Legitimacy of authority:

• STRENGTH:

  • Is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience
  • Studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority
  • IE Kilham and Mann 1974 found only 16% Australian women went all the way to 450V in a Milgram-style study
  • BUT Mantell 1971 found a very different figure for German participants 85%

  Shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals

  This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures
• LIMITATIONS:

  • cannot explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where the legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted
  • IE the nurses in Rank and Jacobson's study
  • Most of them were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure
  • Also, a significant minority of Milgram's participants disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter's scientific authority.

  Suggests that some people may just be more or less obedient than others

  It's possible that innate tendencies to obey or disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of an authority figure