Situational variables affecting obedience Flashcards
What are the three external variables affecting obedience?
Proximity, location and uniforms
What does proximity involve?
How aware individuals are of the consequences of their actions in obeying authority figures; when the physical distance between the teacher and learner was made closer participants were less able to divorce themselves from the consequences of their actions and so obedience rates were lower
What percentage of participants obeyed in Milgram’s study when the teacher and learner were in the same room?
40%
What does location involve?
This can be relevant to the amount of perceived authority a person giving orders is seen to have; obedience rates will higher in places that add to the perceived legitimacy, and in institutional settings where obedience is instilled into members
Give an example of location increasing obedience
In the army when a commanding officer orders soldiers to jump, the expected answer is “how high?”
What percentage of Milgram’s participants obeyed when the study took place in a run-down office block?
Obedience rates dropped from 62.5% (Yale University) to 47.5%
What does uniform involve?
Wearing a uniform can give a perception of added legitimacy to authority figures, thus increasing obedience levels
What uniform did the experimenter wear in Milgram’s study?
A lab coat
What did Bickman find?
When being ordered to pick up rubbish, loan a coin or move away from a stop, 19% of New Yorkers obeyed Bickman’s research assistant wearing civilian clothes, 14% when dressed as a milkman and 38% when he wore a security guard’s uniform
What are the two internal explanations for obedience?
Disposition and the authoritarian personality
What is the dispositional explanation for obedience?
The perception that obedience is caused by internal characteristics of individuals
What is the authoritarian personality?
A description of a person who holds rigid beliefs, is intolerant of ambiguity, submissive to authority and hostile to those of lower status or members of an out-group
Who proposed the authoritarian personality and what for?
Fromm; to explain those holding right-wing beliefs
How did Adorno develop Fromm’s ideas?
People with an authoritarian personality have insecurities that lead them to be hostile to non-conventional people and being highly obedient to authority figures. This is due to authoritarian parenting
What did Adorno develop to measure the authoritarian personality?
The F-scale, which has thirty questions to assess the nine personality dimensions
