Explanations of Obedience

• What is the agentic state?

  People allow others to direct their actions
• What happens in the agentic state?

  Responsibility for consequences is passed to the authority
• What is the autonomous state?

  People act according to their own values
• What does the autonomous state imply about responsibility?

  Individuals take responsibility for their actions
• What is the agentic shift?

  Psychological adjustment to see oneself as an agent
• What occurs during the agentic shift?

  Change from autonomous state to agentic state
• What are binding factors?

  Aspects that reduce moral strain in agentic state
• How do binding factors affect an individual's moral strain?

  They allow individuals to take away moral strain
• What role does the authority figure play in the agentic state?

  They have greater power due to social hierarchy
• Why does the authority figure's position matter in the agentic state?

  Higher position increases their power over individuals
• Agentic State AO3 - Research support

  • Blass and Schmitt shared a film of Milgram’s experiment to students
  • Asked to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the teacher
  • Found that students blamed the experimenter rather that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority or expert authority
  • Supports agentic state as participants in MiIgram’s study were only obeying commands from an authority figure and felt that they had to continue to do so
• Agentic State AO3 - Conflicting evidence

  • Mandel described an accident involving the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 where men obeyed orders to shoot civilians despite the fact they did not have direct orders to do so - they were told they could have been assigned to other duties if they wished
  • Behaviour suggests they acted individually and did not engage in agentic shift due to legitimacy of authority as Milgram suggested
• Legitimacy of authority


  • Most societies structured in a hierarchal way - some members have legitimate authority agreed by society
  • Learn via socialisation thatwe will be accepted if we obey those with authority over us
  • Trust those in power and feel their status is fair
  • Willing to surrender some of our independence to authoirty figures as we trust them to exercise their power appropriately
  • Destructive authority - When power is used for destructive purposes (ex. experimenter using prods in Milgram’s experiment)
• LOA AO3 - Real life application

  • In Mei Lei Massacre and the Holocaust soldiers obeyed their commanding officers as they had the power to punish
  • Evidence that respect for legitimate authority can lead to destructive obedience
• LOA AO3 - Cultural differences

  • 16% of Australian women and 85% of Germans obeyed in Milgram’s experiment
  • Shows that authority is legitimate in some cultures and how children are raised to perceive authority figures
• What is one origin of the Authoritarian Personality (AP)?

  Result of harsh parenting
• How do childhood experiences contribute to the development of AP?

  They create fear and hostility not expressed to parents
• How do children with AP typically express their fears and angers?

  By displacing them onto perceived weaker individuals
• What was the sample size in Adorno et al's study on AP?

  Over 2000 middle class American men
• What does the F-scale measure according to Adorno et al?

  Fascist tendencies
• What did Adorno find about individuals who scored highly on the F-scale?

  They identified with 'strong' people and disrespect 'weak'
• How do individuals with high F-scale scores behave towards authority figures?

  They are more submissive and show extreme respect
• What is a characteristic attitude of individuals with AP towards uncertainty?

  They are uncomfortable and have an inflexible attitude
• What do individuals with AP believe society requires?

  Strong leaders
• What are the main features of the Authoritarian Personality (AP)?

  • Hostile towards ethnic, racial, and minority groups
  • Belief in absolute right or wrong
  • Extreme respect and submissiveness to authority
  • View society as weak needing strong leaders
  • Contempt for those of inferior social status
• What was the focus of the study conducted by Milgram and Elms regarding AP?

  Link between AP and obedience
• What correlation did Milgram and Elms find in their study?

  A positive correlation between AP and obedience
• AP AO3 - Research support

  • Milgram and Elms conducted a follow up study using participants who took part in Milgram’s original study - completed F scale
  • Found that there were significant differences between obedience and disobedient participants that were consistent with the idea of AP
  • Ex. Disobedient reported being less close to fathers in childhood and obedient saw authority figure more admirable than learner
  • Empirical evidence for the AP
• AP AO3 - Counterpoint for research support

  • Highly unlikely than 65% of participants who obeyed all had AP
  • Milgram founds some differences in the characteristics of AP and characteristics of obedient participants
  • Ex. many fully obedient participants reported having a very good relationships with parents and not being raised under strict parenting
  • Suggests not all obedient participants had an AP and therefore there are other explanations of obedience
• AP AO3 - Limited explanation

  • Unlikely a whole nation possessed the exact same personality
  • In pre-war Germany millions of individuals displayed obedient and anti-sematic behaviour despite having different personalities
  • Adorno’s theory is limited and social identity theory is a better explanation meaning Germans identified with anti-sematic Nazi states and scapegoated the Jews