Obedience Flashcards
Milgram's Study, Legitimacy of Authority, Agentic Shift
When was Milgram’s study conducted?
1963
What happened in Milgram’s study?
The Teacher (P) was told to give the Learner (C) words to remember. If the Learner got it wrong, the Teacher had to administer shocks of 15V increasingly, labelled safe to dangerous. If the Teacher hesitated or tried to leave, the Experimenter (C) would urge them to continue.
What happened at 330V in Milgram’s study?
The Learner would have previously complained of heart aches, and would then fall silent.
What was the original rate of obedience in Milgram’s study?
65% went all the way to 450V.
What happened when the Teacher had a dissenter with them?
Obedience dropped to 10%
- dissenter effect
What variations did Milgram perform?
Location
Proximity
Uniform
How did Proximity affect obedience?
Absent Experimenter - 20.5%
Teacher and Learner together - 40%
Teacher’s hand forced onto switch - 30%
How did Location affect obedience?
Moved from lab setting to old office building - 47.5%
How did Uniform affect obedience?
Confederate Experimenter in plain clothes - 20%
What are the strengths of Milgram’s study?
Remained objective
Used an age ranged 20-50
- increased generalisability
What are the weaknesses of Milgram’s study?
Only males
- gender bias
Ethical issues
- no right to withdraw, fully informed consent etc
Used same learner for all participants
- unknown whether age of learner would affect obedience
Explain the Agentic Shift.
When the person sees himself as an ‘agent’ for another, they see themselves in the agentic state.
- transfer from the autonomous state (free will) to agentic state (acting as an agent) is the agentic shift
- kept in the agentic state due to binding factors
- allows them to minimise the effect of their behaviour
Explain Legitimacy of Authority.
Social hierarchy dictates obedience
- justified power can persuade people to obey
- we believe that they have a justifiable cause
- could be due to uniform, mannerisms, qualifications etc
