Explanations for obedience and Dispositional explanation for obedience.

Question 1

What are the 3 explanations for obedience?

Answer 1

• Agentic state.
• Legitimacy of authority.
• Situational variables.

Question 2

What is the agentic state?

Answer 2

an autonomous state, where the persons sees themselves as working as an ‘agent’ for someone else.

Question 3

What keeps an individual in an agentic state?

Answer 3

• Social constraints such as breaking commitment.

- Emotions such as fear of appearing to be rude to a higher authority.

Question 4

Where is agentic state visible in Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

• Proximity variable where researcher gave orders from a phone, obedience rate dropped to 21%.
• In debriefing, participants recognised that they were doing something wrong but continued as they felt they ad to obey the orders from a higher status.

Question 5

Why does the Agentic state increase obedience?

Answer 5

In an autonomous state, individuals try to maintain a positive image during inhumane actions but when responsibility of their actions come to light, they choose to blame in on the authority figure to reduce guilt.

Question 6

What is Legitimacy of authority?

Answer 6

Part of the Socilaisation process which keeps society in order.

Question 7

How do we identify authority figures?

Answer 7

• Through uniform.

- Through an accepted institution such as Yale University or a hospital or police station.

Question 8

Where is legitimacy of authority visible in Milgram’s study?

Answer 8

-Some people showed no concern for the harm they inflicted but instead focused on the procedure.

Question 9

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 9

• Dispositional explanation for obedience.
• Consists of 4 main characteristics:
• Belief in absolute obedience.
• Submission to authority.
• Domination of minorities.
• Shaped by authoritarian and hierarchical parenting.

Question 10

Who/ what was used to measure the authoritarian personality?

Answer 10

• Adorno.

- the F scale, contains 30 questions assessing 9 personality dimensions.

Question 11

Outline Milgram’s study.

Answer 11

• 40 males aged 20-50 years old.
• Told that the experiment was concerned with the effect of punishment on learning.
• Researcher- confederate.
• Participant told to give increasingly strong electric shocks to the learner when they got the answer wrong.
• If the teacher asked to stop then the experimenter tried to persuade them.
• .teacher administered shocks and heard screams from another room.
• All participants went to 300V.
• 65% went to max= 450V.
• 12.5% stopped at 300V.

Question 12

What was Milgram’s conclusion?

Answer 12

• Situational factors contributed to the individuals obedience and the suspension of their capacity to make individual decisions.
• Obedience to authority figures is normal human behaviour in an hierarchical society.

Question 13

List some of Milgram’s variations.

Answer 13

• Proximity.
• Location.
• Presence of allies.
• Uniform.

Question 14

Where was the proximity shown in the study?

Answer 14

• learner and victim sat in same room- obedience= 40%
• Touch proximity, learners hand was placed on the shock plate, obedience= 30%
• instructions over phone, obedience = 21%

Question 15

Where was the presence of allies in Milgram’s study?

Answer 15

2 bogus teachers joined the set up, when they refused to carry on the participant withdrew cooperation, 10% continued to 450V.