Factors Affecting Obedience

Situational Factors

(AO1)

Features of the immediate physical or social environment that may influence someone’s behaviour

Situational factors - link to obedience

(AO1)

• if the environment if more legitimate e.g. a sterile lab, people are more likely to obey in that environment

• Or if an authority is in close proximity to the target, they are more likely to be obeyed

Strength of situational factors affecting obedience

(AO3)

I: A strength of situational factors affecting obedience is the supportive evidence from Milgram’s variation experiments on the legitimacy of environment and proximity of authority

J: In the rundown office block variation the situational factor of legitimacy of environment affected obedience, As the rate of obedience fell from 65% to 48%. Also in the telephonic experiment the situational factor of proximity affected obedience as a rate fell from 65% to 22.5%

E: therefore, this shows that changing the immediate physical and social environment will affect the level to which people obey

Cultural Factors

(AO1)

The ideas, customs and social behaviour of a particular group of people or society

Individualism

• People take care of themselves and think in terms of ‘I’

• They value independence and personal identity

• And they work for personal benefit

Collectivism

• People take care of the community and think in terms of ‘we’

• They value cooperation and compliance

• And they work for the benefit of the group

Weakness of cultural factors affecting obedience - individualism/collectivism

(AO3)

I: A weakness of cultural factors affecting obedience is that most nations around the world have similar high levels of obedience

J: Blass (2012) Found an average of 65.94% of obedience in countries across the world compared to the 60.94% in the US. These countries varied in the levels of individualism and collectivism but obedience levels were still similar.

E: this suggests that the cultural factor of individualism and collectivism may not have a significant impact on the social behaviour of obedience

Power Distance Index

(AO1)

The measure of how accepting people are of inequality and hierarchy in society

High PDI

(AO1)

• The subordinate is more likely to accept the authority of their superior

• Therefore, they are less likely to question the orders from the authority figures and be more obedient

Low PDI

(AO1)

• Subordinate is more likely to question the authority of their superior

• People seek more interdependent relationships and are less accepting of authority

• This could lead to dissent

Strength of cultural factors affecting obedience - PDI

(AO3)

I: A strength that cultural factors do affect obedience is the close relationship between obedience and the cultural dimensions PDI

J: Kilham and Mann found that Australia had low levels of obedience 28% and a low PDI 36% and Dolinsky found that Poland had high levels of obedience 90% and a high PDI 68%

E: This suggests Hofstede’s PDI is useful in predicting obedience