Exp for obedience

• Agentic state

  when someone obeying an authority figure acting as an agent. Eg: participants in Milgram‘s study getting electric shocks from teachers
• Legitimacy of authority

  People will obey someone they perceive to be ’above‘ them in the social hierarchy, and therefore think they have the right to give orders.
• Situational variables

  Proximity, location and uniform
• Authoritarian personality

  A person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power of them
• The Agency Theory states that people work on two levels:

  • Autonomous State - Behave voluntary and are aware of the consequences of their actions
  • Agentic State - See themselves as 'agents' working on behalf of others and therefore are not responsible for their actions.
  • AGENTIC SHIFT- Moving from the autonomous state to the Agentic state meaning the individual attributes responsibility for their actions to the person in authority.
• Legitimate Authority

  • Authority figures are agreed by society - Parents, teachers, police
  • People are willing to hand control of our behaviour to people we trust
  • Destructive authority - Use power of authority to order people to do things that are cruel and dangerous.
• What does the agentic state explanation relate to?

  Obedience
• What did Milgram's studies show about the agentic state?

  It supports the role of the agentic state in obedience
• What did participants ask the experimenter in Milgram's study?

  'Who is responsible if Mr. Wallace is harmed?'
• What was the experimenter's response to the participants' question about responsibility?

  'I am responsible'
• What does the research suggest about participants' behavior when they perceive a lack of responsibility?

  They act more easily as the experimenter's agent
• How does Milgram's research support the internal validity of the agentic state?

  It shows lack of responsibility increases obedience
• What is a limitation of the agentic state explanation?

  It does not explain many obedience findings
• What did Rank & Jacobson find about hospital nurses' obedience?

  16 out of 18 nurses disobeyed orders
• What does the behavior of the nurses suggest about the agentic state?

  It can only account for some obedience situations
• What does the limitation of the agentic state lead to regarding its validity?

  It provides an incomplete explanation for obedience
• What is one strength of the legitimacy of authority?

  It accounts for cultural differences in obedience
• What did Kilham and Mann find in their study on Australian participants?

  Only 16% went up to 450 volts
• What percentage of German participants went up to 450 volts according to Mantell's findings?

  85%
• How do cultural differences affect the perception of authority according to the legitimacy of authority?

  Some cultures accept authority as legitimate more
• What does the research on legitimacy of authority suggest about obedience rates across cultures?

  • Research shows varying obedience rates
  • Kilham and Mann: 16% in Australia
  • Mantell: 85% in Germany
  • Indicates cultural influence on authority perception
• What is a limitation of the agentic state in explaining obedience?

  It does not explain many research findings
• What did Rank & Jacobson find regarding hospital nurses' obedience?

  16 out of 18 nurses disobeyed orders
• What does the disobedience of nurses suggest about the legitimacy of authority?

  It suggests limited applicability in some situations
• What is the overall conclusion about the legitimacy of authority based on the discussed research?

  It provides an incomplete explanation for obedience
• What are the implications of the findings on legitimacy of authority for understanding obedience?

  • Cultural differences affect obedience rates
  • Agentic state does not explain all disobedience
  • Limited applicability reduces overall validity
• Authoritarian Personality

  • A personality type developed from strict and rigid parenting.
  • Obedient/servile towards people of perceived higher status.
  • They are submissive to those of higher status
  • They are dismissive of those who are of inferior status
  • Have highly conventional attitudes towards sex, race and gender.
  • Believe society is going down hill and we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values (such as love of country, religion and family.
• Adorno et al (1950) developed several scales to investigate unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups including the F scale (fascism scale).

  Sample: 2000+ middle class, white Americans

  High scores on the F scale showed authoritarian characteristics. Conscious of own status and showed contempt of the 'weak'. Fixed cognitive style of thinking about other groups.

  There was a strong positive correlation between authoritarianism and prejudice.
• Dispositional factors AO3

  One strength of Adorno's Authoritarian Personality is that there is research support. Milgram and Elms (1966) conducted interviews with a small sample of fully obedient participants from Milgram's study, who scored high on the F-Scale to find out if they were more likely to display authoritarian traits in comparison to disobedient participants. Their sample consisted of 20 obedient participants who had given the full 450v shocks. They found that people who had been obedient scored higher on the F-Scale in comparison to the disobedient participants. This support further strengthens the reliability of the explanation suggesting that obedience can be a predisposed factor.
• Dispositional factors AO3

  In contrast one problem with Adorno's research is that it was only based on correlational data. This raises concern as the findings can only propose a relationship between personality and obedience rather than a causal relationship. Adorno et al. did find many significant correlations (e.g. authoritarianism and prejudice against minority groups) but no matter how strong the correlation, it cannot infer causation. The consequence of this is that neither Adorno or Milgram can claim that a harsh parenting style caused the development of an authoritarian personality, nor can it imply a causal connection between Authoritarianism and destructive obedience.
• What limitation does the theory propose regarding obedience?

  It offers a limited explanation of obedience.
• Why is it unlikely that all individuals in pre-war Germany had an Authoritarian personality?

  Because millions displayed similar behaviors without it.
• What alternative explanation is suggested for the behavior of the German people?

  They identified with the Nazi state and scapegoated Jews.
• Who accused Adorno of creating a politically biased interpretation?

  Christie and Jahoda
• • Additionally, Greenstein (1969) criticises the methodology of the F-Scale as 'a comedy of methodological errors'.

  '. They point out that every question on the scale is

  worded in the same direction, which means that it is possible to get a high authoritarian score just by ticking the same box on one side of the page. This means that the scale simply measures the tendency to agree to everything and is guilty of acquiescence bias. This reduces the internal validity of the F-Scale test as participants may not providing a true representation of their personality when completing the questionnaire.
• What commonality do Christie and Jahoda point out between ideologies?

  Extreme right-wing and left-wing ideologies share similarities.
• What aspect of obedience did Adorno fail to account for in his F-Scale questionnaire?

  Obedience to authority across the political spectrum.
• How does the limitation of Adorno's theory affect its external validity?

  It cannot be generalized to a wider population.
• What is the F-Scale questionnaire associated with?

  Adorno's dispositional explanation of obedience.
• What does the inability to generalize Adorno's theory imply for research findings?

  It reduces the external validity of the research.