OBEDIENCE: SOCIAL-PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS

Question 1

AGENTIC STAGE

Answer 1

• obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person does not take responsibility
• they believe they are acting for someone else, i.e they are an ‘agent’
• experience high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise that what they are doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey.

Question 2

AUTONOMOUS STATE

Answer 2

• opposite to agentic state
  ‘Autonomy’ = independent of free
• free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their actions

Question 3

AGENTIC SHIFT

Answer 3

• shift from autonomy –> ‘agency’
• Milgram argued this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority
• has greater power due to their position in a social hierarchy

Question 4

BINDING FACTORS

Answer 4

• aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling
• ppts want to quit, but seem unable to do so due to these factors
• may include SHIFTING RESPONSIBILITY to the victim or DENYING the damage they were doing

Question 5

LEGITIMACY OF AUTHORITY

Answer 5

• e.g. parents, teachers, police officers have some kind of authority over us at times
• their authority is legitimate as it is agreed by society
• most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others as this allows society to function smoothly.
• consequence = some granted the power to punish others
• we learn acceptance of legitimate authority from childhood, from parents initially and then teachers and adults generally

Question 6

DESTRUCTIVE AUTHORITY

Answer 6

• powerful leaders (Hitler, Stalin) can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in way that are callous, cruel and dangerous
• clearly shown in Milgram’s study –> experimenter used prods to order ppts to behave in ways that went against their consciences.
  AO2: MY LAI MASSACRE:
• only one soldier faced charged and was found guilty of 504 murders of unarmed civilians in the Vietnam War
• his defence was the same as Nazi officers –> he was only doing his duty following orders

Question 7

AO3: RESEARCH SUPPORT

Answer 7

BLASS & SCHMITT (2001) showed a film of Milgram’s study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for harm to the learner
- blamed ‘experimenter’ rather than the ppt
- indicated the responsibility was due to legitimate authority but also due to expert authority (he was a scientist)
- they recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience
COUNTER: EXPERIMENTAL REDUCTIONIST: results only due to the situation in the experiment, not a reflection of real-life

Question 8

AO3: LIMITED EXPLANATION

Answer 8

• agentic shift does not explain many of the research findings
• e.g. does not explain why some ppts did NOT obey (humans are social animals involved in social hierarchies so should all obey)
• agentic shift predicts that the nurses should have shown levels of anxiety similar to Milgram’s ppts, as they understood their role in a destructive process, but this was NOT THE CASE.
• RANK & JACOBSON (1977) - 16/18 hospital nurses DISOBEYED orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose
• at best, the agentic shift can only account for SOME situations of obedience

Question 9

AO3: CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

Answer 9

• legitimacy of authority studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are traditionally obedient to authority
• e.g. KILHAM & MANN(1974) replicated it in Australia and found that only 16% of ppts went all the way to the top
• MANTELL (1971) found 85% for German ppts
• shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate ad entitled to demand obedience from people
• reflects the way that diff societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures
• INCREASE VALIDITY