Obedience

Question 1

Define obedience

Answer 1

A type of social influence where an individual complies with or follows a direct order, usually from a figure of authority

Question 2

Why did Milgram want to study obedience?

Answer 2

The holocaust inspired him as he was interested by how the Nazis obeyed Hitler. He wanted too see if Germans are different to everyone else or if Americans would do it

Question 3

Outline key information about the participants of Milgram’s study

Answer 3

-40 males
-Ages of 20 to 50
-37.5% were manual labourers, 40% were white-collar workers and 22.5% were professionals
-Were given $4 per hour

Question 4

Outline the procedure of Milgram’s study?

Answer 4

The researcher saw at which point the participants would refuse to get an electric shock if they got answers wrong

Question 5

What were the results of Milgram’s study?

Answer 5

-Every participant shocked the confederate up to 300V

-5 participants stopped at 300V (12.5%)

-65% of participants continued all the way to 450V, showing full obedience

-Qualitative data meant participants showed signs of being under extreme stress as they were sweating, stuttering, biting nails etc

-3 participants had uncontrollable seizures due to extreme stress

-Participants were fully debriefed and assured their behaviour was normal

-85% said they were glad to have participated

Question 6

What did Milgram conclude about obedience on the basis of his findings?

Answer 6

People are likely to obey someone with high authority even if their instructions are destructive and therefore Germans are not unique

Question 7

How generalisable is Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

Sample doesn’t represent every culture, gender and age group, but it can account for different job roles and wealth

Question 8

How replicable is Milgram’s study?

Answer 8

It would not be easy to repeat due to the ethical issues within the study

Question 9

What implications has this research got for society?

Answer 9

Internal validity: was done in a lab experiment

External validity: This study probably doesn’t show what happens with obedient in real life situations

Temporal: it was a child of its time, it was done in 1963 so it would be different now

Knowing how obedient you are makes you less obedient

Question 10

What ethical issues has this research got?

Answer 10

1. Deception
2. Must be given the right to leave
3. People should not be subjected to more stress than they would in a normal situation
4. Must be allowed to withdraw their data from the experiment at any point
5. Protection from harm as 3 people had seizures
6. Informed consent as they thought it was about memory

Question 11

What are the three situational factors affecting obedience that Milgram investigated?

Answer 11

-Proximity
-Location
-Uniform

Question 12

What were the three variations of proximity?

Answer 12

-Increased proximity to learner: obedience levels dropped from 65% to 40%

-Increased proximity to learner: the teacher was required to force the learner’s hand onto a shock plate, obedience fell to 30%

-Decreased proximity to authority figure: when the experimenter left and gave further orders over the phone, obedience fell to 20.5%

Question 13

How did Milgram vary the location of the study?

Answer 13

-Was conducted in a psychology lab at Yale University and many participants said the location gave them confidence in the integrity of people involved

-He then moved it to a run-down office with no connections with Yae and obedience rates dropped from 65% to 48%

Question 14

How did Milgram vary the uniform in the study?

Answer 14

-Original study was directed by an experimenter in a white lab coat; a symbol of authority

-In this variation the experimenter was called away by a phone call and a ‘member of the public’ was the experimenter in ordinary clothes

-Obedience rates dropped to 20%, which was the lowest of all variations

Question 15

What research support is there for Milgram’s situational variables?

Answer 15

Bickman found in his field experiment in NYC that people obeyed instructions to pick up litter significantly more when the confederate was dressed in a security guard uniform than when he wore a jacket and tie

This increases validity as supporting research finds the same results in different situations

Question 16

How has Milgram’s research into situations variables been replicated in other countries?

Answer 16

Meeus and Raaijmakers used a more realistic procedure to study obedience in dutch participants which involved saying very stressful things in a job interview to confederates they thought were desperate for a job. They found obedience of 90% and also supported Milgram’s findings into proximity, as when the person giving orders was not present, obedient significantly decreased

Can be repeatable in other cultures with the same results

Question 17

How can we counter criticise the research conducted in other cultures for situational variables?

Answer 17

Bond and Smith conducted a meta-analysis and found that between 1968 and 1985 only 2 replications were conducted in cultures that are seen as quite different to America- India and Jordan. Most of the replications have taken place in cultures very similar to America such as Holland, Scotland and Australia

This suggests findings can only be true for certain cultures

Question 18

Why might Milgram’s research lack internal validity?

Answer 18

Orne and Holland criticised his study for being obviously fake and point out that adding in extra situational variables makes he study less believable. For example the uniform condition is extremely unlikely as a participant will likely know it is not a true scenario when the experimenter leaves and the ‘member of the public’ comes in. Even Milgram agreed that this was so unlikely and participants will guess the aim of the study

This is a limitation as they’re likely to guess demand characteristics and act differently to how they would in a real life scenario

Question 19

What big events sparked Milgram’s interest in studying obedience and what is the common factor amongst them all?

Answer 19

1. Massacre at My Lai
2. Abu Ghraib Prison
3. The Holocaust

They all had an authoritive figure telling them how to behave

Question 20

What is agentic state?

Answer 20

When we do not feel responsible for our behaviour and being powerless to change it due to being an agent

Question 21

What is autonomous state?

