Social Influence - Explanations for obedience

Question 1

Context - Nuremberg Trials

Answer 1

Adolf Eichmann:
- Head of Nazi’s Gestapo Department for Jewish Affairs during WW2
- Responsible for the death camps
- Quickly escaped after the war but was caught and brought to trial in 1961
The trial:
-Noted to be an “ordinary family man”
-No inhumane behaviour
- When asked why he did the things he did he said and continued to claim “I was just following orders”

Question 2

Milgram’s Aim

Answer 2

• Investigate whether the Germans were different to others when it came to obeying authority + being obedient
• To explain why they did the horrible things they did

Question 3

Milgram’s Shock experiment - Procedure

Answer 3

• 40 male ppt through newspaper adverts (study about memory)
• 20-50 years, wide range of jobs
• Paid money at beginning, told they would be randomly assigned role of teacher + learner (draw was rigged)
• Confederate always the learner, ppt always teacher
• An ‘experimenter’ dressed in a lab coat present
• Learner went into separate room + wired with electrodes
• Teacher required to give learner a shock every time they answered a question wrong (wasn’t real)
• Started at 15 volts, rose to 450 volts
• At 300, learner would pound on wall + give no response to the next question = treated as wrong

Question 4

Milgram’s Shock experiment - Findings

Answer 4

• Every ppt went to 300 volts
• 12.5% stopped at 300V, 65% continued to 450V
• Ppts showed signs of extreme tension - sweating, trembling, biting lips
• All ppts debriefed + told their behaviour is normal
• Follow-up questionnaire, 84% glad they participated

Question 5

Support for Milgram’s Experiment

Answer 5

• Ecological validity:
• Focused on relationship between ppt + authority figure
• Lab environment reflected real-life authoritarian relationships
• Hofling et al:
• Studied nurses on a hospital ward
• Levels of obedience to unjustified demands were high - 21/22 nurses obeyed

Question 6

Limitations of Milgram’s experiment

Answer 6

• Orne + Holland:
• Ppts behaved the way they did because they didn’t believe the experiment was real - Demand Characteristics
• Perry:
• Listened to taped of Milgram’s ppts and confirmed many of them expressed doubts about the shock
• Ethical issues:
• Deceived ppts
• Assignment of roles was not random - was fixed
• Shocks weren’t real - severe distress could occur in ppts, think they are causing harm to others

Question 7

Agentic state

Answer 7

• An individual gives up their autonomy and moral responsibility to an authority figure.
• In this state, the individual perceives themselves as an agent of the authority figure and is willing to carry out their commands, even if it goes against their own moral code
• Proposed: Nazi soldiers participated in destructive obedience because they didn’t take responsibility for their actions
• Became ‘agents’ - are acting in the place of another individual
• Agents will experience high anxiety during these choices - ‘moral strain’
• Know what they’re doing is wrong but are powerless to obey

Question 8

Autonomous state

Answer 8

• Opposite of Agentic state
• Individuals are independent/free
• Behave according to own principles - feel responsible for their actions
• Can shift from one to another - agentic shift
• Milgram:
• Occurs when someone perceives another as a figure of authority
• Due to their position in the social hierarchy

Question 9

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 9

• Societies are structured hierarchically - certain people hold authority over us
• Authority some wield is legitimate because we all agree on it
• Authority figures are allowed to exert their power over us - allows society to function normally
• But, we give up some of our independence by allowing these people to punish wrongdoers
• Causes destructive authority

Question 10

Support for Agency theory

Answer 10

• Blass and Schmitt:
  -Showed film of Milgram’s study to students + asked to identify who they felt was responsible for the harm caused to the learner
• Students blamed the experimenter - responsibility due to legitimate + expert authority
• Can explain real-life crimes:
• Nazi soldiers
• My Lai Massacre
  -Kilham and Mann:
• Replicated Milgram’s procedure in Australia
• Only 16% of ppts went to highest voltage
• Mantell:
• German ppts - 85% went all the way
• Cross cultural research increased he validity of Milgram’s findings

Question 11

Limitations of Agency Theory

Answer 11

• Describes research findings but does not explain them
• Doesn’t support Hofling’s findings
• Can only account for certain situations where obedience occurs
• Does this excuse the actions of the Nazis?
• Mandel:
• German Reserve Police Battalion 101
• Men obeyed orders to shoot civilians in a small town in Poland
• Men didn’t have direct orders to do so