explanations for obedience

• legitimacy of authority


  more likely to obey people who we perceive to have real authority over us - authority justified (legitimate) by individual's position of power within a social hierarchy - important factor is social power - demonstrated through appearance and manner we are more likely to obey as we trust and respect them - they have power to punish us - perception that their authority shouldn't be questioned
• LEGITIMACY EVALUATION - Milgram's variations

  found participants more likely to obey authority figure when research took place in prestigious setting of Yale University (65%) compared to everyday setting of a run down office (48%) - suggests we obey more when we perceive figure of authority as having more legitimate authority
• LEGITIMACY EVALUATION - participants still obey when authority figure lacks legitimate authority

  participants still obeyed someone in everyday clothing in Bickman's research and in everyday setting of a run down office in Milgram's research - suggests there's other reasons for obedience and legitimacy of authority can't explain all obedience
• LEGITIMACY EVALUATION - can explain how obedience can lead to real-life war crimes


  Kelman and Hamilton argue that the My Lai massacre where 504 unarmed civilians were killed by American soldiers during the Vietnam war can be explained in terms of the power hierarchy of the US army at the time - American soldiers could have obeyed because they are taught in the army to be aware of commanding officer's legitimacy and unquestioningly follow orders
• Agentic state


  mental state where you're more likely to obey an order as you see yourself as having no personal responsibility for your behaviour as you are acting on behalf of an authority figure - agentic shift - shift from seeing ourselves as responsible for our actions (autonomous state) to seeing ourselves as an agent carrying out another persons wishes (agentic state) - frees us from demands of our conscience and allows us to obey destructive authority figure - Milgram's study response why they were delivering shocks 'I wouldn't have done it by myself, I was just doing what I was told'
• AGENTIC EVALUATION - Milgram

  found when he asked people before the study to predict how far participants would go before refusing to obey they predicted only 1 in 1,000 would continue to max level of 450 volts (represent autonomous state) in study with authority figure saying he'd take responsibility 65% continued to 450 volts (agentic state) - supports participants obey due to shifting to agentic state
• AGENTIC EVALUATION - fails to explain individual differences 


  in Milgram's research although 65% obeyed many didn't - some personality types are more susceptible to agentic state than others - explanation may be limited and can't account for why only some people shift to agentic state whilst others don't
• AGENTIC EVALUATION - some real life cases can't be explained by agentic state


  Mandel - described Nazi German Reserve Police Batallion 101 shot civilians in a small town in Poland despite the fact they were told they didn't have to do this and could be assigned to other duties if they preferred - obeyed despite being able to fully shift responsibility to authority figure - shows not all obedience can be explained as being a result of the agentic state
• dispositional explanation - authoritarian personality

  dispositional (focuses on individual's own personal characteristics or traits) rather than aspects of situation - obedience caused by internal factors like an individual personality makes them more likely to obey - especially susceptible to to obeying people in authority - hostile to people of inferior status but obedient to people of higher status - rigid in their beliefs and strictly uphold traditions - argued result of strict and rigid parenting during childhood
• authoritarian personality - Fromm


  first proposed by Fromm attempt to explain holding right-wing conservative views, personality type characterised by belief in absolute obedience, submission to authority and domination of minorities - Adorno et al saw people of this personality type as having a belief in a need for power and toughness leads them to be highly obedient to authority figures - measured using F-scale questionnaire has 30 questions assessing 9 personality dimensions
• authoritarian personality - Adorno research (aim and method)


  AIM - to investigate if certain personality types are more likely to obey

  METHOD - Adorno tested over 2000 Americans using F-scale found those with authoritarian personality types had no fuzziness between categories of people with stereotypical views about other groups
• authoritarian personality - Adorno research (findings and conclusion)

  FINDINGS - scoring highest on F-scale identified with strong people and disliked weak, were conscious of own and others status - excessive respect to those of higher status - positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice

  CONCLUSION - people with authoritarian personality have tendency to be obedient to authority as they believe we need strong leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of county, religion and family
• AUTHORITARIAN EVALUATION - fails to explain obedience in majority of country's population

  pre-war Germany, millions of people all displayed obedient and racist behaviour despite all having different personalities - fails to explain obedience on a larger social scale
• AUTHORITARIAN EVALUATION - can't account for situational factors

  studies like Milgram's sown by altering situations different levels of obedience occur - e.g. proximity of authoritarian figure, location of researcher and whether authority figure was in uniform or not had significant effect on obedience - suggests social situations can influence obedience regardless of personality types
• AUTHORITARIAN EVALUATION - Elms and Milgram

  found when 20 obedient participants from Milgram's original obedience study (delivered 450V) were questioned using F-scale obedient participants scored higher on authoritarianism - obedient participants also reported viewing experimenter as more admirable and learner less so - supports Adorno's findings that authoritarian personality makes us more likely to obey
• AUTHORITARIAN EVALUATION - can't establish a cause and effect relationship between authoritarian personality type and obedience


  means we can't say this personality type causes obedience - it could be that a third variable such as lower level of education is involved - results may be misleading