Explaining obedience: social psychological factors Flashcards
What is an Agentic State?
It is where we feel no personal responsibility for our behavior because we believe ourselves to be acting for an
authority figure.
What is an Autonomous state?
It is the opposite of agentic- being independent and
free to behave according to their own principles.
What is Legitimacy of Authority?
it is the degree to which individuals are seen
as justified in having power over others.
What were the findings from Blass and Schmidt (2001) about milgrams study?
Blass and Schmidt (2001) asked students to identify who was
responsible for harm to the learner.
They blamed the ‘experimenter’ rather than the participant. Due to
being a legitimate and expert authority.
What is the Social hierarchy?
It is where one person is in charge (higher rank),
others defer responsibility to them.
Research to Support Agentic State?
P: A strength is that there is research support
In explaining Milgram’s high obedience rates.
E: Blass and Schmitt (2001) asked students
to watch original footage and suggest who was
responsible for the ‘harm’ caused to the
learner, they named the experimenter.
C: This suggests that the scientist was at the
top of the social hierarchy and therefore had
legitimate authority over the situation.
I&D: Explanations of obedience adopt a
nomothetic approach, as they attempt to
provide general principles relating to human
behaviour when people are observed
responding to the direct order of a legitimate
authority figure.
What is a limitation of Authority figures?
P: A limitation is that legitimate authority
figures may differ culturally.
E: Kilman and Mann (1974) replicated
Milgram’s original study procedures in
Australia- only 16% of p’s shocked the
learner at the max voltage level. Whereas
in Germany 85% of p’s continued to the
max voltage.
C: This shows that different societies
follow alternative hierarchical
structures, children may be socialised
differently to be more or less obedient
towards legitimate authority figures
specific to the culture.
What is a strength of milgrams experiment?
P: A strength of Milgram’s research is that it
has high reliability.
E: Milgram’s methodological approach to
changing one variable at a time in his
experiments has been praised for having
high reliability.
C: All of these procedures were controlled
and had standardised methods.
I&D: However, an issue with his original
sample shows a beta bias, as his research
may have ignored or minimised differences
between men and women in relation to
conclusions drawn regarding to obedience
to authority.
What is a strength of Milgram’s experiment (Real life application)
P: A strength of the legitimacy of authority
explanations is that it can help explain how
obedience can lead to real-life war crimes.
E: Researchers Kelman and Hamilton (1989)
argue that the My Lai massacre can be
understood in terms of the power hierarchy of
the US Army.
C: This means the explanation has practical
applications. If legitimacy of authority is a
useful explanation of real-life war crimes, then
there is the possibility that it could help us to
understand how to prevent such crimes in the
future. This could be done by helping people,
perhaps through education, to challenge
legitimate authority rather than obeying it
mindlessly.
