Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience?
Obedience is a type of social influence where a person follows an order from another person who is usually an authority figure.
What was the procedure of Milgram’s Shock study?
He conducted a lab experiment in which two participants were assigned either the role of a teacher (this was always given to the true participant) or learner (a confederate called Mr. Wallace).
The teacher and learner were put into separate rooms. The teacher was then asked by the experimenter (who wore a lab coat) to administer electric shocks (which were actually harmless) to the learner each time he gave the wrong answer. These shocks increased every time the learner gave a wrong answer, from 15 - 450 volts.
Prod 1: please continue.
Prod 2: the experiment requires you to continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: you have no other choice but to continue.
What were the findings from Milgram’s shock study?
The results were that all participants went to 300 volts and 65% were willing to go all the way to 450 volts.
he carried out 18 variations of his study. when the experimenter instructed and prompted the teacher by telephone from another room, obedience fell to 20.5%.
What are some criticisms of Milgram’s shock study?
- this study lacked ecological validity as it was carried out in a lab under artificial conditions. This means that it might not be possible to generalise the finding to a real life setting, as people do not usually receive orders to hurt another person in real life.
- the sample was biased. Milgram only used males in his study and this means we cannot generalise the results to females.
- Deception – the participants actually believed they were shocking a real person, and were unaware the learner was a confederate of Milgram’s.
- ## Participants were exposed to extremely stressful situations that may have the potential to cause psychological harm. Many of the participants were visibly distressed.
What are some strengths of Milgram’s shock study?
- Milgram’s work has provided to social Psychology. For instance Milgram’s work gives an insight into why people under the Nazi reign were willing to kill Jews when given orders to do so. It also highlights how we can all be blind to obedience often doing things without question.
- A strength of the study is that it used a standardised procedure because it was a lab experiment. This is good because it improves the reliability of the study and also helps establish a causal relationship.
- Milgram did debrief the participants fully after the experiment and also followed up after a period of time to ensure that they came to no harm.
What is the Agentic State?
people will obey an authority when they believe that the authority will take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
how was the agency theory supported by Milgram’s evidence ?
- when participants were reminded that they had responsibility for their own actions, almost none of them were prepared to obey. In contrast, many participants who were refusing to go on did so if the experimenter said that he would take responsibility’.
- Another example of the agenetic state involved a variation of Milgram’s study whereby participants could instruct an assistant (confederate) to press the switches. In this condition 92.5% shocked to the maximum 450 volts. This shows when there is less personal responsibility obedience increases.
What is Autonomous state?
‘Autonomy’ means to be independent or free. A person in an Autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions.
What is an agentic shift?
This is the shift from autonomy to ‘agency’.
What did Milgram suggest about the agentic shift?
He suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority. This other person has greater power because of their position in a social hierarchy. In most social groups when one person is in charge, others defer to this person and shift from autonomy to agency.
What are binding factors?
They are aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling. Milgram proposed a number of strategies that the individual uses, such as gifting the responsibility to the victim or denying the damage they were doing in the first place.
What is legitimacy of authority?
Societies are structure in a hierarchal way and therefore certain people hold authority over the rest of us. The authority they hold is legitimate in the sense that it is agreed by society.
What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority?
Some people are granted the power to punish others. Most of us accept that the police and courts have the power to punish wrongdoers. So we are willing to give up some of our independence and to hand control of our behaviour over to people we trust to exercise their authority appropriately.
What is destructive authority?
History has shown that charismatic and powerful leaders can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in ways that are callous, cruel, stupid an dangerous. Destructive authority was very clearly on show in Milgram’s study, when the experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences.
What is a strength of agentic state?
There is research support. Blass and Schmitt (2001) showed a film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner. The students blamed the ‘experimenter’ rather than the participant. The students also indicated that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority but also due to expert authority.
