obedience - explanations, situational and dispositional factors and the Authoritatian Personality

Question 1

what is obedience

Answer 1

behaviour in compliance with a direct command often one issued by a person in position of authority

Question 2

what did Milgram want to know

Answer 2

why ordinary germans obeyed Nazi orders during the Holocaust `

Question 3

what did milgram believe

Answer 3

if people were put in the right situation they would show obedience

Question 4

what did other people believe

Answer 4

germans had an inherent obedient disposition

Question 5

how did Milgram advertise his experiment

Answer 5

as a memory study to avoid giving the aim away and biasing the results

Question 6

who took part

Answer 6

40 male pp
there were confederates who were aware of the experiment - pretended to be a scientist in a lab coat participating

Question 7

who was given the role of teacher and learner

Answer 7

teacher - real pp
learner - confederate

Question 8

where were the teacher and learner taken

Answer 8

the teacher (real pp) was taken to another room with a device containing switches from 15 to 450 volts (labelled as slight shock, moderate, severe shock)
the learner/confederate was strapped to a chair and connected with electrodes

Question 9

what was the procedure of the experiment

Answer 9

the teacher asked the learner questions. if incorrect the teacher gave learner electric shock - they escalated the voltage with each incorrect answer (not real shocks but pp thought they were)

Question 10

what happened as the (fake) shocks increased

Answer 10

pp could hear the learners cries of pain. the learner went silent after 300 volts to imply they were either unconcious or dead

Question 11

who took responsibility for whatever happened to the learner

Answer 11

the scientist would say that he was responsible

Question 12

what phrases were told to the pp everytime they would refuse to give the shocks

Answer 12

“please continue”
“the experiment requires you to continue”
“it is absolutely essential that you continue”
“you have no choice you must go on”

Question 13

when was the experiment over

Answer 13

if the pp could completely resist prompts and refuse to take part

Question 14

what were the findings

Answer 14

100% went all the way to 300 volts and 65% went all the way to 450V
- the footage shows the pp were visibly stressed

Question 15

what did Milgrams research show

Answer 15

the majority of people will follow the orders of an authority figure even if it will lead to harm

Question 16

what are the two explanations for obedience

Answer 16

agentic state and legitimacy of authority

Question 17

what is agentic state

Answer 17

a mental state in which the individual sees themselves acting as the agent of an authority figure

Question 18

what is a person like under the agentic state

Answer 18

they dont feel guilt or responsibility - they believe the responsilbility for their actions lies with the authority figure
they dont question the morals or consequences of the orders

Question 19

what is the opposite of the agentic state

Answer 19

autonomous state

Question 20

what is the autonomous state

Answer 20

when individuals act according to their principles and feel responsible for their actions

Question 21

what is an agentic shift

Answer 21

the movement from an autonomous state to an agentic state that happens in the presense of an authority figure

Question 22

how does legitimacy of authority work

Answer 22

through socialisation people learn their position within the social hierarchy. individuals understand their position relative to those people who are above and below them. people accept that LoA is needed for society to function. they recognise the rights of authority figures to give orders

Question 23

how is LoA communicated

Answer 23

through visible symbols (uniforms) and settings (police stations, courts)

Question 24

what are the situational variables affecting obedience

Answer 24

proximity
location
uniform

Question 25

how did milgram test these situational variables

Answer 25

he altered his experiment to test the limits of obedience

Question 26

how does proximity affect obedience

Answer 26

increasing the distance between pp and the authority figure by having them give insturctions on the phone instead of in the same room made obedience rates decrease from 65% to 21% pp went from agentic state to autonomous state

Question 27

how does location affect obedience

Answer 27

the original study took place at Yale uni and they changed it to a run down office block. obedience rates were 47.5%. location of the uni inccreased scientists legitimacy of authority by making them seem more genuine. low status location decreased the LoA and obedience levels

Question 28

how did uniform affect obedience

Answer 28

the original experimenter wore a grey lab coat. the researcher recieved another phone call, made an excuse to leave then was replaced by another confederate wearing regular clothes. this reduced LoA and obedience rates to 20%

Question 29

how do the manipulation of the variables support milgrams argument that pp act with extreme obedience due to being in an agentic state

Answer 29

obedience dropped when proximity increased and when uniform changed. pp returned to autonomous state - the researcher accepts responsibility for the harm of the learner - scientist has LoA in the envt of yale uni and due to his uniform

Question 30

how does Milgrams research into situational variables have methodological flaws

Answer 30

- task lacks mundane realism - not realistic - lacks ecological validity - uni envt was not normal for the pp - people obey in certain places with tasks they are familiar with

Question 31

what did Orner and Holland claim

Answer 31

the task was so unusual that pp knew they werent shocking anyone and were just acting to demand characteristics (guessed the aims and acted accordingly)

