obedience: social-psychological factors

Question 1

what are the main 3 social-psychological factors?

Answer 1

•agentic state
•autonomous state
•legitimacy of authority

Question 2

what is the agentic state?

Answer 2

a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure (as their agent). This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure

Question 3

what is the autonomous state?

Answer 3

a mental state in which a person is free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their actions

Question 4

what is the agentic shift?

Answer 4

the shift from autonomy to agency, Milgram suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority, they are usually higher in the social hierarchy

Question 5

what is Legitimacy of Authority?

Answer 5

an explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified (legitimate) by the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy

Question 6

what are binding factors?

Answer 6

aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling

Question 7

what type of authority was clearly shown in Milgram’s study?

Answer 7

destructive authority, when the experimenter used verbal prods to order the participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences

Question 8

evaluation points for agentic state/ legitimacy of authority

Answer 8

strength: research support
limitation: a limited explanation
strength: cultural differences

Question 9

strength: research support

Answer 9

•Milgram’s own research demonstrated how the majority of ordinary people will follow instructions even when they are acting against conscience
•Blass and Schmitt found that people who saw Milgram’s study blamed the experimenter, indicating that they believed the participants were agents of authority
•the explanation is also supported by many historical events which demonstrate that as a result of social pressure normal people can act in a callous and inhumane way
•this is a strength as it recognises the legitimacy of authority as the cause of obedience, supporting the explanation

Question 10

limitation: a limited explanation

Answer 10

•agentic shift doesn’t explain many of the research findings like why some of the participants did not obey
•it also does not explain the findings from Holfling’s study
•does not take into account dispositional factors, reductionist
•this suggests that agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Question 11

strength: cultural differences

Answer 11

•it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience
•many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are traditionally obedient to authority
•Kilham and Mann
•Mantell
•supportive findings from cross-cultural research increase the validity of the explanation

Question 12

what did research by Kilham & Mann and Mantell find?

Answer 12

Kilham and Mann replicated Milgram’s procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of their participants went all the way to the top of the voltage scale
Mantell found 85% for German participants