Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience?
Obedience is a form of compliance that occurs when people follow direct commands, usually from someone in a position of authority. Obedience is because of direct instruction.
What factors affect obedience?
- Socialisation
- Parenting styles
- Perceived legitimate authority
- Autonomous and agentic levels of behaviour
How does socialisation affect obedience?
Research suggests childhood is when we learn society’s rules and who should be considered an authority figure. If the people around you who influence you obey regularly, these collectivise pressures will make you more likely to obey.
How do parenting styles affect obedience?
Authoritarian parents have strict rules and expectations and their children often grow up with lower self esteem and have difficulty in social situations. These children will be more likely to obey as they associate obedience with love.
Democratic parents are more open to negotiation and relaxed about expectations. Children with these parents are less likely to blindly obey as they can accept responsibility for their behaviour and question instructions.
How does perceived legitimate authority affect obedience?
Research suggests that if people think someone is ‘above’ them in a social hierarchy they are more likely to obey. Bickman (1974) suggested that people are more likely to obey someone in a uniform as they see them as having a form of authority over them.
What is an autonomous state and agentic state?
According to Milgram, whether people obey an authority figure or not is dependent on the mental state in which they are in. Autonomous state is seeing yourself as having power.
Individuals act according to their own values and bellefs. They feel they have control and can take responsibility for their actions.
Agentic state is seeing someone else as having power. If an individual is in conflict or feeling stressed, they may look for a higher authority than them to take charge and they will follow their orders.
What is an agentic shift?
People can move from a autonomous state to an agentic state which results in them obeying as they no longer feel responsible for their actions, they can blame someone of higher authority.