Question 32

why was there gender bias

Answer 32

study was conducted on males only

Question 33

what can't be explained by agentic state and legitimacy of authority

Answer 33

why 35% didnt conform - each pp had the same experience

Question 34

what does Adorno's dispositional Authoritarian Personality acknowledge

Answer 34

the willingness to obey and authoriy figure varies from each person

Question 35

what is a strength of Milgrams experiment

Answer 35

used standardised procedures - prerecordings of pp responses, clear script for the experimenter to follow high control, each pp had the same experience. the clear instructions enables replications (reliable results in non US replications)

Question 36

why did Milgrams research have methodological flaws

Answer 36

-using shock generator lacks mundane realism - lacks ecological validity - pp maybe acting to demand characteristics - gender bias

Question 37

why was Milgrams research considered to be unethical

Answer 37

pp suffered from emotional distress so it was difficult for them to withdraw they were decieved about the study they were taking part in so were unable to provide informed consent

Question 38

how can you look at Milgrams research from a cost benefits analysis

Answer 38

temporary harm of pp was worth it as it led to further understanding of obedience

Question 39

give another study that is similar to Milgrams obedience study

Answer 39

Hofling (1966) .

Question 40

what did Hofling do

Answer 40

conducted a field experiment in a hospital

Question 41

what was the procedure of Hoflings experiment

Answer 41

22 real nurses called by unfamiliar voice claiming to be Dr Smith who ordered nurses to give patients twice the daily dose of an unfamiliar drug to a patient (obviously dangerous). unknown to the nurses it was actually a placebo

Question 42

how many nurses obeyed

Answer 42

21 out of 22 nurses

Question 43

what does Hoflings experiment show

Answer 43

even in a situation with ecological validity and a task with mundane realism people obey those they feel have a LoA- L of setting (hospital) its more important than proximity (order given on phone)

Question 44

what did Adorno want to understand

Answer 44

antisemetism in ww2

Question 45

what did Adorno argue

Answer 45

high levels of obedience were dispositional due to a set of internal traits a personality type

Question 46

what was the term given to the dispositional obedience trait

Answer 46

Authoritarian Personality

Question 47

where did people with Authoritatian Personalities get them from

Answer 47

shaped early in life by strict authoritarian parenting with harsh physical punishments

Question 48

who did adorno link his ideas to

Answer 48

Freud

Question 49

what did Adorno suggest was displaced onto minority groups

Answer 49

anger people felt because of their harsh childhood experiences

Question 50

what do people with Authoritarian Personalities have

Answer 50

- high respect for people for higher social status (leading to obedience) -hostile to people they see as having low status - fixed stereotypes about groups of people - conformists with conventional beliefs and behaviours - views on morality are dogmatic and have clear ideas about right or wrong

Question 51

what questionnaire did Adorno develop

Answer 51

the F scale - fascism scale

Question 52

what did people who scored highly on the F scale have

Answer 52

fixed stereotypes, identified with "strong" people, disliked "weak" people and were inflexible with ideas of right or wrong

Question 53

how many factors did the F scale measure

Answer 53

9

Question 54

how was Authoritarian Submission measured

Answer 54

refers to uncritical attitude towards authority - "obedience and respect for authority are the most important virutes children should learn"

Question 55

how was Power and Toughness measured

Answer 55

refers to preoccuptation with dominance and submission and identification with power figures - "people can be divided into two distinct classes, the weak and the strong"

Question 56

what is one strength of the AP

Answer 56

in Milgrams study 35% resisted authority figures - this cant be explained by situational factors as each pp had the same experience. Adornos theory acknowledges why obedience for authority varies for each person

Question 57

what did Elms and Milgram studied

Answer 57

20 obedient males who gave electric shocks and 20 defiant males who refused to give electric shocks were given the F scale. the obedient males scored higher suggesting they had authoritarian personalities. they also tended to dehumanise or hold more negative attitudes towards the learner and saw the experimenter as someone knowledgeable and trustworthy

Question 58

what is the problem with linking abusive childhood, the development of an AP and obedience together

Answer 58

can only be studied using correlation - cant study this

Question 59

how have alternate situational explanations shown that majority of people have the capacity to be obedient

Answer 59

they are backed up by significant experimental research

Question 60

how has the F scale been criticised

Answer 60

causes acquiescence bias - people tend to agree to questions. the F scale was created in a way that agreeing to all the questions would artificially inflate their score on the score leading to inaccurate measurement

Question 61

why is the AP and the F scale biased

Answer 61

Adorno was left wing and some questions are argued to be biased against people with a right wing political view

Question 62

how can relying on the Authoritarian Personality lead to stereotyping

Answer 62

- complex historical events such as WW2 are overly simplified into personality flaws of people involved - risks reducing accountability of social structures and leaders - ignores how societal norms and peer pressure or legal form can lead to people with non authoritarian personalities to feel they need to participate in widespread social influence