Obedience Flashcards
Explain obedience to authority
Refers to a type of social influence whereby somebody acts acts in response to a direct order from a figure with authority.
Explain the procedure of the Milgram experiment (1963)
- Involved 40 participants at a time over a series of conditions to calculate its effect on obedience.
- The participants were told it was a study of how punishment affects learning.
- 2 confederates, an experimenter and another volunteer.
- They had to draw lots was it was rigged so that the participant was always the teacher.
- The teacher had to test the learner to their ability to remember word pairs.
- Every time they got one wrong, the teacher had to administer an electric shock - 15 to 450 volts.
- The learned mainly gave the wrong answer and received (fake) shocks in silence until 300 volts.
- If the teacher refused to continue, the experimenter repeat sayings like “it is essential that you continue”.
What were Milgram’s findings?
- Before the study, Milgram asked psychiatrists and college students to predict how long the participants would go before refusing to continue.
- These groups predicted that very few would go beyond 150 volts and only 1 in 1,000 would go to 450.
- The research found that 26 out of 40 participants (65%) continued to 450 volts.
- All participants went to 300 volts and only 5 (12.5%) stopped there and was the first point where the learner objected to answer.
What are the factors that affect obedience?
1) Proximity
2) Location
3) Uniform
How does proximity affect obedience?
With both teacher and learner in the same room, obedience levels fell to 40% as the teacher was able to experience the learners anguish more directly.
How does location affect obedience?
When the studies were conducted in a psychology lab, some participants remarked that the location of the study gave them confidence. Obedience rates dropped when the location changed to a less prestigious place.
How does uniform affect obedience?
Research has shown that uniform can have a powerful effect on obedience. They are easily recognisable and show power and authority.
Bushman(1988) carried out a study where a women would dress up as different people, including a police officer and a beggar.
People were asked by the women to give money to a male researcher.
When in uniform, 72% of people obeyed, but obedience rates were much lower when dressed in other clothes.
Was Milgram’s study ethical?
Milgram’s study was criticised for his lack of concern for the psychological well-being of his participants.
He deceived them given that he did not reveal the true objective of the experiment. Additionally, many displayed distress and a desire to no longer participate.
Milgram claimed the participants were free to leave at any time but they felt they had no choice and were obliged to continue.
Participants were assured that their behaviour was common and Milgram also followed the sample up a year later and found that there were no signs of any long term psychological harm.
Does individual differences affect Milgram’s results?
A commonly held assumption that females would be more susceptible to social influence than men, therefore we might find gender differences in obedience.
However Milgram did have one condition in his experiment where the participants were female and their rates of obedience were exactly the same.
Does lack of realism (internal validity) affect Milgram’s results?
Participants in studies had begun to distrust the experimenters as they know the true nature of the experiment may be disguised.
The experimenter remained cool and distant from the victim leading the participant to believe the victim’s pain could not be real.
How does the obedience alibi (external validity) affect Milgram’s results?
Mandel says that what Milgram said about obedience isn’t a good explanation for why people obey.
He also says that it cannot be used as an alibi for why atrocious acts are committed.
An example of testing obedience in real life was in 1942 in Poland where there were orders to carry out a mass killing of Jews.
However, their commanding officer made an offer to his men that if they were not comfortable with this or didn’t ‘feel up to it’ they could be assigned different duties.
Only a small minority took up the offer. The vast majority carried out their duties with no protest.
It could be believed that these acts were actually committed because the soldiers internalised the position that they were asked to take.
What is the agentic state?
The ‘Agentic Shift’ is when a person moves from an autonomous state, where a person accepts sole responsibility, to the Agentic State.
This state is when a person carries out the wishes of another - ‘I wouldn’t have done it by myself. I was just doing what I was told’.
The consequence of being in this state is that an individual will feel responsibility towards the authority figure but not to the person affected by the dictated actions.
How is self image related to agentic state?
One explanation for why people adopt an agentic state is the need to maintain positive self-image.
One might assume that an individual would want to protect their self-image and refrain from the experiment.
However, once the participant has gone into the agentic state, they feel no responsibility for their actions that the authority dictates.
Because they think the action is no longer their responsibility, they believe it no longer reflects their self-image.
Explain binding factors
Binding factors regards to what prevents participants from leaving the agentic state.
In reference to experiments, a social etiquette is present which in turn regulates their behaviour.
In order to call off the study, the participant would have to break off their commitment to the experiment.
This could result in them appearing arrogant or rude. Such behaviour would not be appreciated by the experimenter and would reflect badly on the participants self image.
Explain legitimacy of authority
The first condition necessary for a person to shift to the agentic state is the perception of a legitimate authority.
People expect there to be a social controlling figure and people interpret authority through phrases, introductory remarks and a “sense” of authority.
For example, in Milgram’s study the experimenter stood whilst the participant sat - visible demonstration of the social hierarchy.
Explain how legitimate authority requires an institution
If an authority figure’s commands are potentially harmful or destructive, for them to be perceived as legitimate they must occur within some sort of institution structure e.g a university, the military.
One study moved from Yale University to a run down building, the study was conducted by ‘Research Associates of Bridgeport,’
It was an unimpressive firm lacking in evidence of authority, yet it still held high levels of obedience.
What is the definition of the situation?
- There is a tendency for people to accept definitions of a situation that are provided by a legitimate authority.
- Although it is the participant himself who performs the action (i.e. shocks the learner) he allows the authority figure to define its meaning.
On one hand, the apparent suffering of the learner convinces him that he should quit, but on the other, the experimenter, a legitimate authority to whom the subject feels some commitment, orders him to continue, reassuring the participant that the learner is, in fact, fine and not in any danger.
Does the agentic state explain real life obedience?
Milgram believes that people continuously shift between that autonomous and agentic state
However, this idea of rapid shift fails to explain the gradual and irreversible change undergone by doctors in Auschwitz by Lifton in 1986
Staub (1989) suggests that rather than agentic shift being responsible for the shift in behaviour, it is rather the experience that changes people
Is cruelty a factor of being in the agentic state
Although Milgram believed that the agentic state explains his findings the best, another possibility he conceded was that cruelty was a major factor in the explanation of his findings.
The participants had started to be cruel to each other, which scientists say was to express their sadistic impulses
This can be seen within the Stanford Prison Experiment. During the SPE the guards became increasingly cruel and sadistic
What are the disadvantages of legitimate authority and real life obedience?
Legitimacy can serve as the basis for justifying the harming of someone.
If people authorise another person to make judgements for them about what is appropriate conduct, they no longer feel that their own moral values are relevant.
When directed by a legitimate authority figure to engage in immoral actions, people are willing to do so.
For example: extreme obedience is fostered in the course of military training
Characteristics of an authoritarian personality
Extreme respect for authority and obedience to it, very inflexible outlook, hatred for minorities.
Origins of an authoritarian personality
Harsh parenting results in hostility but cannot be expressed against parents so displaced.
Outline Adorno’s procedure on authoritarian personality
- He investigated the cause of the obedient personality in a study of more than 2000 middle-class americans and their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups.
- They developed the f scale (fascism scale) which is used to measure authoritarian personality.
Give two examples from the F - scale
- “Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn”.
- “There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude and respect for his parents”.
