Factors Affecting Obedience Flashcards
What is authoritarian personality and how may it affect obedience?
Give supportive research
-authoritarian personality is when someone has high levels of obedience and prejudice
-a harsh style of parenting leads children to develop personality traits such as toughness, destructiveness and cynicism, measured using the F scale (fascism)
-this parenting style was rife in Germany in the early 20th century, and so many adult Germans had personalities that were submissive to authority but harsh to those seen as superordinate to themselves
Supportive research: Elms and Milgram used F scale with participants from Milgram’s studies, testing 20 fully obedient participants and 20 who were not, and found obedient ppts scored higher on the F scale and has other authoritarian personality characteristics. =Obedience is related to authoritarian personality characteristics
What is an internal and external locus of control and how may it affect obedience?
Give evidence again
-an internal locus or control is where people take greater responsibility for their actions as they believe they are in control of what they do and what happens to them.
-an external locus of control is where people take less responsibility for their actions and feels that what happens to them is governed by other people and by chance factors
-internals are more likely to show dissent and defy orders, whereas externals are more likely to be obedient
Evidence against: Schurz in a task similar to Milgram’s original study, Austrian participants were instructed to give painful doses of ultrasound to a female student. Those who were fully obedient did not differ significantly from those who resisted in terms of their scores on questionnaire measuring locus of control. =personality has little impact
What evidence supports females being more obedient then males?
-ppts were ordered to give real electric shocks to a live puppy. 100% of female participants were fully obedient, compared with only 54% of males. The females showed distress sobbing their way through the study
What evidence supports men being more obedient then females?
-a replication of Milgram’s study is Australia found an unusually low obedience rate of 28%. In terms of gender 40% of males were fully obedient, whereas only 16% of females.
What is the gender difference in moral reasoning and how this may affect obedience
-moral decision making is guided by differing principles in men and women.
-the ethic of justice is the principle more commonly seen in men and this links to values of equality and fairness and requires a detached outlook to avoid bias
-females use the ethic of care to guide decision making, relating to interpersonal relationships and nurturing and supporting those in need
-in terms of destructive obedience males may be more obedient due to their feelings of obligation to an authority figure, whereas females may be less obedient due to their desire to support the person being harmed
Give a weakness suggesting there is no gender difference in obedience
Blass summarised the findings of 9 Milgram style studies that included both male and female participants, and in all but 1 case there was no significant difference in observed level of obedience
How does legitimacy (situation) affect obedience?
Reducing the perceived legitimacy of the authority figure e.g through altering mode of dress can reduce obedience. And reducing prestige or status of the venue leads to reduction in obedience
(Milgram’s run down office)
How does proximity (situation) affect obedience
-When the distance between the authority figure and participant is increased, obedience reduces, as in telephonic instruction variation.
-Latane used term immediacy in social impact theory to refer to closeness of the target in terms of space and time.
-physical or psychological barriers to communication will affect immediacy (buffers)
How does the behaviour of others (situation) affect obedience?
-exposure to role models who are disobedient decreases obedience
-in one of Milgram’s variations there were 2 further teachers (confederates) who refused to carry on, and obedience dropped to 10%
How does individualism (culture) affect obedience?
Give a strength and weakness research
-individualist cultures value personal autonomy and self reliance whereas collectivist cultures value loyalty to the group, interdependence and cooperation in pursuit of goals.
-we might expect that people from more individualist cultures (US and Northern Europe) may be less obedient due to value of self determination and independence compared to those in more collective cultures (such as China and Brazil) where obligation and sense of duty may override desire to rebel
Research to support: kilham and Mann found a strikingly low level of obedience of 28% in Australia while a recent replication in Poland found a high level of obedience of 90%
Research against: Blass calculated the average obedience rate for 8 non-US Milgram replications finding obedience of 66% compared to an average of 61% for US replications, which are very similar averages, and so obedience is a universal social behaviour and culture doesn’t affect it
