obedience ; situational explantions Flashcards
what is the agentic state?
-obedience to destructive authority occurs as a prsn doesnt take responsiblity
- instead theyre acting for someone else ‘agent’
- experience high moral strain and anxiety(know what theyre doing is wrong but feel powerless to disboey)
what is the autonomous state?
-opposite to agentic, inpendant or free
-responsible for own actions
what is the agentic shift?
-shift from autonomy to agency
-someone percieves someone else as a authority figure
- authority figure has more power, higher in social hierarchy
what are binding facotrs?
- when participants want to disobey but seemed powerless
- binding factors made them remain in a agentic state - minimise the damamging affect of their behavioir
-reduces their moral strain
-shift reponsiblity to vicitm e.g they voulnteered so theyre foolish
what is legitimacy of authority?
-obey people who are higher in social hierarchy bc they deserve to be respected
-they have more power and can inflcit a consquence
what is destructive authority?
-people may be ordered to behave in cruel ways
-may cause alot of damage
strengths of research support:
(milgram and kelman and hamilton)
-when experimenters in milgrams study responded they are responsible, the Ps went through the procedure quick with no further objections
-16% women went up to 450 volts and german Ps was 85%, in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitmate, reflects societies structures and how children are rasied
-kelman and hamilton argue commander officers would have greater legitmate hierachy than hospital doctors as they have the greater power to actually inflict a punishment.
limitations of research support:
(nurses, battle and innate tendancies)
- doesnt explain jacobsons and ranks study where they found; 16 out of 18 nurses diobeyed a doctor telling them to give an excessive drug dose
doctor was an obvious auhtority figure
nurses remained autonomous
-battalion 101= this is where men shot many civillians in small town in poland (told they could be assingned to other duties if preffered but they behaved autonomously)
-particular Ps may just be more or less disobdient than others, innate tendencies to obey or disobey may have greater infulence than legitmacy of authority.
summary of adornos et al study?
-those who scored highly identified w strong people and disrespct the weak
-conscious of status, obedient to high status
-respect authority
-believe we need strong and powerful leaders to enforce traditional values such as love of country
what was adorno et al saying about obedience?
(were living in Nazi germany but ran to USA,
to carry on with their research, freudians)
high level of obedience and prejudice was basically a psychological disorder(personality)
-piloted and developed the questionaire that they called the F scale( facism)
- some personality traits predisposed some individuals to be highly tolitarian (controling) and antidemocractic
evidence to support adorno et al
-case studies e.g nazis
-psychometric testing (personality test- F scale)
-clinical interviews- revealed situational aspects of their childhood such as the fact they had been brought up by strict parents/ guardians- Ps who scored higher in F scale.
