Explanations for obedience

• What is the definition of obedience?

  When an individual follows a direct order.
• What do situational variables form?

  An external explanation of obedience, meaning they focus on the features of the environment rather than the personalities of the people involved.
• What is the aim of Milgram?

  To investigate whether ordinary people would follow the orders of an unfair authority figure.
• What was Milgram's participants?

  40 male pps who volunteered from a newspaper.

  - He offered 4.50$ to take part in the study.
• What was Milgram's method?

  - Teacher (pps) told to ask questions to the learner and if they answered incorrectly they were given an electric shock.

  - The shocks went from 15V to 450V.

  - The learner remained silent until the 300V shock.

  - At 300V-315V the learner pounded on the wall

  - After 315V the learner remained silent.

  - The teacher was given prods to continue if they wanted to stop by the experimenter.

  - Psychiatrists predicted few would obey and go beyond 150V.
• What were Milgram's findings?

  - 65% = full 450V

  - 100% = 300V

  - 12.5% = stopped at 300V

  - 35% = showed nervous laughing fits.
• What did Milgram do/find in proximity from Milgram's variations?

  - Teacher and learner sat in the same room.

  - 40% = full 450V bc they saw the learners pain directly.

  
  

  Another variation:

  - Experimenter gave instructions on the phone

  - 21% = full 450V as they were more able to defy the experimenter.
• What did Milgram do/find in location from Milgram's variations?

  - Conducted a variate in a run down building

  - 47.5% = full 450V
• What did Milgram do/find in uniform from Milgram's variation?

  - The experimenter in ordinary clothes

  - 20% = full 450V
• What did Bickman do which was influenced by Milgram's uniform variation?

  - 3 confederates dressed in 3 different outfits: jacket and tie, milkman's outfit and security guard's uniform.

  - They asked passers-by to perform tasks such as picking up litter or giving confederate a coin for parking.

  - 2x more likely to obey security guard than jacket and tie.
• What is a strength of research into situational variables? (nurses)

  P = Research evidence to support Milgram's findings that people obey an authority figure.

  
  

  E = Hofling et al rang nurses pretending to be a doctor and asked them to give double of the does 'astrofen' which they'd break several rules. He found 21/22 nurses obeyed Hofling and gave the drug.

  
  

  E = Research in natural settings show that people will obey legitimate authority figures which supports Milgram's findings and makes his research reliable.
• What is a weakness of research into situational variables? (demand characteristics)

  P = Pps may have guessed the aim and acted due to demand characteristics.

  
  

  E = Orne and Holland suggest that as the experimenter was distant and showed no compassion for the screams of the learner, the pps may have worked out the situation was fake and this is why they administered the shocks. This supports the fact the electric shocks aren't a believable punishment for getting questions wrong. We can't be sure the authority figure (IV) had affected obedience (DV) as pps may have guessed the aim and acted along which would've caused their obedience.

  
  

  E = Milgram's research may lack internal validity.
• What is a weakness of research into situational variables? (unethical)

  P = His work is unethical.

  
  

  E = Baumrind says the pps were under a great deal of stress and harm as they thought they were hurting another person. The evidence of this is that pps were seen shaking and stuttering as they weren't protected from harm.

  
  

  E = However, Milgram carried out full debrief and a year later psychiatric assessment showed no long-lasting damage was done.
• What is the definition of agentic state?


  A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour bc we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure.
• Why does a destructive authority occur according to Milgram?

  A person doesn't take responsibility of their actions as they believe they are acting o someone else.
• What is the definition of an agent?


  Someone who acts for or in place of another.
• What is the definition of autonomous state?

  When individuals are seen as personally responsible for their actions.
• What do people in an autonomous state experience?


  They feel free to behave according to their own principles and therefore responsible for their own actions.
• What is agentic shift?

  Shifting from autonomy to agency
• What is a weakness of the agentic state explanation? (invalid)

  P = It doesn't explain many research findings.

  
  

  E = It can't explain why people choose not to obey (35% didn't go to 450V/the individuals who resisted the pressure to obey).

  
  

  E = The theory lacks explanatory power and it isn't valid.
• What is a weakness of agentic state explanation?

  P = Doesn't explain the findings from Hofling et al's study (nurses study)

  
  

  E = The agentic shift explanation predicts that, as nurses handed over responsibility to the doctor, they should show levels of anxiety, as they understood their role in a destructive process, but they didn't.

  
  

  E = These two points suggest that agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.
• What is legitimacy of authority?

  It explains that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have an authority over us.

  
  

  This is justified by the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy.
• What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority?

  Some people are granted the power to punish others.

  For example, police and courts have the power to punish wrongdoers.
• What institution is an legitimate authority required in?


  A place where the authority figure's commands can be perceived legitimately e.g., a university.

  
  

  - However, Milgram's variation in a run-down building, obedience was still high, so pp may perceive the lab experiment as scientific and a legitimate place.
• What is a strength of legitimate authority explanation? (student film)

  P = Evidence explanation.

  
  

  E = Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram's study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner. They blamed the experimenter bc responsibility was due to legitimate authority but also due to expert authority.

  
  

  E = Students recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience which supports this explanation.
• What is a strength of the legitimate authority explanation?


  P = It's a useful account of cultural differences in obedience.

  
  

  E = Kilham and Mann replicated Milgram's procedure in Australia and found only 16% went to 450V.

  Mantell found 85% of German pps obeyed.

  
  

  E = In some cultures authority is likely to be accepted as legitimate, and this reflects ways that different societies perceive authority figures which increases the validity of the legitimacy of authority explanation.
• What are situational factors of obedience?

  - Proximity

  - Location

  - Uniform
• What are social structural factors of obedience?

  - Agentic state

  - Legitimate authority
• What does authoritarian personality mean?

  It's a type of personality which is highly susceptible to obeying people in authority.
• What are characteristics of authoritarian personalities?

  - Tendency to be obedient to authority

  - Show dislike for people who they perceive as having inferior social status

  - Highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.

  - Believe society needs strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values.
• What is the origin of the authoritarian personality?

  Formed in childhood from harsh parenting:

  - Parenting style = strict discipline, high standards.

  - Conditional love
• What is the aim of Adorno et al's study?

  Wanted to find whether a high level of obedience was a psychological disorder, and tried to locate the cause of it in the personality of the individual.
• What is the method of Adorno et al's study?

  - Studies 2000 middle-class, white Americans.

  - Looked at their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.

  - Developed several scales to investigate this such as the potential for F-scale which is used to measure authoritarian personalities.
• What were the findings in Adorno et al's study?

  - Pps with authoritarian learning identified with 'strong' people and were disapproving of the 'weak'.

  - Authoritarian people had a cognitive style where there was no 'fuzziness' between categories of people, with fixed and distinctive stereotypes.
• What is a strength of authoritarian personality explanation? (interviews)

  E = Milgram and Elms conducted interviews for 20 full obedient pps and 20 defiant pps asking them open-ended questions about their relationship with their parents during childhood and their attitude to the experimenter. They also gave them the F scale.

  
  

  E = Higher levels of authoritarianism with those classed as obedience which supports Adorno's theory of ap being the cause of obedience.
• What is a weakness of the authoritarian personality explanation? (limited)

  P = The explanation is limited.

  
  

  E = Any explanation of obedience related to personality will find it hard to explain all obedient behaviour. For example, pre-war Germany, many individuals displayed obedient, racist and anti-semitic behaviour. This was despite the fact they must have differed in their personalities in all sorts of ways.

  
  

  E = Adorno's theory can be criticised as being a reductionist viewpoint and oversimplifying obedience.