legitimacy of authority

• Milgram presented an explanation of obedience called legitimacy of authority in 1974
• The legitimacy of authority explanation says because we grow up in social hierarchies, we learn from a young age to obey people who are higher up in the social hierarchy.
• Problems arise when legitimate authority is used in a negative way...

  • As shown with Milgram's study
  • Given the right conditions, people are capable of committing horrible acts when they presume the person giving the order is legitimate, this is called destructive authority
  • Many real world examples e.g. Hitler, Stalin
• Legitimacy of authority is a social explanation for obedience
• We are more likely to obey people who we perceive have more authority than us
• The authority is justified (or seen as legitimate) due to the individual's position of power within a social hierarchy
• Legitimacy of authority is usually taught from a young age - socialisation
• Legitimacy of authority can lead to destructive authority
• Tarnow (2000) provided support for the power of legitimate authority through a study of aviation accidents, where flight crew actions were a significant factor.

  Tarnow found excessive dependence on the captain's authority and expertise.

  • Eg. one second officer claimed that, although he noticed the captain taking a particularly risky approach, he said nothing as he assumed the captain must know what he's doing.
  • Such events and recordings offer support for the impact of the presence of a legitimate authority figure and overall increase the credibility of the theory.
• What is a limitation of the agentic state and legitimacy of authority explanations?

  They cannot account for instances of disobedience
• What did Rank and Jacobson (1977) find regarding nurses' obedience?

  16 out of 18 nurses disobeyed a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient
• Who was the authority figure in Rank and Jacobson's study?

  A doctor
• What did Rank and Jacobson find about the obedience of nurses?

  Most nurses remained autonomous despite authority
• What was observed in Milgram's research regarding participants' obedience?

  A significant minority disobeyed the experimenter
• What do the findings from Rank and Jacobson and Milgram suggest about obedience explanations?

  They are incomplete and only account for some situations
• What might have a greater influence on individuals than these social and psychological explanations?

  Locus of control and innate tendencies
• What does the concept of locus of control imply about obedience?

  Some people may be more or less obedient