situational explanations eval

• strength of SE for obedience (legitimacy of authority) to do with cultural differences

  Cultural differences- strength of legitimacy of authority useful account of cultural differences in obedience

  For e.g, Kilham and Mann replicated Milgram's procedure in Australia, found only 16% of participants went all the way to the top voltage.

  Mantell found different results for German participants-85%.

  Shows that in some cultures, authority more likely to be accepted as legitimate and reflects how different societies are structured.

  Such supportive findings from cross-cultural research increase the validity of the explanation
• limitation of SE for obedience (agentic shift)

  A limited explanation- agentic shift doesn't explain many research findings about obedience

  For e.g, Rank and Jacobson's study found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. Almost all nurses remained autonomous, as did Milgram's participants.

  This suggests that at best the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.
• strength of SE for obedience (legitimacy of authority) to do with research support

  Research support- Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram's study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner

  Students blamed the experimenter rather than the participant

  Student indicated that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority (the experimenter was top of the hierarchy) but also due to expert authority (bc he was a scientist)

  Therefore, they recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience, supports this explanation