Social Influence - Obedience Flashcards
What is obedience?
…
Research into obedience and the factors affecting it
Milgram: Shock experiment
Bickman: New York
Hofling: Nurses
Milgram variations;
- researcher on phone
- Bridgeport
- holding down arm (proximity)
- Milgram & Elms (F scale)
Explanations of obedience
- the agentic shift
- Legitimacy of authority
- the authoritarian personality
Variables that affect obedience
Situational:
- Proximity (how close you are to potential victim of your obedience/actions)
- Location
- Uniform (links to leg of authority)
Dispositional:
- the authoritarian personality
What do dispositional & situational mean
dispositional = personal factors
situational = environmental factors
What is the agent shift explanation?
- When people are given orders, they are more likely to obey if they can shift the responsibility onto the orderer.
- obedience occurs when you shift from working AUTONOMOUSLY (in charge of own actions & behaviours) to working as an AGENT for somebody else
What is an agent state?
when you do not see yourself as responsible for your behaviour as the orders have come from someone with more seniority or expertise than yourself
What is the legitimacy of authority explanation?
Obedience only occurs when the person giving the order is seen as a legitimate (true) authority
e.g. Teacher = legitimate
Classmate = illegitimate
Research to support the agentic shift as an explanation for obedience
Milgram phone variation
- when the experimenter gave orders down the phone obedience dropped to 20%
- suggests that when they were not in the same room, participants were less likely to shift the responsibility & took more responsibility themselves
Research to support legitimacy of authority as an explanation for obedience
Milgram Bridgeport variation
- original study conducted in prestigious university with respected scientist as researcher
- repeated in poorer area & described as ‘market research’
- obedience dropped to 47% suggesting ‘mr’ men not seen as legitimate an authority
Evidence to support situational variables affecting obedience
Proximity = Milgram: holding down learner’s hand
- only 30% to 450V
- close proximity reduces obedience
Location = Milgram: Bridgeport
- obedience drop to 47%
- links to legitimacy of authority
Uniform = Bickman: New York
- obedience highest for security guard, then business man, then milkman
- someone wearing a uniform seems more legitimate than someone without
What is the authoritarian personality & how is it measured?
- The idea that some people are naturally more authoritarian, and more likely to obey.
- Measured using the F-scale questionnaire (Adorno) which assesses different aspects of people’s personality
(higher score = more authoritarian) - links to the locus of control
Evidence to suport the authoritarian personality affecting obedience
Milgram & Elms: shock repeat with F-scale questionnaire
- Participants with higher scores were more obedient
- supports idea that obedience depends on the nature of an individual
