Social Approach - Obedience

Milgram's Agency Theory states that obedience is necessary for the stability of human society and that we are socialised into obeying from childhood. The theory suggests there are two states: the agentic and the autonomous.

The AGENTIC STATE is where we give up our free will to follow the orders of others in authority; we become their 'agents'. The responsibility falls to the authority figure.

In the AUTONOMOUS STATE, we are freethinking and able to make our own decisions for which we are fully responsible.

MORAL STRAIN is where someone in the agentic state may feel uncomfortable or feel that what they are doing is wrong, but carry out the immoral act for the greater good (e.g for the greater good of society).

The basic principle behind social impact theory is social force. When these forces exert enough pressure to successfully get people to change their behaviour, then it is known as a 'social impact'.

• STRENGTH - a measure of how much influence or power the individual percieves the source to have.
• IMMEDIACY - how recently the event occurred or whether there were intervening events.
• NUMBERS - the number of people exerting pressures on the individual, the greater the social force they will have.

The social impact is higher when the source has higher status, when the statement is more immediate and when there are a higher number of people saying it.

The most significant difference in socia impact is the transition from 0 to 1 person. As the number of sources increases, the incremental impact lessens.

AIMS - Milgram wanted to investigate how obedient participants would be when following orders that would mean breaking their moral code and harming another person.

PROCEDURES - He offered $4 plus 50 cents car fare (a lot of money back then) for any volunteer adult male willing to take part in a study on MEMORY (note it doesn't tell the participants what they would actually be studying). Participants were met by the researcher in a smart grey lab coat and the confederate - who the participants thought was another volunteer. The participants drew straws to determine who would be the teacher and who would be the learner, however this was rigged so the confederate would always be the learner. The participants were shown the shock generator which had 30 switches and 15 volt increments - with the higher voltages being labelled as dangerous.

The participants were instructed to increase the level of shock by 15 volts each time a question was answered incorrectly. Although the participant could not see the learner, he was able to hear him clearly through the wall. He began to complain about his heart at 150V and demanded to be let out, refusing to take further part. At the 300V level, he pounded on the wall. He repeated this at the 315V level but from then on was silent. The reseercher delivered a standardised sequence of verbal prods such as 'please continue' or 'the experiement requires you continue'. The experiment ended once they refused to go further or reached 450V.

RESULTS - All 40 participants went up to at least 300 volts and 65% went up to the maximum 450V.

• 5 gave 300V as a maximum
• 8 gave between 315 and 360V
• 1 gave 375 to 420V
• 26 gave 450V
• The average maximum voltage given was 368 volts.

The participants were debriefed. They were then told the full aims and nature of the study, were reunited with the confederate and reassured that they had behaved absolutely normally - no matter what they actually did.

Moral strain was shown by the participants weaing, shaking and nervously itching.

CONCLUSION - The study clearly shows the power of authority over our behaviour. Even when the participants were clearly upset by what they had to do, they still saw no other alternative except to obey.

GENERALISABILITY -

• The sample was 40 (fairly large)
• All men - cannot generalise to women
• All American - cannot generalise to rest of the world
• May be 'time-locked' in the 60s - different culture now, as it always changes

RELABILITY -

• Can be easily replicated (and has been by himself and other people) due to a standardised procedure.

APPLICATION -

• Demonstrates how obedience to authority works and this research can be used to increase obedience in places like schools, workplaces and prisons.
• Can help to avoid tragedies such as the Holocaust (thousands of soldiers blindly following orders)

VALIDITY

• Lacks ecological validity as the experiment was artificial (you wouldn't normally be asked to shock someone in real life)
• People believe that Milgram was desperate to prove himself as a young scholar and so ignored some of the participants' doubts about whether the experiement was real (some people had doubts about whether the cries were real as they sounded like they were from speakers - not a room next door)
• Yale University was a presitigious location

ETHICS

• Did not give INFORMED consent (the study would not have been valid if the participants knew) 
• Did not have the right to withdraw - only after 4 attempts to leave
• Experimenters effects may have made the participants feel like they had to continue with the experiment
• Participants were extensively debriefed after - to remove any long term psychological effects however this may not have been enough for everyone

AIMS - To see if having the experimenter in the room affected the level of obedience, so the instructions were given thorugh the telephone.

