social influence - explanations for obedience

Question 1

What are the two explanations for obedience?

Answer 1

• Agentic state
• Legitimacy of authority

Question 2

What is the dispositional explanation of obedience?

Answer 2

Authoritarian personality

Question 3

Agentic state - AO1

Answer 3

• people move from state where they take personal responsibility (autonomous state)
• to state where they believe they are acting on behalf of an authority figure (agentic state)
• known as agentic shift
• agentic state = people lose sense of personal responsibility
• no longer feel guilty for actions
• believe they are acting on behalf of a more knowledgeable authority figure
• more likely to obey

Question 4

Legitimacy of authority - AO1

Answer 4

• obedient individuals accept power and status of authority figures
• e.g. police, teachers, parents
• we see them as being in charge
• accept their credentials
• believe they know what they are doing
• even when unethical/unjust
• factors affecting = uniform, location
• use examples from milligrams variations

Question 5

Research to support - AO3
Milgrams obedience studies

Answer 5

P - research to support comes from Milgram

E - at some point most ppts resisted and asked
- “who is responsible if the learner is harmed?”

E - when experimenter responded ‘I am responsible’
- most ppts continued to give shocks

L - supporting agentic state
- ppts no longer believed they were responsible for their actions
- so they obeyed

Question 6

Research to support - AO3
Hofling

Answer 6

P - research to support comes from Hofling

E - conducted study on nurses in a ward
- unknown doctor asked them to deliver dangerous dose of drug to patients
- over telephone

E - 21/22 nurses agreed
- knowing not to take telephone orders
- were stopped beforehand

L - supports LOA
- doctor had more authority
- also supports agentic state
- nurses may have believed doctor was responsible for their actions
- so they obeyed

Question 7

Research to contradict agentic state - AO3
Mandel (1998)

Answer 7

P - research to contradict comes from Mandel

E - German nazi soldiers agreed to shoot civilians in Poland

E - were given the choice to do other duties instead beforehand

E - contradicts agentic state
- soldiers chose to shoot civilians
- so they cannot place blame on authority figure

Question 8

Alternative explanation - AO3
Authoritarian personality

Answer 8

P - alternative explanation is dispositional factors
- e.g. authoritarian personality

E - argues that obedience is due to internal characteristics of personality
- e.g. having extreme respect for authority due to upbringing

E - suggest that LOA and agentic state are not the only explanations of obedience

L - weakens explanations
- as they are not the sole explanation

Question 9

Strength of LOA - AO3
cultural differences

Answer 9

P - strength of LOA
- can account for cultural differences

E - e.g. in some cultures authority can be seen as more legitimate
- so societies structured differently
- children raised to perceive authority differently

E - supported in cross cultural variations which found differences in obedience
- australia 16% went to 450V
- Germany 85% went to 450V

L - increase internal validity of explanations