Social Influence: Explanations For Obedience Flashcards
The agentic state is
A mental state where a person doesn’t feel responsible for their actions. They believe they’ve acting for an authority figure ie as their agent. An agent is someone who acts for or in place of another and they experience high anxiety when they realise what they’re doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey.
Legitimacy of authority is…
An explanation for obedience which suggests people are more likely to obey people who they perceive as having an authority over them.
The aim of Milgram’s obedience study (1963) was…
To investigate whether ordinary Americans would obey an unjust order from a person in authority to inflict pain on another person.
The method of Milgram’s obedience study (1963) was…
40 American male volunteers were told they’d be taking part in a study on the role of punishment in learning. Lab study at Yale University. Participants = allocated ‘teacher’ role and were told that when the ‘learner’ (a confederate) gave them an incorrect answer in a word pairing test they should give them an eletric shock. Shocks weren’t real but participants didn’t know this. An ‘experimenter’ dressed in white lab coat oversaw this experiment and encouraged participants to continue to increase voltage.
The results of Milgram’s obedience study (1963) were…
ALL participants gave shocks to at least 30 volts. 65% participants went to full 450 volts. Some participants showed extreme tension e.g. sweating, trembling and digging their nails into their hands.
The conclusion of Milgram’s obedience study (1963) is…
Under certain circumstances participants will obey an authority figure, even when they feel uncomfortable doing so.
Milgram Evaluatuon: High control
Uses the experimental method so has control over extraneous variables and can establish the cause and effect. Using this method researcher can be more sure that it is the IV that is causing the DV. Strength because we can be confident that results about obedience are not being affected by confounding variables and are internally valid.
Milgram Evaluation: Low ecological validity
Experiment conducted in unfamiliar controlled environment and the task was artificial because it’s not a normal everyday task. Limitation because the results difficult to generalise to real life situations of obedience (low external validity).
Milgram Evaluation: Low population validity
All participants in the study were American males, so not representative of all people. Limitation because the results about obedience may can’t be generalised to the behaviours of others.
Milgram Evaluation: Ethical issues
Milgram deceived his participants with the use of confederates, fake electric shocks and by telling the participants that the study was on punishment on learning. Also his participants weren’t protected from psychological harm as they became stressed out - participants showed signs of tension. Limitation because it goes against the current BPS ethical guidelines for conducting psychological research.
The authoritarian personality is…
A personality characterised by strict adherence to conventional values and a belief in absolute obedience or submission to authority. A dispositions explanation for obedience.
The authoritarian personality comes from…
Result of harsh parenting and it’s often formed in childhood
Evaluation: Authoritarian personality research (Adorno et al)
Elms and Milgram interviewed participants from obedience study and had them complete the
F-scale. 20 obedient participants scored much higher than 20 disobedient participants. Strength because findings support Adorno et al’s view that obedient people show similar characteristic to those with an authoritarian personality which increases validity.
Evaluation: Authoritarian personality research counterpoint (Adorno et al)
Found that obedient participants had characteristic which were unusual for authoritarians e.g. they didn’t experience unusual levels of punishment in childhoood. Limitation because suggests the link between authoritarian personality and obedience is complex which decreases validity
