Theories of Obedience

• What is an agentic state?


  a state where we feel no personal responsibility to our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure who takes the responsibility from us
• What is an autonomous state?


  individuals direct their own behaviour and take responsibility for the consequences
• What is an agentic shift?


  starting in an autonomous state where we take responsibility for our actions, but when confronted with an authority figure you shift into an agentic state where they will take responsibility for your actions as you act as their 'agent'
• What is legitimacy of authority?


  an explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us - this authority is justified by the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy
• What evidence can be used to support 'legitimacy of authority' theory?

  Bickman's 1974 Uniform Study:

  • three confederates who wore different uniforms - a guard, a milk man and a civilian
  • they asked participants on the street to complete tasks
  • found that the guard was obeyed the most at 75% by pps which concludes that obedience is higher when you perceive a person as being of higher authority as you are less likely to question them
• Why might legitimacy of authority be a problem?


  we learn to accept legitimacy of authority at a young age so we are willing to trust authority, e.g. the police, however not all authority figures will have our best interests at heart such as the case of Sarah Everard or Hitler with the Nazi's
• What is a strength of the 'legitimacy of authority' theory?


  • it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience
  • many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people obey
  • Kilham and Mann found that 16% of female Australian pps went to 450V in a Milgram style study, yet another showed that 85% of German pps went to 450V
  • it shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate than others, therefore suggesting that this theory is a useful explanation for obedience as it reflects how societies are structured differently
• The Authoritarian Personality (dispositional)


  a type of personality that Adorno argued was especially susceptible to obeying people in authority
• What are some characteristics of the authoritarian personality?


  • especially obedient to authority
  • extreme respect for authority
  • traditional attitude towards sex, race, gender (discriminative)
  • see everything in black and white
  • believe they're superior to lower classes
  • believe we need strong leaders
• Where does the authoritarian personality originate from?


  Harsh Parenting - strict discipline, absolute loyalty, impossibly high standards, severe criticism, give CONDITIONAL love

  • children express resentment onto lower class
• Investigating the authoritarian personality


  • in a study of over 2000 white Americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups using the F-scale
  • a question from the F-scale: "Obedience and respect for authority are the more important virtues a child could have."
• Findings of Adorno's Personality Study


  • people with authoritarian learnings (scoring high on the F-scale) identified with strong people and were intolerant of the weak
  • they were very conscious of their own and others status' showing excessive respect towards those of higher status
  • strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
  • found they had fixed and distinctive stereotypes
• Evaluation of Adorno's study


  • based on a correlation so cannot establish cause and effect and distinguish which variable caused the other
  • doesn't acknowledge individual differences- some people may still have the personality with the absence of strict parents and vice versa, as in Germany people displayed obedient behaviour without the having personality
  • the questions - closed meaning no detail or specification to clarify why the pps believe said thing, the questions were also leading questions and had confusing wording so lacked ecological validity
• Elms and Milgram (1966)


  • they found that participants that scored higher on the F-scale had been willing to administer bigger shocks in Milgram's experiment
  • this can be used to support Adorno's theory