Explanations for obedience: agentic state and legitimacy of authority, and situational variables affecting obedience including proximity and location, as investigated by Milgram, and uniform. Dispositional explanation for obedience: the Authoritarian Personality

What is Obedience?

• Following direct order from authority figure.

What is the Agentic State?

• Mental state where person sees themselves as agent acting on behalf of authority figure.
• Person no longer feels personally responsible for actions.

What is the Autonomous State?

• Person acts according to own principles and takes responsibility for behaviour.

What is the Agentic Shift?

• Transition from autonomous state to agentic state when person perceives someone as legitimate authority.

Why does the Agentic State lead to Obedience?

• Responsibility transferred to authority figure.
• Anxiety reduced because person no longer feels personally responsible.

What is Legitimacy of Authority?

• Person perceived to have socially recognised authority to control behaviour.

Why does Legitimacy of Authority lead to Obedience?

• Society organised hierarchically and people socialised to obey authority figures such as teachers, police and parents.

What is Destructive Authority?

• Authority figure uses power for harmful or destructive purpose.

What was the Aim of Milgram’s Obedience Study?

• Investigated obedience to authority.

Milgram Study — Participants

• 40 American males aged 20–50.
• Recruited through newspaper advert.

Milgram Study — Procedure

• Participant always teacher and confederate always learner.
• Learner answered word-pair questions.
• Wrong answers received electric shocks increasing by 15 volts.
• Shock machine ranged from 15V to 450V.

Milgram Study — Learner Responses

• Learner banged on wall at 300V and again at 315V.
• After 330V learner became silent.

Milgram Study — Findings

• 65% obeyed to full 450V.
• All participants reached at least 300V.

Milgram Study — Conclusion

• Ordinary people obey authority figures even when causing harm.

What is Proximity?

• Physical closeness between people.

How did Proximity affect Obedience in Milgram’s Variations?

• When teacher and learner in same room obedience dropped from 65% to 40%.
• When teacher forced learner’s hand onto shock plate obedience dropped to 30%.

Why did Proximity affect Obedience?

• Closer proximity increases awareness of consequences and moral strain.

How did Location affect Obedience in Milgram’s Variations?

• When study moved from Yale University to rundown office obedience dropped from 65% to 47.5%.

Why did Location affect Obedience?

• Yale University gave study legitimacy and prestige.

How did Uniform affect Obedience in Milgram’s Variations?

• When experimenter replaced by ordinary member of public obedience dropped from 65% to 20%.

Why did Uniform affect Obedience?

• Uniform acts as visual symbol of authority.

What are Situational Explanations of Obedience?

• Explanations focusing on environmental factors such as proximity, location and uniform.

What are Dispositional Explanations of Obedience?

• Explanations focusing on internal personality characteristics.

What is the Authoritarian Personality?

• Personality type characterised by extreme respect for authority and submission to authority figures.

Characteristics of the Authoritarian Personality

• Obedient to authority.
• Hostile towards weaker people.
• Rigid beliefs and conventional values.

What causes the Authoritarian Personality?

• Adorno et al. suggested harsh and strict parenting creates resentment displaced onto weaker groups.

What is the F-Scale?

• Fascism scale measuring authoritarian personality traits.
• Higher scores indicate more authoritarian personality.

Evaluation of Agentic State — Research Support

• In Milgram’s study many participants asked “Who is responsible?”
• Supports idea responsibility displaced onto authority figure.

Evaluation of Agentic State — Real Life Application

• Explains obedience in events such as Nazi Germany and My Lai massacre.

Evaluation of Agentic State — Limitation

• Some participants resisted obedience despite same situation.
• Suggests agentic state cannot fully explain obedience.

Evaluation of Legitimacy of Authority — Cross Cultural Support

• Kilham and Mann found only 16% obedience in Australia compared to Milgram’s 65% in America.
• Suggests obedience levels vary depending on cultural attitudes towards authority.

Evaluation of Legitimacy of Authority — Real Life Application

• Explains obedience in military, police and dictatorships.

Evaluation of Legitimacy of Authority — Limitation

• Not all people obey destructive authority figures.
• Some resist immoral orders.

Evaluation of Milgram — Internal Validity

• Participants believed shocks were real.
• Many showed signs of distress such as sweating and trembling.

Evaluation of Milgram — Ethical Issues

• Participants experienced severe psychological distress.

Evaluation of Milgram — Limited Sample

• Only American males tested so findings difficult to generalise.

Evaluation of Milgram — Low Population Validity

• Participants volunteered through newspaper advert and may have shared obedient characteristics.

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality — Research Support

• Elms and Milgram found participants with high F-scale scores more obedient.

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality — Limited Explanation

• Cannot explain widespread obedience in Nazi Germany because millions obeyed.
• Unlikely entire population had authoritarian personality.

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality — Political Bias

• Theory linked to extreme right-wing ideology and may reflect political bias of researchers.

Evaluation of Authoritarian Personality — Correlation not Causation

• Relationship between F-scale scores and obedience only correlational.
• Cannot prove authoritarian personality causes obedience.