1.2 Obedience

Agentic State

-When an individual feels removed from their actions and just obeying orders

Legitimacy of authority

-Someone who has legitimate status to issue orders.

-If an individual perceives someone to be an authority figure they are much more likely to obey

Strengths for explanations to obedience

-Agency theory has strong external validity as there are many examples. For example: during the holocaust thousands of ordinary people were ordered to follow horrific orders.

-Blass & Schmitt (2001) showed a film of Milgram's original obedience study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner. The students blamed the experimenter rather than the participant. Supporting Legitimacy of authority.

Limitations for Legitimacy to authority

-Agency theory cannot explain why people do not obey

-Both explanations imply that those who commit acts of destructive obedience have no control over their actions.

Milgrams study of obedience- sample

-40 males aged 20-50 years old

-Obtained from volunteer sampling (newspaper)

-Paid $4.50

Milgrams study of obedience- procedure

-Each participant allocated role of ‘teacher’ seemingly random

-A ‘learner’ was strapped to a chair attached to electrodes- the teacher was shown this before the procedure started

-The teacher would would give the learner a trigger word which was matched to a word the learner had supposedly memorised, if the learner got it wrong the teacher had to indicate an electric shock which went from 15 to 450 volts

-Throughout there was an experimenter who provided prompts to the teacher if they seemed reluctant ‘the experiment requires you to continue’

Milgrams study of obedience- Findings

-65% of participants went up to 450 volts

-100% of participants went up to 300 volts

Milan’s study of Obedience - Conclusion

Destructive obedience is not a result of nationality or personal factors but situational variables

-experiment was taken in a high level university- Yale

-prompts given by an experimenter who was wearing a lab coat (authority figure)

-being paid a small sum

-‘just obeying orders’

Milgrams study of obedience- Evaluation

Strengths-

Milgram’s findings have been reflected in Hofling’s study.

The use of 15 volt intervals on the shock generator was effective in showing how destructive obedience does not happen immediately.

Limitations-

Lacks internal validity - participants may have realised the shocks were fake and were just ‘playing along’

Ethics- participants deceived as to the true nature of the study, psychological harm caused, right to withdraw not tacitly given ( experimenter prods)

Milgrams variables: proximity

-Destructive obedience is more easily achieved if the person being harmed is out of sight

-Milgram did another variation of the experiment where the teacher and learner were in the same room and obedience dropped from 40% to 65%

-In another variation the teacher had to force the learners hand onto an electromagnetic plate and obedience dropped to 30%.

-He also did a variation where the experimenter gave the instructions to the teacher via phone and once again the obedience dropped to 20.5%.

Milgrams Variables: Uniform

-If an individual is perceived to be an authority figure, their orders are much more likely to be obeyed than someones who appear to lack status.

-Research from Bickman showed that people were more likely to obey a confederate dressed as a security guard than a milk man

-Milgram conducted a variation where the original experimenter in a lab coat pretended to leave the room and was replaced by a man wearing plain clothes and obedience was at only 20% of participants going upon to 450 volts.

Milgrams variable: location

-Less credible, low status locations result in lower levels of obedience

-Milgrams original experiment was set in Yale University which is prestigious and has a high reputation university which may have reassured participants.

-Milgram conducted a variation in a low status place in a run-down building in Connecticut and participants were told the experiment was for the Research Association of Bridgeport.

-The percentage of participants who went to 450 volts dropped to 47.5%

Evaluation of Milgram’s situational variables: Strengths

-Bickman’s research supports the idea that situational factors such as uniform affect obedience. It has high ecological validity as participants were unaware they were in a study

-Milgram used the same standardised procedure for each variable of study so they’re easily comparable.

Evaluation of Milgram’s situational variables: Limitations

-Some variations may have been more difficult to fake, for example the experiment where the teacher put the learners hand on the plate, the confederate would’ve had to have very good acting skills. Any suspicion would decrease the validity of experiment.

Dispositional explanations for obedience

Adornos research concluded that people with an authoritarian personality are:

-more obedient

-respects authority figures

-looks down on those who they consider beneath them

-See the world in an inflexible way

Origins of an authoritarian personality

Forms during childhood parenting as a result of having overbearing, dictatorial parents who do not encourage free will.

Parents of child are likely to:

-Exert strong discipline

-Have high expectations