Factors Affecting Obedience Flashcards
What factors affect obedience?
• Situational factors (situation)
• dispositional (personality) factors
• gender
• culture
What are the situational factors?
• status of authority
• proximity of authority figure
• presence of buffers
• momentum of compliance
• personal responsibility
What is status of authority?
• what variation of milgram showed this?
• the authority figure needs to be perceived to be legitimate if people are going to obey their orders
• run down office block (10)
• ordinary man gives order (13)
What is proximity of authority figure?
• what variation of milgram showed this?
The closer the authority figure the higher the level of obedience
• telephonic instructions (7)
What is the presence of buffers?
• what variation of milgram showed this?
The presence of buffers between participants and victim increase obedience e.g milgram saw the electric shock generator as an important buffer in his experiments
• telephonic instructions (7)
What is momentum of compliance?
• what variation of milgram showed this?
Starting with small and trivial requests and then gradually increasing these (e.g only going up 15 volts each time in milgram). The person feels committed as it escalates and duty bound to continue.
What is personal responsibility?
People are more obedient in a situation where they feel that personal responsibility is removed from them and given to an authority figure. Therefore, obedience is reduced when people feel personally responsible for their actions
In an additional variation participants signed a contract which stated they they were taking part of their own free will and relinquished any legal responsibility from Yale university. This resulted in the obedience rate falling to 40%
What are the dispositional (personality) factors?
- locus of control personality theory (Rotter, 1966)
- Authoritarian personality
What is an internal locus of control?
People with this personality type believe they are in control of what they do and what happens to them
- take greater responsibility for their actions
What is an external locus of control?
People with this personality type believe that what happens to them is governed by other people and by chance factors
- Take less responsibility for their actions
What locus of control were disobedient participants more likely to have?
An internal locus of control as these participants were more likely to blame themselves
They are more likely to be resistant to an authority figure and take responsibility for their actions
What locus of control were obedient participants more likely to have?
An external locus of control as they were more likely to blame others
They are more likely to be influenced by an authority figure and believe they are not responsible for their actions