PROCEDURE - The experimenter gave instructions at the start, but then left and was out of sight of the participant, and gave instructions over the telephone for the rest of the experiment.

RESULTS - The obedience dropped sharply, from 26 being obedient, only 9 obeyed (22.5%). Participants lied to the experimenter about giving increases in voltage, instead they gave lower shocks.

CONCLUSIONS - When the experimenter is not face-to-face with the participant, it is easier not to obey. Physical presence was an important force.

AIMS - To see if the outcome would be similar if the study took part in a rundown office block and not conducted in Yale University as it was regarded as prestigious.

PROCEDURE - The experiment was relocated to a rundown commercial office building in Bridgeport, Connecticut and all links to Yale University were removed. The same procedures were followed as the original, this includes the participants being paid $4.50 for attending. The researchers said they were from a private firm.

RESULTS - Participants had more doubts about this experiment. Obedience did not drop that much. 47.5% obeyed to the maximum voltage level compared to 65% at Yale. This is lower but Milgram did not consider it a significant difference.

CONCLUSIONS - The idea of having a legitimate/authoritative setting does seem to be backed by evidence, even if not by much.

AIMS - To see whether an order givne by someone without authority is followed.

PROCEDURE - The experimenter gives the instructions about administering the shock, but then gets 'called away' and leaves the room. There is an accomplice in the room who was initially given the task of recording the times and the participant believes the accomplice is just another volunteer, like himself. The accomplice makes the suggestion of increasing the shocks by 15V each time the learner makes a mistake.

RESULTS - The experimenter leaving creates an awkward atmosphere, which undermined the credibility of the experiment. 16 of 20 (80%) participants broke away from from the ordinary man's instructions, even though the accomplice urged them to continue. When the participant refused the orders of the ordinary man, there was an adaption to the experiment and the accomplice said the participant should swap roles and take over the recording. 16 out of 20 watched the distressing scene as the ordinary man gave the shocks. All of the 16 bystanders protested and 5 tried to disconnect power from the generator or physically restrain the accomplice. 4 of 20 (20%) went to the maximum shock level.

CONCLUSIONS - Levels of obedience fell dramatically with an ordinary man who had no percieved authority. Participants did not like seeing the ordibary man giving the shocks, but were not able to prevent it.

• PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY - Milgram suggested that obedience would be higher if the personal responsibility is given to the authority figure. This was demonstrated when at one point the learner asks the experimenter, 'He might be dead in there, sir! Do you take responsibility' T which the reply is 'I am responsible', at which point the learner sits down and continues to administer the shocks.
• SLIPPERY SLOPE - Generator switches only went up in small increments (15V), so participants found it easier to obey as each wrong answer only merited a minor increase. Similarly, having begun the experiment, participants did not know how to disobey; nothing they said had any effect on the experimenter and so they felt they should finish what they had started.
• POWER AND STATUS OF THE AUTHORITY - Obedience is only shown if the authority figure was percieved as legitimate. Legitimate power is held by those in certain roles, usually those of authority. The researcher would have had legitimate power in Milgram's experiments o obedience. He would have also had expert power by apperaing professional at all times and was wearing a lab coat to indicate his expertise and knowledge.

PERSONALITY:

• LOCUS OF CONTROL - This refers to the extent to which individuals believe they can control events affecting them. Someone's 'locus' is either internal (they believe they have some control over events in their life) or external (meaning they believe life is determined by environmental factors which they cannot influence).
• AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY - Adorno et al. (1950) proposed that individual differences in obedience could be explained by the idea of an authoritarian personality (soemone who wants to have complete authority to themselves)

GENDER:

• Overall, there does not appear to be any real difference between men and women in their ability to resist obeying an authority figure. This goes against traditional beliefs that females tend to be more obedient to authority. Milgram (1963) found that men and women were equally obedient in one variation of his electric shock study.

• Individualistic cultures are those that stress the needs of the individual over the needs of the group as a whole. In this type of culture, people are seen as autonomous, independant and tend to resist conformity or compliance. Collectivist cultures, in contrast, emphasise the needs and goals of the group as a whole over the needs and wishes of each individual. In such cultures, relationships with other members of the group, cooperation and compliance between people play a central role in each person's identity