Obedience

• define obedience

  • form of social influence that is in direct response to an order from another person
• aim of milgram (1963)

  investigate whether ordinary people would obey an unjust order from an authority figure and inflict pain and injure an innocent person
• method of milgram (1963)

  • 40 male american participants recruited through a newspaper advert - participants were all volunteers
  • laboratory at Yale University
  • participants were required to test the learner's ability to recall pairs of words
  • each time the learner got an answer wrong the teacher was acquired to administer an electric shock of increasing voltage
  • experiment continued until either the participant refused to continue or the maximum level of 450 volts was reached
• results of milgram (1963)

  • 100% went to at least 300V
  • 65% continued until 450V
• conclusion of milgram (1963)

  • milgram concluded that, under the right situational circumstances, ordinary people will obey unjust orders from someone perceived to be a legitimate authority figure
• limitations of milgram (1963) (1)

  • broke several ethical guidelines: deceived his participants as they believed that they were taking part in a study on how punishment affects learning rather than on obedience. did not protect the participants from psychological harm, since many of them showed signs of real distress during the experiment
  • lacks ecological validity: conducted a laboratory study which is very different from real-life situations of obedience. unable to generalise findings as study lacks mundane realism
• limitations of milgran (1963) (2)

  • lacks population validity: biased sample of 40 male american volunteers American therefore we are unable to generalise the results to other populations. study also suffers from beta bias due to all male sample
  • internal validity has been criticised: Orne and Holland (1968) propose that so many of the participants went to the higher voltages because they did not believe the shocks to be real. this means milgram may not have been testing what he intended to investigate
• describe the agency theory

  • person acting independently this is called the autonomous state
  • the opposite of this is being in an agentic state which occurs when an individual carried out the orders of an authority figure and acts as their agent
  • the shift from autonomy to 'agency' is referred to as the 'agentic shift'
• define legitimacy of authority

  • we are more likely to obey a person who has a higher position or status in a social hierarchy
• what are situational explanations for obedience?

  • focus on external factors that affect the likelihood that someone will obey orders
• how does proximity affect obedience?

  • teacher and learner were seated in the same room - 40% administered full 450V
  • the experimenter left the room and gave instructions over the telephone - obedience levels fell to 20.5%
• how does location affect obedience?

  • rundown building - 47.5% administered the full 450V
• how does uniform affect obedience?

  • normal everyday clothes - 20% administered full 450V
• strength of explanations for obedience

  • High reliability: Milgram had high control over these variations, it was possible to closely monitor the effect each was having on obedience rates
  • All of the procedures followed standardised methods, with variables being kept as consistent as possible
• limitations of explanations for obedience

  • differences in the degree to which authority figures are seen and accepted as legitimate in some cultures. only 16% in Australia administered full 450V whereas in Germany it was found to be 85%. cross-cultural comparison shows different societies follow alternative hierarchal structures and therefore may be socialised to be less/more obedient
  • beta bias as all male sample was used and therefore has also been criticised for being androcentric
• what is dispositional explanations of obedience?

  • authoritarian personality as a result of harsh and strict parenting which made the child feel that the love of their parents was conditional and dependent upon how they behaved .
  • argued this creates resentment within the child as they grow up and, since they cannot express it at the time, the feelings are displaced onto others that are seen as 'weak' or 'inferior', as a form of scapegoating
• strength of authoritarian personality (1)

  • research support for the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience. Milgram and Elms (1966) conducted post-experimental interviews with participants who were fully obedient in Milgram's original study. it was found that the obedient participants scored higher on the F-scale in comparison to the disobedient participants
  • dispositional explanation uses a nomothetic approach to establish general laws of behaviour in relation to authoritarian characteristics displayed by those scoring highly on F-scale and other measures
• strength of authoritarian personality (2)

  • high degree of authoritarianism was similar to suffering from a psycholgoical disorder, with the cause due to the personality of the individual (nature) but originally caused by the treatment they received from their parents at a young age (nurture). therefore determined by our socialisation experiences and not a result of free will
  • dispositional explanation uses a nomothetic approach to establish general laws of behaviour relating to authoritarian characteristics displayed by those scoring highly on the F-scale and other measures
• limitations of authoritarian personality (1)

  • individual differences contribute to development of authoritarian personality. research has found less-educated people are more likely than well-educated people to display authoritarian personality characteristics. if these claims are correct, then it is possible to conclude that it is not authoritarian personality alone that lead to obedience, but levels of education
• limitations of authoritarian personality (2)

  • methodological criticism associated with measures used to determine authoritarian personality traits. it is possible that the F-scale suffers from social desirability bias. therefore this reduces the internal validity of the questionnaire research method
  • political bias: F-scale only measures extreme right-wing ideologies, thus ignoring the role that authoritarianism has also played historically in left-wing politics