on so they dismissed his authority and ‘remained
standing for the rest of the game’. Therefore, it was Mohammed’s uniform that
showed that his authority was legitimate and it affected the behaviour of the fans.
Notes
Proximity: refers to the physical closeness or distance of an authority figure to the person
they are giving an order to.
Milgram’s study = refers to the physical closeness of the ‘teacher’ to the ‘learner’.
Original study : teacher and learner were in adjoining room [ 65% ]
Variation : teacher and learner in the same room [ 40% ]
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