Situational explanations of obedience

Question 1

situational explanations of obedience

Answer 1

• agentic state
• legitimate authority

Question 2

agentic state

Answer 2

• Milgram argued that people can obey horrific orders cus of the situation they’re in, not cus of their own personalities
• people following orders go from an AUTONOMOUS STATE –> AGENTIC STATE = AGENTIC SHIFT OCCURS
• once in agentic state, people ‘unthinkingly’ carry out orders
  = believe that authority figure is responsible for their actions (diffusion of responsibility), so they don’t feel any guilt
• believe that authority figure is trustworthy
• people are psychologically protected from consequences of their actions = BUFFERS
• person stays in agentic state to not break commitment to authority figure

Question 3

ad of agentic state

Answer 3

• parts in Milgram’s study were less likely to shock Mr Wallace when they were in the same room as him
  = could see the consequences of their actions (no buffers)
  = supports the idea of agentic state
  = being in close proximity would’ve prevented some parts from going into an agentic state

Question 4

disad of agentic state

Answer 4

• without buffers, people shouldn’t go into an agentic state + obey an order to harm someone
• HOWEVER psych reported the case of Major Wilhelm Trapp
• in 1942, Major Trapp was given orders to take a large group of Jewish people to the edge of a polish village + have them shot
• members of his battalion were given the chance to say no, but few did + massacre went ahead
  = this occurred despite the victims being in close proximity to the soldiers

Question 5

legitimate authority

Answer 5

• claims that we recognise our own + other people’s position in the social hierarchy
  = we will obey those who have a higher position in the hierarchy than we do = legitimate authority
  = won’t obey lower than us

Question 6

ads of legitimate authority

Answer 6

• dr + nurses
• uniform

Question 7

disad of legitimate authority

Answer 7

• legitimate authority doesn’t explain why some people are able to resist the order of authority figures
• 35% of parts in Milgram’s study refused to obey the experimenter, even though they had legitimate authority in that situation

Question 8

dr + nurses - ads of legitimate authority

Answer 8

• psych found that nurses would obey a dangerous order from a doctor cus they were in a hospital LOCATION
• nurses received a phone call from an unknown doctor (actor)
• asked her to administer 20mg of astroten
• this broke hospital rules as it was twice the max dose
• the instructions were given over the phone, doctor was unknown, medicine was not on stock list
  = 95% of nurses carried out these instructions despite potential danger
  = cus DOCTORS HAVE LEGITIMATE AUTHORITY

Question 9

uniform - ads of legitimate authority

Answer 9

• psych conducted a study where they asked confederates to order passersby to pick some litter off the street or move away from a bus stop
• confederates were dressed as either a guard, milkman or in smart clothes
  = 90% of people obeyed the guard
  = only 50% obeyed the civilian
• a person in guard uniform is likely to be perceived as a legitimate authority figure