Explanations for Obedience

• Explanations for Obedience: Milgram -

  • Aim = investigate obedience to authority figures testing the 'Germans are different' hypothesis. Selected pps via newspaper advertising for a memory study at Yale. Picked 40 males (20-50). They were a 'teacher' & another pps was the 'learner' - confederate. Learner was taken into a room & had electrodes on their arm. In the next room the 'teacher' & researcher had a shock generator with switches from 15V (slight shock) to 375V (Danger: Severe) to 450V (XXX).
• Teacher had to administrate shock every time the learner made a mistake increasing the shock every time. If the teacher refused the researcher prompted them to continue as it's their responsibility for whatever happens.

  • Findings: 65% delivered 450V shock, all teachers continued to 300V
  • Conclusions: Ordinary people are likely to follow orders by authority, to the extent of killing.
• AO3 -

  • Ethical issues broken as pps didn't give informed consent, deception, right to withdraw wasn't clear due to the researcher. Pps showed signs of distress, so weren't protected
  • Extensively debriefed, 84% were glad they took part, arguably necessary for the validity of findings & no ethical guidelines at the time.
  • Ecological validity, unlikely to encounter this situation irl, not representative of real-life. Pps may show demand characteristics to go along with what they believe the experimenter wanted reduces the internal validity.
• AO3 -

  • But pps did show signs of being distressed, believed the experiment was real.
  • Beta bias as 40 males (20-50) cannot be generalised to the wider population. There's also culture bias as the study was conducted in an individualist culture and it cannot be generalised to other cultures e.g. collectivist where the community is valued.
• Explanations for Obedience: Variations -

  • Standard Procedure = 450V - 65%
  • Victim is silent throughout = 100%
  • Run down block (location) = 48%
  • Proximity to victim = 40%
  • Force their hand on a shock plate = 30%
  • Proximity to authority = 20.5%
  • Presence of allies = 10%
• Milgram's Agency Theory - people behave on behalf of an external authority - agentic state. They act as an agent, don't take personal responsibility for their actions, opposite of behaving autonomously. Acting out the wishes of another so feel less less responsible. Demonstrated in Milgram's obedience study where teachers are worried about the learners welfare & asked about responsibility & the experimenter said they are responsible for whatever happens. Agentic state was also encouraged by the set up of the experiment due to the social contract as they are a participant.
• Autonomous State -> Agentic State

  Agentic Shift
• AO3 Agentic shift -

  • RS Milgram's study.
  • Individual differences, beta bias, sample was unrepresentative so doesn't explain agentic shift in everyone.
  • RLA, Nazi soldier, Adolf Eichmann claimed he was in agentic state
• Explanations for Obedience: Situational Variables (Proximity, Location, Uniform)

  • put in an autonomous state as they felt more responsible & see the consequences of their own actions.
  • Location & uniform increase legitimacy of authority, professionalism & credibility. Legitimate authorities are given the right to tell us what to do, defined by social roles e.g. police officers & people respect them & have to abide.
• Bickman (1974) Research Support -

  • Field experiment, researchers asked members of the public to do something e.g. pick up a bit of litter in 3 conditions demonstrating different social roles. In 1 the actor was a guard and this condition led to the most obedience. Suggests that uniform does affect obedience as legitimacy of authority & power is increased.
• Authoritarian Personality (Dispositional Explanation) - individuals are submissive to those of high status & dismissive of inferiors.

  • Adorno et al (1950) proposed that over-strict parenting may lead to children obeying authority unquestioningly. Strict parenting leads to the child feeling constrained which leads to aggression. The child cannot display/express this aggression so it is displaced onto inferiors typically minority groups e.g. religious, racial groups.
• Authoritarian Personality Traits -

  • conformist
  • blind obedience
  • rigid moral standards
  • fixed mindset
  • enforce traditional views
• The F-scale (fascism) Adorno et al - investigated causes of obedient personalities in a study of 2000+ middle-class, white Americans. Investigated their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.

  • WEIRD sample, may have social desirability bias under/over exaggerated personal viewpoint.
• AO3 Authoritarian Personality -

  • Elms & Milgram found that participants who scored higher on the f-scale had been willing to administrate higher shocks to the 'learner' in Milgram's obedience study.
  • Ethnocentrism & beta bias as the differences may have been minimalised differences between different cultures & genders and how obedience can differ between groups.
  • RLA, Nazi soldiers, contradicts the criminal justice system, environmental determinism & SSR.
  • Nomothetic as not everyone growing up in a strict household grows up to have an authoritarian personality.
• What is Agentic State?

  • when a person acts on behalf of an authority figure/person of higher status
  • the actor feels no personal responsibility/does not feel guilty for their actions
  • the opposite of an autonomous state in which people act according to their own principles
• Legitimacy of authority:

  • when a person recognises their own and other’s position in a social hierarchy
  • legitimacy is increased by visible symbols of authority, e.g. uniform
  • legitimacy of setting, order, system.
• Agentic state:

  • when a person acts on behalf of an authority figure/person of higher status
  • the actor feels no personal responsibility/does not feel guilty for their actions
  • the opposite of an autonomous state in which people act according to their own principles
• AO3 Agentic State + Legitimacy of Authority -

  • 35% did resist obedience & both explanations (agentic state & legitimacy of authority) do not account for rates of disobedience.
  • Obedience may be dispositional e.g. authoritarian personality rather than situational.
  • Blass found Milgram's findings reliable across eight countries (non-US obedience rate 65.9%)
• AO3 Agentic State + Legitimacy of Authority -

  • Hofling (1966) against hospital policy 21/22 real nurses obeyed "Dr Smith's" phone call order to give double the maximum dosage of an unfamiliar drug in a real hospital which supports the idea of legitimacy of authority.
• Legitimacy of Authority -

  • when a person recognises their own and other’s positions in a social hierarchy
  • leading to recognition of the authority figure’s right to issue a demand
  • legitimacy is increased by visible symbols of authority, e.g. uniform
  • legitimacy of setting, order, system
  • description of relevant evidence, e.g. Milgram variations (location), Bickman (uniform).
• AO3 Legitimacy of Authority -

  • use of evidence to support/contradict the explanations, e.g. Milgram variations, Bickman, Hofling
  • explanation cannot account for rates of disobedience in studies
  • obedience may be dispositional, not situational, eg authoritarian personality
  • discussion of difficulty measuring and/or explaining why obedience occurs
  • cultural differences in respect for and responses to authority.
• Situational Variables -

  • proximity – Milgram – teacher and the learner were in the same room, obedience decreased; experimenter leaves the room issues order over the phone, obedience decreased
  • location – Milgram – run-down office block vs Yale; Hofling hospital location "Dr Smith"
  • uniform – Bickman – more likely to obey a man dressed as a guard. In Milgram’s experiment the experimenter wore a white lab coat increases legitimacy of authority.
• AO3 Situational Variables -

  • uniform as a visible sign of authority, location/setting makes authority seem more/less genuine (legitimacy of authority)
  • decreased proximity to authority figure meant that participants returned to a more autonomous state
  • discussion of relative power of factors, e.g. Hofling study, 21/22 obeyed even though orders were given over the phone (so legitimacy of setting more important than proximity)
  • discussion of alternative theories, e.g. authoritarian personality (Adorno) suggests that dispositional factors are more influential than situational variables