obedience

• Milgram designed a baseline procedure to assess obedience levels
• The baseline procedure involved a volunteer participant being the 'Teacher' and delivering increasingly strong shocks to a 'Learner' in a different room, as ordered by an 'Experimenter'
• In the baseline findings, every participant delivered all the shocks up to 300 volts, 12.5% stopped at 300 volts, and 65% continued to the highest level of 450 volts
• Milgram also collected qualitative data, observing that participants showed signs of extreme tension and distress
• Before the study, psychology students predicted that no more than 3% of participants would continue to 450 volts, showing the findings were unexpected
• After the study, 84% of participants said they were glad to have participated
• Milgram concluded that the American participants were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person
• Milgram's findings have been replicated in other studies, supporting the influence of situational variables on obedience
• Milgram's findings have also been replicated cross-culturally, suggesting they apply beyond just American participants
• However, some argue Milgram's findings may not apply to all cultures, as most replications were in culturally similar countries
• There are concerns about the internal validity of Milgram's studies, as participants may have been aware the procedure was faked
• The situational perspective has been criticised for offering an excuse for evil behaviour and ignoring the role of dispositional factors
• Agentic state


  A person does not take responsibility, believing they are acting for someone else
• Autonomous state


  A person is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions
• The shift from autonomy to agency is called the agentic shift, and occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure
• Milgram observed that many participants said they felt 'bound' to obey the Experimenter
• Agentic state


  When a person believes they are acting for someone else, not taking responsibility for their own actions
• Agent


  Someone who acts for or in place of another, not an unthinking puppet
• Agentic state


  Characterized by high anxiety (moral strain) when the person realizes what they are doing is wrong but feels powerless to disobey
• Autonomous state


  Being independent or free, behaving according to one's own principles and feeling a sense of responsibility for one's own actions
• Shift from autonomy to agency


  Occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure who has greater power due to a higher position in a social hierarchy
• Binding factors


  Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimize the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce the moral strain they are feeling
• Legitimacy of authority


  Authority figures are granted power because it is agreed by society that they should be allowed to exercise social power over others for society to function smoothly
• Problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive, as powerful leaders can use their authority for cruel and dangerous purposes
• Destructive authority


  • Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot
• Destructive authority


  As seen in Milgram's study, where the Experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences
• The Authoritarian Personality theory suggests that obedience is a psychological disorder rooted in the individual's personality, rather than the situation
• Authoritarian Personality


  • Extreme respect and submissiveness to authority, belief that society needs strong leaders to enforce traditional values, contempt for those of inferior social status, inflexible black-and-white worldview
• Origins of Authoritarian Personality

  Harsh parenting in childhood featuring strict discipline, high standards, severe criticism, and conditional love, leading to resentment and hostility displaced onto weaker social groups
• Adorno et al.'s research found a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice
• The Authoritarian Personality theory cannot explain obedient behaviour in the majority of a country's population, as it is unlikely they all possess an Authoritarian Personality
• The F-scale used to measure Authoritarian Personality is politically biased, as extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies both emphasize obedience to political authority
• The F-scale has been criticized as having serious methodological flaws, undermining its usefulness in understanding obedience