Obedience

• Obedience


  Obedience is a form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order of percieved authority figure. Obedience and power of authority is investigated by milgram. Situational variables affecting obedience like proximity, location and uniform also tested. Explanations for obedience are agentic state, legitimacy of authority, Authoritarian personality.
• Milgram aim


  Milgram investigate power of authority to find out if normal people obey demand of legitimate authority despite being morally wrong. He wanted to test germans are different theory, claiming that Germans obedient and Hitler could not have exterminated Jews without unquestioning obedience of German population.
• Milgram procedure


  A volunteer sample of 40 male, aged 20-50 and payed $4.50 for study on memory. Participants given role as teacher. Two confederates; experimenter in lab coat and learner. Learner gave wrong answers and given fake shots from 15-450 volts. Learner strapped in separate room and made noise to show distress. If participant didnt want to carry on, experimenter say prods like please continue.
• Milgram findings


  100% participants gave shots to 300 volts

  12.5% participants stopped at 300 volts

  65% participants continued to 450 volts
• Milgram conclusion


  Ordinary people will obey authority even though they know they are morally wrong- so it isnt just evil people who commit evil crimes but also ordinary people who obeying orders.
• Situational variables-proximity


  Proxiity is distance from authority figure they are giving order to. Milgram investigated reduced proximity by increasing distance and experimenter giving order to teacher over phone In different room. Participants more likely to obey authority figure in original study as they were in agentic state and felt as thought experimenter would take responsibility. However in this variation when order given via phone, the participant in autonomous state and believed they were responsible for own actions so less likely to obey. Obedience dropped from 65% to 20.5%.
• Location


  Location/enviroment can affect way request viewed. Milgram repeated experiment in run down office block. In original study, Yale university, the location added to legitimacy of authority figure giving order, it gave participants confidence in integrity of people involved. In variation of less prestigious location, run down office block, less people obeyed as they did not value experiment with same integrity as Yale university. Obedience dropped from 65% to 48%.
• Uniform


  Uniform is clothing worn by authority figure. Bickman caried out field experiment in New York where passers-by’s given one of three orders; pick paper bag, lend money to stranger for parking meter, stand at another place at bus stop. In one condition experimentor dressed as security guard and in another experimenter wore normal clothes. When dressed as security guard, obedience 82%. When dressed in normal clothes, obedience 36%. Shows uniform easily recognisable and convey power and authority and offer sense of legitimacy to those who wear them.
• Milgram research A03-stregnth

  +can make direct comparison between obedience in variations as other variable kept same, can conclude that drop in obedience due to change location, giving cause and effect.

  +Hofling etal study in hospital, nurses telephoned by doctors to give potentially dangerous drug to patient, if obeyed would break hospital rules. 95% obeyed, shows demand of authority figure powerful regardless natural or artificial setting.

  +good reliability, repeated many times as standardised and controlled giving high obedience rates like original. shows not one-off occurrence.
• Milgram research A03-limitations


  -Orange and Holland critisize saying participants goign along with act due to demand charactersitics and to please experimenter. Milgram argued participants actually in distress with evidence from film footage (biting nails). This questions internal validity.

  -Low external validity so caution need to be taken when generalising obedience findings. Low ecological validity as highly controlled so cant be generalised as lab experiment. Low population validity as paid male volunteers so not representative and are gender differences in responses.
• Milgrams research ethical issues

  -deceived told participants study of effects of punishments on learning. Denied right to informed consent. milgram argued deception necessary to avoid demand characteristics.

  -Right to withdraw unclear; at start told could withdraw whenever. during study when expressed to leave told please continue so felt had no choice.

  -Baumrind criticised saying not protected from psychological harm and suffered distress. loss of self esteem and distrust of authority. psychiatric examinations a year later showed not psychological damage.
• Explanations for obedience- Agentic state

  Agentic state=the state of mind where individuals believe they have no responsibility as believe they are acting on behalf of somebody else. don't feel guilty as agents of others. Diffusion of responsibility. More likely to obey.

  Autonomous state=individual assumes they have full responsibility over actions and behaviours. Guided by own values, beliefs. Less likely to obey

  Agentic shift=changing from being in autonomous state to agentic state
• Agentic state explanation A03


  +Milgram research support agentic state. Obedience 65% in original, pass responsibility to experimenter and believe wont be held responsible for actions so in agentic state. In variation where order given over telephone obedience reduced to 20.5% =autonomous state (responsiblie). Means can diffuse responsibility, increases obedience.

  +Agentic state is true to life and many used it in defence of actions like nazi commander who responsible for genocide for millions and said was only following orders, saw himself in agentic state, obeying someone with higher rank.
• Explanations for obedience- legitimacy of authority

  Legitimacy of authority refers to amount of perceived social power held by person giving instructions. Learn position of social hierarchy through socialisation to obey those obey them. Legitimacy of authority conveyed through visual symbols like uniform and setting like court.
• Legitimacy of authority A03


  +in Milgrams orig exp, experimenter wore white lab coat in order to create sense of legitimacy and signalled status and authority.Obedience was high, 65% Suggests perceived legitimacy of experiment had effect on participants obedience.

  +useful account of cultural differences. Killham and Man replicated in Australia found 16% went all the way to 450 v but with German participants 85%. Shows in some cultures authority more accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience. Supportive finding from cross culture research increases validity of explanation.
• Agentic state&LOA A03 limitations

  -Using shock generator, lacks mundane realism

  -Study set in Yale uni so lacks ecological validity

  -Orne and Holland claim participants guessed Milgrams aim due to task being unusual and acted on demand characteristic so doesn't support LOA and agentic state

  -35% resisted authority figure suggesting situational explanation like agentic state &legitimacy of authority not full explanation. Dispositional explanations like authoritarian personality and LOC likely to play role
• Agentic state&LOA A03 stregnths


  + When experimenter questioned accepts responsibility of harm of learner. Experimenter in lab coat has legitimacy of authority in location of yale uni. Manipulations of these vaiables support that LOA and agentic state affect obedience.
• Authoritarian personality


  Authoritarian personalities is a dispositional explanation for obedience suggesting that individual has collection of traits developed through childhood due to strict parenting which means obediencee is due to individuals personality not the situation. People with authoritartan personality identify as strong. show dislike for people with lower social status and hostile towards weak. They are hyper conscious Of own status and show respect and be obedient taowards people with highe status. They are highly conformist and dogmatic
• Authoritarian personality Adorno


  Adorno studied authoritarian personality with F-scale which involved rating agreement on 6 point scale form strongly disagree to agree. People who scored highly with strong authoritarian traits identified with strong people and hostil to weak. Has fixed stereotypes about other groups.
• Authoritarian personality A03 stregnths

  +Milgram; 35% resisted authoity figure, adorno acknowledges wellness to obey authority figure varies from person to person, explaining why variations in milgrams participants.

  +Milgram and elms; obedient males scored higher on F-scale than disobedient males suggesting authoritarian personality

  +Nazi war criminals scored highly on F-scale, this provides reliable support to theory that authoritarian personality increases obedience.
• Authoritarian personlaity A03-strenths

  -Situational explanations like agentic state, LOA that take place where high obedience can also explain obedience.

  -Authoritarianism and obedience may be linked and we cannot conclude that authoritarian personality causes high level of obedience. So link is only correlational which makes impossible to say that authoritarian perosnality causes obedience.

  -Authoritarian personality lead to stereotyping where even horrors of world war 2 over simplified into personality flaws. Reduces accountability of social structures and leaders.