obedience

• dispositional explanations evaluation

  :-) those with authoritarian personalities show higher levels of obedience. milgrams follow up study. correlation

  :-( correlational link between authoritarian personality and obedience is correlational, third variable?

  :-( f scale test is subject to socially desirable results, is it socially correct to appear more authoritative?
• dispositional explanations of obedience

  authoritarian personality - a distinct personality characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and total submission to authority

  characteristics: dogmatic, hostile to lower statuses, subservient to higher statuses

  causes by rigid parenting

  high obedience to authority
• adorno

  f scale test

  2000 middle class white americans in a questionnaires regarding unconscious attitudes
• situational variables affecting obedience

  proximity, location, uniform
• procedural variation: location

  run down office with experimenter in 'normal clothes'. only 47.5% went to 450V

  less professional = reduces fear of consequences and location lacks authenticity
• procedural variation: proximity

  proximity of learner - teacher and learner in same room, 40% went to 450V, unable to remove themselves from the situation

  proximity of authority - experimenter gave instructions on phone, 20% went to 450V, reduces legitimqcy of authority
• procedural variation: two peers rebel

  at 150V one confederate refused and at 210V the second did too

  10% went to 450V, shared consequences and peer rebellion presents an option
• procedural variation: peer administered shocks

  92.5% went to 450V, detachment and reduced consequences
• situational explanations of obedience are agentic shift and legitimacy of authority
• agentic shift ao1

  easy to deny personal responsibility when an order comes from an authority figure

  individuals work on behalf of an authority figure

  autonomous state --> agentic state
• agentic shift ao2/3

  evidence from milgrams experiments

  p's obey orders when they consider themselves an agent to the authority and wouldn't be responsible for his actions
• legitimacy of authority ao1

  the amount of social power held by a person who gives the instruction

  society is ordered in hierarchical value

  we obey authority because of trust/punishment

  uniform, proximity and location

  from early childhood we are taught to obey authority
• legitimacy of authority ao2/3

  evidence from milgrams study

  dropped to 48% when in run down office and normal clothes. perceived authority impacts extent of obedience
• obedience evaluation

  :-) hoflings nurses, 21 out of 22 gave medication from unknown doctor

  :-( ethnocentric, conducted in america which is individualistic, doesn't apply to collectivist cultures

  :-) easy to replicate, recordings of mr wallace makes it the same for everyone
• obedience is a where an individual acts in response from an order from a perceived figure of authority
• milgram wanted to investigated whether the germans were different or if anyone is capable of blind obedience of an authority figure
• milgram procedure

  real participant played the role of teacher was instructed by the experimenter to punish a learner by electric shock for incorrect answers on a word test. shocks ranged from 15V to 450V
• milgram findings

  100% of participants delivered shocks to 300V

  65% continued to 450V

  before experiement it was predicted most would stop at 100V