Obedience

What is obedience?

When someone conforms because of the presence of an authority figure

What is the study to support obedience?

Milgram - 1963

What is the aim of Milgram’s experiment?

To measure how obedient people were

What is the procedure for Milgram’s experiment?

• Teacher and learner - teacher = ppt and learner = confederate

• Teacher told to ask learner questions and shock the learner every time answer was wrong (electric shocks were false)

• If ppt refuses to shock, experimenter tells them they must carry on (prods)

What were the results for Milgram’s obedience study?

• All 40 ppts went to 300V - quantitative

• 26 administered the max. shock of 450V - quantitative

• Most ppts showed signs of stress - qualitative

What are the ETHICAL WEAKNESS evaluation points for Milgram’s study of obedience?

• Deception - selection of teacher and learner

• Lack of informed consent - deceived ppts can’t give full informed consent

• Harm - stress reactions / emotional damage

• Right to withdraw - prods given by researcher

What are the METHODOLOGICAL WEAKNESS evaluation points for Milgram’s study of obedience?

• Artificial - loss of external validity (real life obedience doesn’t take place in artificial situations where being asked to electrocute)

• Demand characteristics - caused ppts to behave differently - e.g may have delivered shocks because they knew it was a set up

• Mundane realism - task didn’t reflect what they’d do in real life

What are the STRENGTHS of Milgram’s study of obedience?

• High internal validity

• High reliability - lab study so replicable procedure

• Replicability - standardisation

• Collected quantitative and qualitative data - % of ppl delivering 450V and observations

What are 2 examples of the prods the experimenter gave?

• “Please go on.”

• “It’s absolutely essential that you continue.”

What are the explanations for obedience?

1. Agentic state

2. Legitimate Authority

3. Situational Variables

4. Authoritarian personality

What is legitimate authority?

When an individual is more likely to obey an authority figure

bc they have more social power, we trust them or they have the power to punish us

What is the study to support legitimate authority?

Bickman - 1974

Outline Bickmans study of legitimate authority

• Conducted a field experiment where researchers ordered passers by to pick up litter

• Researchers either dresses in a guards uniform or as a normal citizen

What were the results of Bickmans study of legitimate authority?

90% obeyed the guard, but 50% obeyed the pedestrian

What were the evaluation points for Bickman’s study of legitimate authority?

+

• Explains cross cultural differences - different countries have different levels of obedience

• Takes into account individual differences

• Explains real life war crimes - Vietnam War

• Studies supporting legitimate authority have a high level of population validity

-

• Doesn’t account for other factors like agentic state that could affect levels of obedience

What is agentic state?

When an individual feels no personal responsibility for their behaviour because they believe they’re acting for an authority figure

What is the opposite of an agentic state?

Autonomous state

What is an autonomous state?

When an individual feels responsibility for their own actions

What is the study to support agentic state?

Hofling - 1966

Outline Hofling’s study of agentic state

• He looked at nurses responses to an order from a ‘bogus’ doctor

• Experimenter phoned 22 nurses at different hospitals and introduced himself as ‘Doctor Smith’

• Asked nurses to give patients 20mg dose of an unfamiliar drug, although the label on the box stated a max. dose of 10mg

What was the result of Hofling’s study of agentic state?

21/22 nurses obeyed

What are the evaluation points for Hofling’s study of agentic state?

+

• High ecological validity - conducted in a field experiment

• Further research to support from Milgram

-

• Nurses may have obeyed because the doctor was an authority figure (legitimate authority)

• Environmental and personality factors that affect levels of obedience (individual differences)

• Low temporal validity - changes in obedience over time

What are situational variables?

Factors that influence obedience

External factors rather than personality/internal factors

What are examples of situational variables?

1. Proximity

2. Location

3. Uniform