1.1.10

Variables of Obedience

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Situational Variables of Obedience

There are three factors that can affect the likelihood of a person being obedient to authority: proximity, location and uniforms.

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Situational factors

  • Situational factors refer to external explanation of obedient behaviour.
  • There are three main things about the environment that can make obedience likely: proximity, location and the power of uniforms.
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Proximity

  • How physically close individuals are to the consequences of their actions affects how much they feel compelled to follow orders.
  • Being further away from the consequences of our actions leads to increased levels of obedience.
  • Milgram found that when the teacher and the learner were in the same room, and the teacher could see the learners’ distress, obedience levels dropped to 40%.
  • When the teacher was instructed to take the hand of the learner and place it on a metal plate to receive the shock, obedience levels dropped to 30%.
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Location

  • Just as an individual can be seen as an authority figure, places or locations can also been seen as more or less authoritative.
  • Locations such as prestigious universities or government buildings add to the legitimacy of the authority figure.
  • Obedience rates are higher in institutional settings and are deemed to have a legitimacy all of their own.
  • When Milgram carried out his study at the prestigious Yale University, obedience levels were higher than when he moved the experiment to an office block in a run-down part of town (62.5% to 47.5%).
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Uniforms

  • Uniforms, such as those worn by police officers, add further legitimacy to an authority figure.
  • Milgram made sure that the researcher in his study was dressed in a lab coat.
  • Bickman carried out a study where ordinary people were told to pick up litter on a New York street, loan a coin to a stranger or move away from a bus.
    • Only 14% of people obeyed an individual dressed as a milkman, while 38% obeyed a person wearing a security guard’s uniform.

Dispositional Variables and Obedience

There are suggestions that people of an 'authoritarian personality' type are more likely to be obedient than others.

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Dispositional variables

  • While situational factors involve the environment, dispositional factors refer to aspects of the individual that might make them more likely to obey.
  • These factors might include our personality.
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Authoritarian personality

  • Adorno et al. (1950) proposed the idea of an authoritarian personality.
  • Our personality stems from early childhood experiences and influences, especially parents.
    • Children raised in strict households are thought to be more likely to develop an authoritarian personality type than others.
  • People scoring higher on tests of authoritarian personality display higher levels of obedience to authority and higher levels of discipline.
  • Adorno designed a test called the F-scale, where F stood for fascist, that could measure level of authoritarian personality.
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Research findings

  • Elms and Milgram (1966) found a correlation between personality type and authoritarian personality using Milgram’s famous procedure.
  • Because Elms and Milgram conducted a correlational study, we cannot be sure that personality type was the cause of the high levels of obedience.
    • Correlation ≠ causation
  • The F-scale questionnaire is easily manipulated. This means participants might have been able to second guess the questions.
  • The F-scale also correlates with education levels. This provides a possible alternative explanation.

Jump to other topics

1Social Influence

2Memory

3Attachment

4Psychopathology

5Approaches in Psychology

6Biopsychology

7Research Methods

8Issues & Debates in Psychology (A2 only)

9Option 1: Relationships (A2 only)

10Option 1: Gender (A2 only)

11Option 1: Cognition & Development (A2 only)

12Option 2: Schizophrenia (A2 only)

13Option 2: Eating Behaviour (A2 only)

14Option 2: Stress (A2 only)

15Option 3: Aggression (A2 only)

16Option 3: Forensic Psychology (A2 only)

17Option 3: Addiction (A2 only)

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