Obedience Obedience Occurs within hierarchy person above has
Obedience
Obedience • Occurs within hierarchy – person above has right to prescribe behaviour – emphasis on power • Behaviour adopted is different from authority figure • Instruction explicit (told how to behave) • Conformity Regulates behaviour among those of equal status - emphasis on acceptance • Behaviour adopted is similar to peers • Instruction implicit (don’t need to be told to follow group) • Participant use obedience as an explanation of their • behaviour Participants deny conformity
Milgram ‘ 63 • 40 male participants volunteered • Told research was to investigate effects of punishment on learning – this was untrue • ‘randomly’ assigned to role of learner or teacher (fixed) Learner = strapped to chair, electrodes to wrist Teacher = testing the learner on word pairs, administer shocks for incorrect answers
15 volts (slight shock) – 450 volts (XXX) No real shocks were given!!! Found: Every participant shocked up to 300 volts ? ? % delivered ‘fatal’ shock!!!!
Criticisms • ? ? ?
Hofling ‘ 86 Nurses received a call from an unknown ‘doctor’ (Hofling) • Asked to administer unknown drug (harmless placebo) – twice dose as stated on bottle Found: 21/22 obeyed instructions
Criticisms • ? ? ?
Sociocultural explanations We learn to obey authority We learn who has authority Milgrim found American’s and German’s equally obedient Spain, Italy, Austria, Holland – same results – human nature rather than culture to obey authority (rather like pack animals living in hierarchy – monkeys, dogs, wolves)
Agentic shift • Shifting responsibility for own actions to someone else • Prevents guilt – responsibility not theirs • Common defence for war crimes “Just following orders”
Buffers ‘any aspect of a situation that protects people from having to confront the consequences of their actions’ (Meldrum, 2000) e. g. Milgram – teacher & learner in different rooms – more likely to shock (buffer effect) When buffer removed (same room) more likely to Disobey (refuse to shock)
Evaluation: • Research changed view of destructive obedience • Research suggests many of us are capable of destructive obedience • Moral reasoning suspended within a hierarchy • Questions ‘evilness’ of people
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