Explanations for obedience Flashcards
What is the agentic state?
When a person acts on behalf of an authority figure
they feel no personal responsibility
opposite of an autonomous state
What is the autonomous state?
opposite of agentic state
The person is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their actions
What is an agentic shift
the process of shifting responsibility of your actions onto someone else
This occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure
What is a binding factor?
Aspects of a situation which allow the person to ignore/minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour thus reducing the mental strain they’re feeling
strategies include shifting responsibility onto the victim
What are strengths if the agentic state
- Research support (Milgram)
- Further research support (Hofling)
What are limitations of the agentic state
- Contradictory evidence
- Fails to explain a gradual transition
- There may be other reasons ppl carry out cruel actions
Evaluate research support from Milgram as a strength for the agentic state
P: Supported by Milgram’s own studies.
E: Most of Milgram’s participants resisted giving shocks at some point and often asked the Experimenter questions about the procedure. One of these was, ‘Who is responsible if the learner is harmed?’ When the Experimenter replied ‘I’m responsible’, the participants often went through the procedure with no further objections.
E: Strength because it shows that once participants perceived they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they acted more easily as the Experimenter’s agent. Therefore, strengthening the validity of Milgram’s agentic state theory.
Evaluate research support from Hofling as a strength for the Agentic state
P: Supported by Hofling’s research.
E: In a study by Hofling, 22 nurses were asked to administer a double dose of a drug they had never heard of to a patient (the maximum dose was stated on the bottle). This order was made down the phone by a doctor they had never met. 21 and out 22 nurses went to fetch the medication to administer the drug even though this was against the rules without a doctor’s signature. This suggests that they were in the agentic state where they do not believe themselves to be responsible, but attribute responsibility to the authority
E: This is a strength because it provides evidence to suggest that the agentic state is a valid explanation for obedience and that Milgram’s conclusion was also valid.
Evaluate contradictory evidence as a limitation of the Agentic state
P: There is contradictory evidence.
E: Rank et al (1977) found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses did disobey orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. The doctor was an obvious authority figure but almost all nurses remained autonomous, as did many of Milgram’s participants.
E: Limitation because it suggests that the agentic state can only account for some situations of obedience this limits the validity of the theory as an explanation of obedience in all situations.
Evaluate the failure to explain a gradual transition as a limitation of the Agentic state
P: People shift back and forth between an autonomous and agentic state. There is a gradual and irreversible transition that Lifton (1986) found in his study of German doctors working in Auschwitz.
E: Lifton found that these doctors had changed gradually and irreversibly from ordinary medical professionals, concerned with only the welfare of their patients, into men and women capable of carrying out vile and potentially lethal experiments on the helpless prisoners.
Staub (1989) suggests that rather than an agentic shift being responsible for the transition found in many Holocaust perpetrators, it is the experience of carrying out acts of evil over a long time that changes the way in which individuals think and behave.
E: This is a limitation of the agentic state explanation because the transition may be more gradual than Milgram suggests, therefore suggesting the explanation may not be valid.
Evaluate how there may be other reasons ppl carry out cruel actions as a limitation of the Agentic state
P: There could be other reasons why some people carry out cruel acts.
E: A common belief amongst social scientists is that Milgram had detected signs of cruelty in his participants, who had used the situation to express their sadistic impulses. This belief was subsequently given substance by the Stanford Prison Experiment carried out by Zimbardo. Who found that within a few days, guards inflected rapidly escalating cruelty on increasingly submissive prisoners despite the fact that there was no authority figure instructing them to do so.
E: This is a limitation of the agentic state because it suggests for some people, ‘obedient behaviour’ may be due to some more fundamental desire to inflict harm on others. Therefore, the agentic state explanation of obedience may not be a valid explanation for everyone
What is legitimate authority
What are strengths of legitimate authority
- Supported by Milgram
- Supported by evidence (Tarnow)
- Explains cultural differences
What are limitations of legitimate authority
- Low ecological validity
- Cant explain disobedience
Evaluate support from Milgram as a strength of legitimate authority
P: Demonstrated in Milgram’s research.
E: In Milgram’s original study the authority figure wore a lab coat and 65% of participants went up to 450 volts however, in the variation, the person giving orders wore ordinary clothes and obedience dropped to 20 %%. Suggests that when a person does not have legitimate authority obedience decreases because individuals believe the figure does not have the credentials to tell them what to do.
E: This is a strength because it provides evidence to suggest that legitimate authority is a valid explanation for obedience.
Evaluate supported research from Tarnow as a strength of Legitimate authority
P: Supported by research on aviation accidents.
