explanations for obedience

• what is obedience

  obedience is saying yes to the order of an authority figure, for example i will do the homework set by my teacher
• what is defiance

  defiance is saying no to the order of an authority figure, for example i will not do the chores my mum told me to do
• what did milgram do

  in the 1960s conducted the most famous study on obedience and defiance
• what did milgram want to solve the question of

  why the German population had followed the orders of Hitler and slaughtered over 10 million jews, gypsies and members of other social groups in the holocaust during the second world war
• what ethical issues did Milgram's study breach

  • protection from harm - psychologically traumatized as they believed they were hurting someone and they showed visible signs of distress such as head in hands, nail biting and more.
  • deception - they were not told the true aim of the study - memory experiment of punishment on learning - whether true aim was whether they will obey someone in authority when asked to do something morally wrong
  • right to withdraw - they would not let people leave and gave a standardized response - "experiment requires we continue please continue"
• why is milgrams study called a baseline

  his first, original study is one against which all the others (variations) are compared, which is why it is sometimes called a 'baseline' study
• what is the aim of milgrams study

  to investigate whether people will obey or defy an authority figure when they are asked to do something morally wrong
• how did milgram get ps in his study (method)

  the experiment was carried out on 20-50 year old white men who responded to an advert that milgran put in the newspaper - volunteer sampling
• what did the experimenter wear (method)

  a tall male experimenter in a grey lab coat
• what were ps told was the aim of the study (method)

  they were told they were taking part in an experiment looking at the effects of punishment on learning
• how were the ps divided (method)

  they were then divided into pairs and had a draw lots to decide who would be the learner and who would be the teacher but the ps didnt know that it was rigged so that they would be the teacher and the person who was the learner was a confederate of milgram - deception
• what was the task of milgrams study(method)

  the task was to give an electric shock to the learners each time they made a mistake in identifying word pairs, the shocks were given by a piece of equipment with 30 switches each one delivering a slightly higher shock then the last, each time the learner got an answer wrong the teacher was to give them a higher shock level of shock starting at 15 volts up to the highest level of 450 volts marked as danger XXX
• how was the ethic right to withdraw breached (method)

  during the experiment the learner made many mistakes and if the ps wanted to stop giving shocks or to leave the experiment at any time they were told by milgram that they and to continue with as standardized response
• what was the result of milgrams study

  he found that 65% gave shocks to the 450 volts and 35% of ps defined going up to the 45o volts level
• what can we conduced from milgrams study

  this suggests that the majority of people will obey an authority figure if asked to do a morally wrong act
• what is a strength of milgrams study (studies) (PEEL)

  P - replications have supported milgrams research findings

  E - as a part of a document about reality TV in France it included a replication of milgram's study, the ps believed they were contestants on a pilot episode of a game show, they paid to give (fake) electric shocks to other ps who were actors

  E - in a remarkable conformation of milgrams study 80% of ps delivered maximum shocks of 460 volts to an appearing unconscious man and showed nearly identical behaviour of distress such as biting nails, nervus laughter and more

  L - therefore this repetition supports milgrams conclusion about obedience to authority and demonstrate that his findings were not just a one off chance occurrences and majority will agree or obey to an authority figure
• what is a limitation of milgrams study (internal validity) (PEEL)

  P - a limitation of milgrams study is that it lacked internal validity

  E - researchers criticized saying that ps guessed the electric shocks were fake

  E - if the ps have guessed that the shocks were fake they would be displaying unnatural behaviour and are continuing to please the experimenter, therefore displaying the demand characteristics

  L - therefore the obedience in milgrams study may not be genuine

  H - however the majority of ps showed large amounts of distress
• what is a limitation of milgrams study (ethics) (PEEL)

  P - a further limitation is there are ethical issues associated with milgrams research

  E - the main ethical breach by milgram would be deception, as it the start of the study he told the ps a false aim that the study was "to look at the effect of punishment on learning"

  E - therefore the ps are deceived into thinking the study are about memory not obedience

  L - however deception was needed for this study to work, if Milgram gad told them the true aim they would have not been able to conduct the study
• what are the 3 explanation for obedience

  • agency theory
  • the perception of the legitimacy of the authority figure
  • foot in the door explanation of obedience
• how does agency theory explain obedience

  • when we are obeying the wishes of an authority figure we could be in the agentic state acting as representatives of the authority figure
  • this means people feel that they have given up their individual responsibility and that the authority figure is fully responsible for any actions that they do
  • therefore people are more likely to obey orders if they are in an agentic state
  • doing something because someone 'higher up' than you says you must in this case the experimenter
• what is the autonomous state

  feeling fully responsible for their actions and therefore less likely to obey
• what is a real life example of agency theory

  when asked by a teacher to go collect something from another class when asked why you are out of class you blame your teacher
• who does legitimacy of the authority figure explain obedience

  • refers to whether people see the person who is giving the order as a real and authentic authority figure such as though rank or uniform (visible sign of authority)
  • if the person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people behaviour, people accept their right to tell us what to do so obedience is more likely
• what is an example of legitimacy of the authority figure

  if asked to do something by a teacher such a walk a certain way we are more likely to do it than an another student asked
• what is the foot in the door theory

  • the foot in the door theory by freedman and fraser in 1966 assumes agreeing to a small request increases the likelihood of agreeing to a second, larger request
  • initially they make a small request and once the person agrees to this they find it more difficult to refuse a bigger one
  • once the ps had began obeying they found it hard to say they didn't want to continue
  • this was because what they were asked to do was only slightly different from what they have done previously
  • for example if they had given a shock of 300 volts it was hard to say they didn't want to give a shock of 315 volts
• what is an example of the foot in the door explanation

  when asked to clean a shelf in the kitchen, then another, then the coffee machine and more
• what is a limitation of the explanations of obedience (PEEL) (agency theory)

  P - a limitation of the agentic state is that it ignores individual differences

  E - the agentic state suggests that people obey due to giving up their personal responsibility to an authority figure, ignoring individual personality A factor that contributes to obedience

  E - the authoritarian personality is an alternative explanation for obedience as individuals with this personality type are more likely to obey due to them being extremely obedient to authority figures

  L - this suggest that there may be alternative explanations to the agentic state which can make people more likely to obey
• what is a strength of the explanations of obedience (PEEL) (LOAF)

  P - a strength of the LOAF is that it can explain real life obedience

  E - researchers have suggested that the my lai massacre can be explained by the power hierarchy of US army

  E - the army has authority recognized by the US government and law soldiers assume orders given by the hierarchy to be legal orders given by those in higher positions, each other to kill, rape and destroy villages

  L - the LOAF explanation is able to give reasons why obedience occurs
• what is a strength of the explanations of obedience (PEEL) (foot in the door)

  P - a strength of the foot in the door explanation for obedience is that there is real life evidence support

  E - this explanation can explain why Nazi soldiers committed murderous acts amongst innocent citizens

  E - this is because once the nazi soldiers have murdered one innocent, murdering a second is not a large jump this will continue into the thousands and it becomes very hard to say no once you have obeyed initially

  L - therefore the foot in the door theory has good evidence to show that the foot in the door theory can explain obedience
• what is a strength of the explanations of obedience (PEEL) (ageny theory)

  P - as a strength of the agency theory is that it has real life support

  E - researchers showed students a film of milgrams study and asked them who was responsible for any harm to the learner

  E - students watching the experiment blame the experiment rather than the ps as the ps was simply following orders from the legitimate experimenter and therefore acting in an agentic state

  L - therefore the agentic theory has good explanation for obedience and is used to explain behaviour by other experiments