Answer 21

We are independent and have control over our actions so act accordingly to our own principles

Question 22

What is the agentic shift?

Answer 22

When given an order from an authority figure who we see as legitimate, we make an agentic shift from autonomous to an agentic state

Question 23

What are binding factors?

Answer 23

Things that make us more likely to obey that person

Question 24

What are examples of binding factors in Milgram’s research?

Answer 24

-Agreed to take part
-Being paid
-Didn’t want to let researcher down

Question 25

What is legitimate authority?

Answer 25

Those above us in the social hierarchy

Question 26

What are some examples of people who are generally seen to have legitimate authority?

Answer 26

Police Teachers Security guards Judges

Question 27

What do perceived legitimate authority figures lead us to do?

Answer 27

Obey them in order for society to run smoothly

Question 28

What are some symbols that make authority legitimate?

Answer 28

Uniform Legitimacy of setting Location

Question 29

What did Blass and Schmidt find and how does this support Milgram's explanation of obedience?

Answer 29

A video of Milgram's study was shown to psych students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learner receiving the shocks. The students blamed the 'experimenter' rather than the participant who actually administered the shocks arguing he had responsibility due to his authority This provides supportive evidence for legitimacy or authority and agentic state. The participants perceive that the experimenter has authority and therefore they expected participants to experience an agentic shift and follow orders and no longer feel responsible

Question 30

How can you use Hofling's study to evaluate LoA and agentic state?

Answer 30

In a study similar to Milgram's that took place in a real life environment, 21/22 nurses immediately obeyed the unjustified demands from a doctor to administer a drug at double the dose to patients on a hospital ward This supports because they saw the doctor as legitimate authority and obeyed without question. However they didn't show moral strain as agentic state argues people are still aware of their behaviour and feel guilty but powerless to disobey. They did not seem to feel this so suggests the explanation is limited

Question 31

How can this explanation of obedience explain cultural differences?

Answer 31

Many studies show that countries differ in the degree in which people are obedient to authority. For example, Filburn and Mann replicated Milgram's procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of participants went to 450V. However, Mansell found that 85% of German participants delivered the maximum shock. This shows that some cultures may be more likely to accept authority as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals than other cultures due to differing socialisation. Different societies are structured more or less hierarchically, and children are raised to perceive authority figures differently This is a strength as it was a good explanatory power for a cultural phenomenon as it is able to explain cultural differences in obedience levels. As these differences in obedience levels exist it is important as obedience can account for this and LoA does as less obedient nations are socialised to see authority as less legitimate

Question 32

How does the legitimacy of authority explanation manage to explain real life events?

Answer 32

It can help explain how obedience can lead to real-life war crimes. Kelman and Hamilton argue that the La Mai massacre can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy of the US army

Question 33

What is the authoritarian personality?

Answer 33

A personality type that is especially obedient to authority figures. They are highly submissive to those of a higher status and dismissive of those 'inferior' to them

Question 34

What is the procedure of Adorno's F-scale experiment?

Answer 34

-Measured 2000 middle class, white Americans -Measured their unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups using a questionnaire -F scale is the fascism scale; submission to authority, usually political, accepting violence as an acceptable way of doing this -The higher the score, the more authoritarian so the more obedient

Question 35

What did Adorno find?

Answer 35

He found a strong positive correlation with high scores on F-scale and prejudice

Question 36

What are characteristics of people with an authoritarian personality?

Answer 36

-High respect for people above them in social hierarchy -Identify with 'strong' people -Hostile to people with less status -Fixed stereotypes about groups of people and conventional beliefs and attitudes -Fixed cognitive style

Question 37

What reason did Adorno give for people developing an authoritarian personality?

Answer 37

Childhood as a response to harsh parenting

Question 38

How is Adorno's theory a psychodynamic explanation?

Answer 38

People cannot take the hostility out on their parents due to fear of them who are above them in the social hierarchy, leading to a dislike or hatred of those socially inferior through scapegoating (displacing feelings of hostility and despair onto the weak)

Question 39

What is acquiescence bias and how is this a limitation of Adorno's explanation of obedience?

Answer 39

Measurement of authoritarianism relies on self-report data which may be invalid due to social desirability bias Greenstein said "the F-scale is a comedy of methodological errors"

Question 40

What supporting evidence has this theory of obedience got?

Answer 40

Milgram's research: supports a dispositional explanation as not 100% went to 450V- suggests the variation in obedience levels could be due to personality

Question 41

How can we counter-criticise this supporting evidence?

Answer 41

It was a correlation, so it is impossible to draw casual conclusions so we cannot conclude that obedience was caused by disposition factors. It also may be due to 3rd variables (due to another variable) Hyman and Sheatsley found that the AP is more likely to exist among people who are less well educated and are of low economic status

Question 42

How does this explanation compare to the situational explanation?

Answer 42

Evidence clearly shows that the situation plays a role in obedience, as demonstrated in Milgram's extensive research. Situational factors, such as proximity and uniform may have greater influence on obedience levels Milgram's rigorous and controlled experiments have shown that obedience is affected by the situation/how legitimate the authority. In comparison to Adorno and the use of the F-scale, Milgram's results on the situational variables are more reliable and valid