SLT: Obedience

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

A form of social influence in which an individual follows a direct order. The person issuing the order is usually a person of authority who has the power to punish when obedient behaviour is not forthcoming

Question 2

Milgram’s baseline procedure

Answer 2

• 40 American men volunteered to be part of a study at Yale university
• When each volunteer arrived at the lab, he was introduced to another volunteer (confederate). They drew lots to see who would be teacher and who would be learner but the draw was fixed so volunteer would always be the teacher.
• Teacher could not see learner but hear him
• Teacher had to give learner electric shock every time learner made a mistake on memory task
• Shocks increased by 15 volts each time up to 450 volts
• Shocks were fake but volunteer did not know this

Question 3

Baseline findings

Answer 3

Every participant delivered a voltage up to 300. 12.5% of participants stopped at 300. 65% continued to highest level. Milgram also collected qualitative data including observations like participants showed signs of extreme tension

Question 4

Conclusions

Answer 4

Milgram concluded German people were not ‘different’. The American participants in his study were willing to obey orders even when they might harm another person. He suspected there were certain factors in the situation that encouraged obedience.

Question 5

Why did Milgram conduct this experiment?

Answer 5

He sought an answer to the question to why such a high proportion of German population obeyed Hitlers commands that led to murder 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.

Question 6

Evaluation of Milgram’s research

Answer 6

Low internal validity - 75% of patients said they believed the shocks were genuine. 2/3 of these were disobedient. Participants may have shown demand characteristics

Question 7

Alternative interpretation of Milgram’s theory

Answer 7

According to social identity theory participants in Milgram’s study only obeyed when they identified with scientific aims of the research. When they refer ordered to blindly obey an authoritative figure they refused.

Question 8

Ethical issues with Milgram’s experiment

Answer 8

Participants were deceived, e.g. the allocation of teacher and learner roles was random but in fact was fixed. Also thought the shocks were real. Milgram dealt with this by debriefing participants

Question 9

What are situational variables?

Answer 9

Features of the immediate physical and social environment which may influence a person’s behaviour (such as proximity, location etc).

Question 10

What are dispositional variables?

Answer 10

Behaviour is explained in terms of personality

Question 11

Milgram situational variables: Proximity

Answer 11

In baseline study, teacher could hear learner but not see him. In proximity variation teacher and learner were in the same room. Caused obedience to decrease from original 65% to 40% Because participant felt more responsible for the consequences of their actions so obedience decreased

Question 12

Milgram situational variables: Touch proximity

Answer 12

Teacher had to force learners hand onto electric shock plate when he refused to answer a question Obedience dropped to 30% Because participant felt more responsible for the consequences of their actions so obedience decreased

Question 13

Milgram situational variables: Remote instruction variation

Answer 13

Experimenter left the room and gave instructions to teacher by the phone. Obedience dropped to 20.5% and participants often pretended to give shocks

Question 14

Milgram situational variables: Uniform

Answer 14

In baseline study, experimenter wore a grey lab coat as a symbol of authority. In variation, experimenter wore every day casual clothes. Obedience decreased to 20% (thee lowest of these variations. Uniforms show legitimacy of authority so we accept that someone with a uniform is entitled to expect obedience.

Question 15

Milgram situational variables: Location

Answer 15

Baseline study took place at Yale university. The variation took place in a run-down office block instead. Obedience decreased to 47.5% The university showed legitimacy and authority unlike the run down office block. However obedience was still quite high in the office block because participants perceived the ‘scientific’ nature of the procedure

Question 16

What is the autonomous state?

Answer 16

People direct their own actions and they take responsibility for the results of those actions

Question 17

What is the agentic state?

Answer 17

Acting as an agent for an authoritative figure and therefore not responsible for personal behaviour. Conformity increases in this state

Question 18

What did Milgram suggest people must be in place to be in the agentic state?

Answer 18

The person giving the orders is perceived as being qualified to direct other people’s behavior. That is, they are seen as legitimate. The person being ordered about is able to believe that the authority will accept responsibility for what happens.

Question 19

Hofling (1966) research

Answer 19

He wanted to investigate obedience and acting i an agent state in hospitals.

• Nurses instructed over phone by “Dr smith” to give a drug to a patient exceeding maximum dose which goes against hospital protocal
• 95% obeyed out of 22 nurses
• 100% knew it went agaisnt protocal

Question 20

Adorno (1950) dispositional theory

Answer 20

The authoritarian personality:

• Hostile to those of lower status
• Blind respect for authority
• Preoccupation with power

Question 21

Elms (1966) evaluation of authoritarian personality

Answer 21

• Follow up on Milgrams study, there were 20 obedient and 20 defiant participants who took the F scale. Obedient participants were more authoritarian than defiant participants

Question 22

What can be concluded from Elms study on authoritarian personalities?

Answer 22

Obedient people have more of an authoritarian personality than defiant people due to their upbringing for example harsh parenting

Question 23

Evaluation of F scale

Answer 23

• Obedient participants of original study scored higher on F scale than disobedient ones, supproting the validity of authoritarian personality as an explanation of obedience
• F scale is open to social desireability bias, so may not be a valid measurement
• Less educated individuals are more likely to display authoritarian characteristics than well educated ones, so may be levels of education that effect obedience and not authoritarian personality (CONFOUNDING VARIABLE)

Question 24

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 24

Societies structured in hierarchical way, people accept authority figures have been allowed to exercise power

• Consequences of legitimacy of authority is that they have the power to punish people

Question 26

Destructive authority

Answer 26

• Powerful leaders have been able to use their powers for destructive purposes like ordering people to be cruel
• Obvious in Milgrams study as experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways that wet against their conciences