Explanations of Obedience Flashcards
What are the 3 explanations for obedience? 1.
- Agentic state
- Legitimacy of Authority
- Authoritarian personality
What explanations are situational & which one is dispositional?
- Situational: Agentic state & Legitimacy of authority
- Dispositional: Authoritarian personality
Define Agentic state?
Example from Milgram?
Agency theory including moral strain?
How would someone cope with moral strain?
- Individual gives up their free will & no longer acts independently
- acts as an agent of authority surrendering their conscience
- Pt’s in Milgram were acting as agents of authority convincing themselves they were not responsible
- People are aware of consequences & pursue their guidance by their conscience
Moral strain: feeling uncomfortable/distressed by going against your moral conscience by doing something wrong - Drugs, sex, alcoholism
Define Legitimacy of authority?
What factors help someone recognise legitimacy of authority?
- Socialisation:
- From early childhood we are socialised by parents/teachers into obeying those who have authority over us
- We obey people who had legitimate positions of power or they’ll punish us
- Social hierarchy:
- Structure of many society’s involves hierarchy due to the sanctioning & legitimacy of authority figures
- Uniform, Proximity, Location
AO3 situational explanations
Research support agentic state?
Milgram (1973)?
P - Strength of agentic state is research supporting the explanation
E - Milgram found many Pt’s wanted to stop but seemed powerless due to the binding factors in the environment
- This shows moral strain, going against their conscience
E - Milgram noticed people used strategies to alleviate strain they were feeling e.g. shifting responsibility to the victim (learner), likely accounting for 65% reaching 450 volts (max)
L - Implies there is research support for agentic state explanation rather than in an autonomous state
AO3 situational explanations
Research support legitimacy of authority?
Bickman?
P - Strength of legitimacy of authority explanation for why people obey is research support
E - Bickman found people twice as likely to obey someone dressed in security outfit vs someone dressed jacket & tie when asked to pick up litter
E - Supports situational variables e.g. uniform has a powerful effect on obedience
L - Suggests there is research to support if someone is an authority figure & is legitimate they are likely to be obeyed
AO3 situational explanations
Alternative explanations?
P - Situational explanation is limited as there are better explanations
E - e.g. dispositional explanation of authoritarian personality could be considered better because personality is taken into account
E - Personality can be measured using the F-scale, making it more scientific in measuring obedience
L - Implies we should consider alternative explanations when trying to establish explanations of obedience
AO3 situational explanations
Practical applications?
P - Strength is practical applications of situational explanations
E - Being aware that humans can be capable of obeying in this dangerous way explain/prevent malevolent human actions e.g. Holocaust, My Lai massacre or Abu Ghraib
E - We can prevent such events happening again in the real world by grasping power hierarchies within institutions e.g. Military, Intel community
- In these institutions legitimacy of authority implies a greater power to punish
L - Implies the explanation has been useful to society because it can be used to reform institutions for the benefit of society & their employees by educating them about legitimacy of authority & agentic state
What are the 4 components of Authoritarian personality as a dispositional explanation?
- Might is right
- Upbringing
- Personality traits
- F-scale
Define authoritarian personality?
What did Adorno find?
- Might is right:
- Different ideologies from out-group members can harm society
- Perception of threat leads to aggression against out-group members
- Adorno: found insecurities led to hostile views against out-groups
Define Upbringing?
- Someone is raised by dogmatic & distant parents who punished them for minor reasons
- Parents have rigid, absolute beliefs, ideologies & values about society
- The person will learn from childhood to obey authority figures
Define personality traits?
- Rigid beliefs in conservative values
- Hostility towards other groups (minorities)
- Racial in favouritism
- Intolerant & dislikes ambiguity
Define F-scale?
- Adorno developed F-scale that measured fascism
- 30 questions measuring 9 dimensions of personality
- This supposedly identifies who is an authoritarian
AO3 dispositional explanation
Research support?
Elms & Milgram?
P - Strength of authoritarian personality is research support
E - Elms & Milgram found when interviewing small sample of Milgram’s original study (those who were fully obedient 65%)
- Pt’s scored higher on F-scale vs 20 disobedient Pt’s
E - These two groups were clearly different in terms of authoritarianism
L - Implies obedient people show similar characteristics to the authoritarian personality criteria
AO3 dispositional explanation
Alternative explanation?
P - Authoritarian personality is limited due to alternative explanations
E - Situational explanation of agentic state could be better as it takes into account situational variables
E - Milgram’s experiment situational variables e.g. proximity, location & uniform, played an important role in whether/not someone is prone to being in an agentic state
L - Suggests this might be a better explanation as it explains why people change their behaviours based on the situation they’re in