E: Tarnow (2000) studied data from a review of all serious aircraft incidents in the US from 1978 and 1990 where a flight voice recorder was available, and where flight crew actions were a contributing factor in the crash. Tarnow found excessive dependence on the captain’s authority and expertise, with sometimes tragic consequences.
E: This is a strength because it suggests that people do obey authority figures in real life situation, suggesting that the explanation has validity.
Evaluate the explanation of cultural differences as a strength of Legitimate authority
P: It is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience.
E: Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority. For example, Kilham and Mann (1974) found that only 16% of female Australian participants went all the way up to 450v in a Milgram style study. However, Mantell (1971) found a very different figure for German participants – 85%.
E: Limitation because it shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate from individuals. This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures.
Evaluate low ecological validity as a limitation of legitimate authority
P: A limitation of Milgram’s research is that is has ow ecological validity.
E: The experiment was conducted in an unfamiliar controlled environment and the task was artificial
and didn’t reflect a normal everyday task
E: Limitation because
the results may be difficult to generalise to real-life situations of
obedience. This provides weak evidence to support legitimate authority explanation of obedience.
Evaluate how all disobedience cant be explained as a limitation of Legitimate authority
P: Cannot explain instances of disobedience in a situation where legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted.
E: Rank et al (1977) found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. The doctor was an obvious authority figure working in a clear hierarchical structure, but almost all nurses disobeyed.
Also, many of Milgram’s participants disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter’s scientific authority.
E: Limitation because it suggests that some people may just be more/less obedient than others and it’s possible that these tendencies to obey/disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of an authority figure. This may limit the validity of the legitimacy explanation of obedience.
What is the authoritarian personality
People who are especially obedient to authority
What are the beliefs of someone with an authoritarian personality
Show contempt for people they perceive as inferior and have conventional attitudes towards sex/race and gender.
Believe we need strong leaders to enforce traditional values
Believe everything is either right or wrong and there are no grey areas
How is authoritarian personality measures
The F scale
What is dispositional
explanations of behaviours that emphasise theyre caused by an individuals own personality rather than situational influences
What is the Facism
an ideology that is authoritarian ant democratic and ultra nationalist
Where does the authoritarian personality come from
Formed in childhood as a result of harsh parenting
Ppl who have been brought up by strict parents who use harsh physical punishments and impossibly high standards often grow up to be very obedient
What is a strength of the authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience
- Supported by research (Elm & Milgram)
-
Evaluate supporting research as a strength of Authoritarian personality
P: Supported by research.
E: Elms & Milgram interviewed a small sample of people who had participated in the original obedience studies and had been fully obedient. They all completed the F-scale as part of the interview. The 20 obedient ppts scored significantly higher on the overall F-scale than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants.
E: Findings support Adorno et al’s view that obedient people may show similar characteristics to people who have an Authoritarian Personality, therefore strengthening the validity of the dispositional explanation of obedience.
What are limitations of Authoritarian personality as an explanation for obedience
- Some ppts didnt have characteristics associated with AP
- Over simplistic
- Education may determine obedience
Evaluate the fact that some ppts didn’t have characteristics associated with AP as a limitation of the authoritarian personality
P: When the researchers analysed the F-scale, they found that the obedient participants had a number of characteristics that were unusual for authoritarians.
E: For example, unlike authoritarians, Milgram’s obedient participants generally did not glorify their fathers, did not experience unusual levels of punishment in childhood and did not have particularly hostile attitudes towards their mothers.
E: Limitation because it suggests the link between obedience and authoritarianism is complex. Obedient participants were unlike authoritarians in so many ways that it is unlikely to be a useful predictor of obedience.
Evaluate oversimplicity as a limitation of Authoritarian perosnality
P: It is an over simplistic explanation for obedience.
E: The explanation only considers an indvidual’s personality and ignores alternative explanations such as Milgram’s situational explanations. Milgram would claim that if the authority figure is wearing a uniform and they are in close proximity then individuals will be more likely to obey.
E: This is a limitation because it may be that these situational variables have a greater influence on obedience levels
Evaluate how education may determine obedience as a limitation of Authoritarian personality
P: It may be level of education instead that determines authoritarianism.
E: Middendorp et al (1990) found that less educated people are more authoritarian than the well-educated.
Milgram also found that participants with lower levels of education tended to be more obedient than those with higher levels of education.
E: This is a limitation because it may be that education may have a greater influence on obedience levels and therefore the AP explanation may not be entirely valid.
