⭐︎ obedience - explanations✅

Question 1

what is obedience?

Answer 1

individual follows orders and instructions willingly

Question 2

1️⃣what are the 3 situational variables that explain obedience?

Answer 2

proximity
location
uniform

Question 3

proximity:
why did proximity make a difference in milgrams study?

in his first study, where was the learner and the teacher?

what happened to the obedience rates when they were in the same room?

Answer 3

the closer the learner and teacher, the more obedience

in different rooms so they could only hear each other

dropped from 65% - 40%

Question 4

proximity:

what happened in the touch proximity variation?

Answer 4

the teacher forced the learners Hand on the shock plate - obedience dropped to 30%

Question 5

location:
where was the location of the obedience study?

what did obedience fall too?

what does this suggest?

Answer 5

located in a run down building rather then a prestigious university (Yale)

47.5%

the experimenter has less authority in this setting

Question 6

uniform:
what did the experimenter wear originally?

what did the experimenter do in one variation?

what did the obedience rate drop to?

what does this suggest about uniform?

Answer 6

a lab coat to signify some authority and importance

left the room by a “phone call” and was replaced by an ordinary member of the public

20% ( the lowest )

that uniform is important to symbol author and ppl will obey

Question 7

AO3- situational factors:

2 strengths✅

Answer 7

✅research by Bickman that supports the influence of situational variables & legitimacy of authority using a field study. 39% of public would pick up litter by an investigator dressed as a security guard, only 14% for dressed as milkman

✅ Milgram has control over variables - shows cause and effects of relationships… highly controlled experiment, replicable in other cultures

Question 8

AO3- situational factors:

3 weaknesses❌

Answer 8

❌lacks mundane realism - highly controlled lab exp, in real life ppl may obey bc of other reasons

❌the variations may have demand characteristics - ppts were likely to know it was fake when a random member of the public came in and thereby may have acted differently on purpose after guessing the aims of the study … should have just got the same experimenter to change their clothes

❌milgrams conclusions provide an ‘obedience alibi’ - the findings are an excuse for obedience suggesting its the situation thats responsible not the person

Question 9

2️⃣what are the two social- psychological explanations?

Answer 9

1- agentic state

2- legitimacy of authority

Question 10

agentic state:
- when does agentic state occur?

• what is the opposite of agent state?
• when does an agentic shift occur?

Answer 10

• carry out the orders from an authority figure (agent) not responsible for own actions
• autonomous state = feeling of freedom, person acts how they want and take responsibliity for their actions
• shift from autonomy to being an ‘agent’ - when we perceive some one as an authorise figure and allow them to control our behaviour

Question 11

agentic state:

• what do binding factors reduce?
• give an example of a strategy proposed by milgram that an individual can use?

Answer 11

• reduce the ‘moral strain’ of obeying immoral orders in a situation
• shifting the responsibility to the victim or denying the damage there causing on the victim

Question 12

legitimacy to authority:
who are the ppl who most often get obeyed?

what make these authorities legitimate? what do they believe this does for society?

Answer 12

those at the top of the social hierarchy who we perceive to hold the most power

the society beliefs and agreement strengthen the legitimacy
most ppl believe having someone of higher power helps society function properly.

Question 13

legitimacy to authority:
what is one consequence of legitimate authority?

where do we learn to accept these powerful figure in society?

Answer 13

people are granted the power to punish others and one ppl abuse this power

during childhood and our upbringing (socialisation)

Question 14

legitimacy to authority:

what kind of purposes do some charismatic leaders use their powers for?

example of a leader and was the did?

Answer 14

destructive purposes

hitler - he punished ppl and ordered ppl how to behave cruelly and dangerously

Question 15

AO3- legitimacy to authority:

✅2 strengths

Answer 15

✅ Legitimacy of authority is supported by cultural differences. In countries where obedience and deference to authority is less valued (such as Australia), obedience rates are much lower than in countries that value legitimate authority figures (such as Germany), suggesting legitimacy of authority does play a part in obedience.

✅ high temporal validity, can be applied to historical events such as hitler and the jews

✅ link to bickmans study, the guard seemed to be a legitimate authority figure

Question 16

AO3- legitimacy of authority:

✅ - hoffling

Answer 16

a strength is research to support. Hoffling got a confed to pretend to be a doctor and phone 22 nurses requesting them to search for a drug in a medicine cabinet. the drug was clearly labelled max dose was 10mg but were told to give 20mg.

• found that 21/22 nurses obeyed the orders of going to give the drug
• 10 nurses said they were going to do it bc a doctor told them too - authority

Question 17

3️⃣dispositional explanations:

what is the dispositional factor

what is it?

what did Adorno et al want to understand?

Answer 17

the authoritarian personality

refers to a person who has extreme respect for authority and is more likely to be obedient to those who hold power over them.

the anti- semitism of the holocaust - they believed in questioning obedience is a psychological disorder

Question 18

authoritarian personality:
what beliefs did Adorno et al find that ppl with this personality are most likely to have?

where is it assumed to begin?

Answer 18

1-extreme respect for authority and submissiveness to it
2- express contempt for ppl of inferior social status
3- black and white views … conventional attitudes towards race and gender

in childhood due to very strict parenting, severe criticism, impossibly high standards and expectation of absolute loyalty

Question 19

authoritarian personality:
- what do these experiences create for those with this personality?

• where do feelings get displaced too? (scapegoating)

Answer 19

• they create resentment and hostility in the cold, they cant express these feelings directly against their parents because they fear reprisals
• onto weaker ppl (scapegoating) explaining hatred on socially inferior ppl

Question 20

ao3 - dispositional explanations:

❌ 3 weaknesses

Answer 20

❌ Adorno found many significant correlations (e.g. Authoritarianism correlated with prejudice against minority groups) but we cannot say that one variable causes another – Adorno cannot claim that a harsh parenting style caused a development of an Authoritarian personality, we must consider other explanations like legitimacy of authority.

❌ Adorno used a biased sample – Only used 2000 middle class white Americans who are more likely to have an Authoritarian personality due to demographics and the time of the study – Research lacks population validity and historical validity, so conclusions cannot be generalised to people outside the sample.

❌ It is possible that the F scale suffers from response bias or social desirability, where participants provide answers that are socially acceptable. For example, participants may appear more authoritarian because they believe that their answers are the socially ‘correct’ and consequently they are incorrectly classified as authoritarian when they are not

Question 21

AO3 - agentic state

✅ strength

❌ weakness

Answer 21

✅ research to support - class and Schmidt showed student a film of milligrams study and got them to say who was responsible for the harm to the learners. students blamed the experimenter hater then the ppt. this responsibility was due to legitimate authority as the experimenter was at the top pf the experiment hierarchy so they blamed him saying he was responsible and others acting on behalf of him.

❌ Cannot explain Nazi behavior – Mandel described how the German Police Reserve shot civilians in a small Polish town even though they were not directly ordered to and were told they could be assigned to other duties – Challenges agentic state as they were not powerless to obey.