Obediance

Question 1

What is obedience

Answer 1

A form of social influence when a person’s behaviour is in response to a direct order from an authority figure (someone seen having the power to give orders)

Question 2

What was Milgrim’s aim in his study

Answer 2

To see if people would obey an unreasonable order (to deliver electric shocks).

Question 3

What was Milgrim’s method

Answer 3

40 males volunteered for a study on memory, aged 20–50.
‘Teacher’ paired with ‘learner’ (confederate).
Learner was strapped in a chair and wired with electrodes which could give an electric shock.
Teacher was instructed by the experimenter to give a shock to the learner when a mistake was made. Intensity increased from 15 to 450 volts.

The teacher cannot see the learner and doesn’t know the screams are just a tape
recording
The experimenter gives the same scripted ‘prods’ to each participant

Question 4

Milgrim’s study results

Answer 4

65% went to the maximum 450v
100% obeyed up to 300v
Milgram was ‘shocked’
He didn’t expect American Ps to be so obedient!
His agency theory explains the social factors for why they obeyed

Question 5

What is Milgrim’s agency theory

Answer 5

Milgram’s Agency Theory suggests we are more likely to obey orders when we enter an “agentic state”.

Question 6

What is an agent

Answer 6

Someone acting on behalf of someone else

Question 7

What is the autonomous state

Answer 7

Normally, we feel we are responsible for our own actions with the freedom to choose how we behave

Question 8

What is the agentic state

Answer 8

we obey the (destructive) order because we believe we are acting as an agent on behalf of the authority figure - we are no longer responsible for our own actions, they are.

Question 9

What is the agentic shift?

Answer 9

Milgram called this move from an autonomous state to an agentic state the “agentic shift”.

The agentic shift is characterised by moral strain
who’s going to take responsibility if anything happens to that gentleman?’
• ‘I’m responsible’
• ‘The experiment requires you to continue’

Question 10

Explain the behaviour of the Nazis using the agentic state.

Answer 10

• Normally, we feel as if we are responsible for our own actions with the freedom to choose how we may. This is known as an autonomous state, this is how members of the Nazi party would
feel most of the time.
• If a person has greater authority, others will turn to them to obey their orders and shift to an Agentic State. Hitler had greater authority than other Nazis so they would turn to him to obey his
orders.
• They would then be in the agentic state, believing they are acting on the behalf of Hitler so they were therefore no longer responsible for their actions.

Question 11

Milgram’s Agency Theory social factors – authority

Answer 11

Milgram argued that we are taught to enter the agentic state as children because we are taught to respect and follow the orders from authority figures within society. We, therefore, think this is normal to do with little thought and this can lead to blind obedience.
• Authority
• Uniforms are associated with positions of authority and have
also been shown to increase obedience levels.

Question 12

Milgram’s Agency Theory social factors – culture

Answer 12

Culture
• Some studies have found individualistic cultures like western societies have lower levels of obedience compared to collectivist cultures. This is because collectivist cultures place greater importance on group values and respecting authority while individualistic cultures place a greater value on independence and individual freedoms.

Question 13

Milgram’s Agency Theory social factors - proximity

Answer 13

Proximity (closeness)
• Research into social factors affecting obedience found the closer we are to the person an authority figure is telling us to hurt (the victim), the less likely we are to obey them.
• With the teacher in the same room as the learner, obedience dropped to 40%
• There is greater moral strain and personal responsibility

Question 14

Touch proximity

Answer 14

The teacher had to force the learners hand onto the plate to electrocute them compared t electrocuting them when they were in another room
Obedience dropped to 30%

Question 15

Weaknesses of Milgrim’s study

Answer 15

However, a weakness is it doesn’t explain why there wasn’t 100% obedience
35% of Milgram’s participants did not obey fully. When asked in interviews, they gave various reasons for being disobedient such as feeling responsible.
This means social factors alone cannot fully explain obedience

Another weakness is the theory ‘excuses’ people who blindly follow destructive orders
David Mandel claims it is offensive to Holocaust survivors to suggest the Nazis were simply following orders. Agency threoy ignore the role of racism and prejudice played
This means agency theory is potentially dangerous as it allows people to to think they aren’t responsible for their actions

Question 16

Strengths of Milgrim’s study

Answer 16

There is supporting evidence for Milgram’s Agency Theory.
In an experiment carried out by Milgram, he found that 65% of participants were prepared to do something that would have potentially led to another person’s death, just because someone they
believed to be an authoritative figure told them to.
This increases the validity of Milgram’s Agency Theory because participants were willing to continue harming another person if the authority figure took responsibility. This shows that participants are in the agentic state.

There is further supporting evidence for Milgram’s Agency Theory.
Blass and Schmitt showed students a video of Milgram’s experiment and asked them who was responsible. The students blamed the experimenter, not the teacher, because he had legitimate authority
This means the students recognised legitimate authority as the cause of the obedience, supporting agency theory.