obedience

Question 1

what is obedience?

Answer 1

complying with the demands of an authority figure
-generally positive effect (complying with law)
-some negative effect (Eg nazi germany, led milgram to studying if germans had different susceptibility causing obedience)

Question 2

how do studies like asch’s and milgram’s relate to ethics?

Answer 2

led to the development of ethical considerations

Question 3

how does psychological harm relate to milgram’s study?

Answer 3

+caused severe stress, exhibited by extreme physical reactions (3 had seizures)
-only 2% regretted being involved, 74% said they felt they had learned something new about themselves
-a year after all 40 ps received psychiatric assessments, none showed signs of long-term damage
+perry said debriefing didn’t always occur as milgram was worried about the study becoming common knowledge before his work was finished (debriefing could confound results)
-baumrind said milgram abused ps rights, but milgram didn’t expect the results. before the study he asked 40 psychiatrists what percentage they thought would get to 450V, they said 1%

Question 4

how does deception and informed consent relate to milgrams study?

Answer 4

+were deceived, said the study was about ‘memory and learning’, mr wallace was an actor,
-milgram defended his use of deception through debriefing, and deception was necessary for ps to act naturally

Question 5

how does right to withdraw relate to milgrams study?

Answer 5

+no explicit right to withdraw was given, attempts to withdraw were met with verbal prompts to continue
-milgram argued there was a right to withdraw that 35% of p’s exercised by refusing to continue

Question 6

how does inducement to take part relate to milgrams study?

Answer 6

+paid to take part, which could make ps believe they had to finish the study to get the money
-advert stated money would be given upon arrival, and no p claimed they thought they had to complete the study to get paid

Question 7

internal validity of milgrams study

Answer 7

-orne and holland 1968 said internal validity was low, arguing ps were only administering the shocks because they knew they were fake (altho the extreme physical responses and debriefing suggest otherwise)

Question 8

what are the 4 external validity issues with milgram’s study?

Answer 8

-androcentrism
-cultural bias
-historical validity
-ecological validity

Question 9

how does androcentrism relate to milgram’s study?

Answer 9

-only male participants were used, so results are accused of being inapplicable to females
-it’s imagined females would be less likely to obey to acts with destructive outcomes, but research has indicated the opposite, maybe because gender roles make them more submissive
-sheridan and king 1972 - modification of milgram with puppies instead, and both male and female ps, 54% of males and 100% of females obeyed to 450V

Question 10

how does cultural bias relate to milgrams study?

Answer 10

-only used american ps, may not be generalisable to other cultures
-meeus + raaijimakers - highest obedience rate of 90% in spain, but kilham and mann found lowest of 28% in australia

Question 11

how does historical validity relate to milgram’s study?

Answer 11

-high american obedience could be a result of american culture being very authoritarian and obedient during the 60s, so doesn’t reflect today

Question 12

how does ecological validity relate to milgram’s study?

Answer 12

-unrepresentative of real life situations

Question 13

what are the 2 explanations for obedience?

Answer 13

-the agentic state
-legitimacy of authority

Question 14

what is the agency theory?

Answer 14

-milgram = agency theory
-argues we are taught from a young age to be obedient, but to do this we have to give up some of our free will
-leads to either autonomous state or agentic state
-autonomous state = being personally responsible for your own actions
-sees obedience as occurring in hierarchical social systems

Question 15

what is the agentic state?

Answer 15

-responsibility for an outcome is handed over to the authority figure, individual sees themselves acting as an agent

Question 16

research on the agency theory

Answer 16

-milgram 1974 - when there was a ‘remote authority’ (teacher wasn’t in the room, gave orders via telephone), obedience declined from 62.5% to 20.5%, suggesting ps were in an autonomous state

Question 17

what is legitimacy of authority?

Answer 17

-obedient people accept the power and status of authority figures
-from an early age we experience master-servant relationships eg parent-child, teacher-student etc

Question 18

research on legitimacy of authority

Answer 18

-milgram 1963 - some p’s ignored learners distress, focused on their job eg pressing the buttons correctly, suggesting they were performing a duty, recognising the legitimacy of authority of the researcher

Question 19

what is the third explanation for obedience?

Answer 19

-dehumanisation
-easy to obey orders that result in negative consequences if the recipient is dehumanised first (can think they deserve it)
-milgram 1963 - some ps made comments like ‘that guy is was so stupid he deserved to be shocked’

Question 20

what are the three situational variables of the external situation?

Answer 20

-proximity
-location
-uniforms

Question 21

how does proximity effect obedience?

Answer 21

-proximity = how aware people are of the consequences of their actions in obeying
-milgram 1974 - when the teacher and learner were in the same room, obedience declined from 62.5% to 40%, when the teacher had to force the learners hand onto a shock plate it decreased to 30%

Question 22

how does location relate to obedience?

Answer 22

-location can relate to perceived legitimacy of authority (higher perceived legitimacy = higher obedience)
-obedience rates are often highest in institutionalised settings (milgram’s study took place in Yale, could have contributed)
-milgram 1974 - variation where he performed it in a run-down office block, obedience dropped from 62.5% to 47.5%

Question 23

how do uniforms relate to obedience?

Answer 23

-uniforms can add legitimacy to authority figures
-in milgram’s OG study the researcher wore a lab coat
-bickman 1974 - ordering people in NYC to pick up rubbish/loan a coin/move away from a bus station, 19% obeyed when dressed in civilian clothes, 14% when dressed as a milkman, 38% when dressed as a security guard

Question 24

what is the dispositional explanation for obedience?

Answer 24

-an internal explanation
-sees personal characteristics as affecting someone’s degree of obedience
-authoritarian personality developed by fromm 1941 - a person who holds rigid beliefs, intolerant to ambiguity, submissive to authority and hostile to those of a lower status
-adorno et al 1950 - these people had insecurities that led them to be hostile to non-conventional people, and saw this being shaped in early childhood through authoritarian parenting (then conducted the F-scale questionnaire)
-jost et al 2003 - its motivated by fear of social change, obedience can reduce this

Question 25

research on the dispositional explanation

Answer 25

-elms + milgram 1966 - highly obedient ps in milgram’s study were more authoritarian on the f-scale than disobedient ps

Question 26

evaluate the dispositional explanation

Answer 26

-f-scale has some research support, but some authoritarian ppl don’t score highly on all dimensions
-f-scale has response bias as the questions are worded in a confirming direction
-altemeyer made the right wing authoritarianism scale (RWA) which had an equal number of pro- and anti- statements
-theory is politically biased, as people with an authoritarian personality are seen as only being right-wing conservatives