Variables of Obedience

Question 1

What are the variables of obedience?

Answer 1

• Situational.
• Dispositional.

Question 2

What are the situational variables of obedience?

Answer 2

• Proximity.
• Location.
• Uniform.

Question 3

How does proximity affect obedience?

Answer 3

Being further away from the consequences of our actions leads to increased levels of obedience.

Question 4

What research supports proximity affecting obedience?

Answer 4

• Milgram found that when the participant and learner were in the same room obedience levels dropped to 40%.
• Milgram found that when the participant was instructed to take the hand of the learner and place it on a plate to recieve the shock obedience levels dropped to 30%.

Question 5

How does location affect obedience?

Answer 5

• Prestigious buildings adds to the legitimacy of the authority figure.
• Obedience rates are higher in institutional settings and are deemed to have a legitimacy all of their own.

Question 6

What research supports location affecting obedience?

Answer 6

• Milgram found there was an obedience rate of 62.5% when the experiment was carried out at Yale but an obedience rate of 47.5% when carried out in an office block in a run-down town.

Question 7

How does uniform affect obedience?

Answer 7

Adds further legitimacy to an authority figure.

Question 8

What research supports uniform affecting obedience?

Answer 8

• Bickman found that 38% of individuals obeyed instructions from an individual dressed as a security guard whereas only 14% of individuals obeyed an individual dressed as a milkman.

Question 9

What is a dispositional variable of obedience?

Answer 9

Authoritarian personality.

Question 10

Who proposed the idea of an authoritarian personality?

Answer 10

Adorno et al. (1950).

Question 11

How does an individual’s early childhood experiences affect the likelihood of them having an authoritarian personality?

Answer 11

Children raised in strict households are throught to be more likely to develop an authoritarian personality type.

Question 12

What do individual’s who score higher on authoritarian personality tests display?

Answer 12

• Higher levels of obedience to authority.
• Higher levels of discipline.

Question 13

What test did Adorno design?

Answer 13

The F-scale test, the F standing for fascist.

Question 14

What was the purpose of the F-scale test?

Answer 14

To measure levels of authoritarian personality.

Question 15

What are the weaknesses of the F-scale test?

Answer 15

• The questionnaire is easily manipulated meaning participants might have been able to second guess the questions.
• It also correlates with education levels, providing a possible alternative explanation.

Question 16

What research supports dispositional variables of obedience?

Answer 16

Elms and Milgram (1966) found a correlation between personality type and authoritarian personality using Milgram’s procedure.

Question 17

What is the weakness of Elms and Milgram (1966)?

Answer 17

They conducted a correlational study and thus we cannot be sure that personality type was the cause of the high levels of obedience as correlation doesn’t equal causation.