Obedience

Explain the concepts of the agentic state and shift

Agentic state

• when a person acts on behalf of an authority figure

• feels reduced responsibility and guilt for consequences of their actions

Agentic shift

• when a person moves from the autonomous to the agentic state

• It reduces their sense of responsibility / guilt

• Occurs when we perceive someone else as an authority figure to be obeyed

Explain the concept of legitimate authority

• someone who’s perceived to have the right / power to tell you what to do

• Because they’ve been entrusted by society with certain responsibilities

• We recognise the authority figure’s right to issue a demand

Explain an incident from Milgram’s experiment which support the idea that the agentic state leads to obedience

• when the experimenter said they held responsibility for the learner

  • Most participants continued to give shocks

Explain how the results from Bickman’s and Hofling’s field experiments support the idea that perception of legitimate authority leads to obedience

Bickman (uniform)

• 2x higher obedience when confederate was wearing a security guards uniform compared to a milkman or suit and tie

Hofling (overdose)

• 21/22 nurses obeyed a doctor’s order to give an overdose of a drug to a patient

Explain how the incident during WW2 with the German Police Battalion 101 provides evidence against the agentic state

• The police massacred Jews in a small town in Poland

• Despite not having direct orders to do so (voluntary)

• The killing was face to face and the battalion members had no presence of an authority figure

• Therefore they seemed to be acting in the autonomous state

Explain how the incident involving the German Police Battalion 101 is similar to some of Milgram’s variations

• it’s similar to the proximity variations

  • Teacher & Learner in same room, obedience 40% (face-to-face with victim)

  • Experimenter orders by phone, obedience 20% (lack of presence of authority figure)

• The actions of the battalion suggest they were prejudiced against Jews and not ‘just obeying orders’

Identify the key features of an authoritarian personality, according to Adorno

• Belief in obedience / respect for authority

• Conventional moral attitudes

• Black and White thinking

• Right-wing

Explain the causes of an authoritarian personality, according to Adorno

• Harsh parenting / condition love

• Identification with authority figures

• Repressed hostility

• Displaced feelings onto out-groups (minorities)

Explain what Adorno’s own findings suggest about the origins of an authoritarian personality

• positive correlation between harsh parenting and authoritarian personality

• Suggests early experiences do shape later personality

Explain what Elm and Milgram’s findings suggest about authoritarian personality and obedience

• fully obedient participants had higher AP scores

• Suggests that AP influences obedience

Explain criticisms that have been made on research on authoritarian personality

• interviews on childhood

  • Subject to researcher bias due to lack of blind procedure

• Evidence is correlational

  • Can’t identify cause and effect

• AP questionnaires (F-scale)

  • Led to acquiescence bias as all items were scored so SA = high authoritarianism