AQA A Level Psychology

Revision Notes

1.2.1 Explanations for Obedience

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Explanations for Obedience

  • Obedience means to comply with the demands of someone you see as an authority figure

The agentic shift

  • When orders come from a figure of authority we can easily deny personal responsibility because it is assumed that they will take ultimate responsibility
  • When this happens, we become ‘agents’ of an external authority
  • Milgram claimed that obedience occurs due to 2 opposing sets of demands:
    • The external authority: Authority of the authority figure
    • The internal authority: Authority of our own conscience
  • The agentic shift is when the fully obedient person undergoes a psychological adjustment or ‘shift’ and they see themselves as an agent of external authority

Situational Explanations look at the dynamics of social hierarchies

Agentic state

  • Milgram's interest in obedience was sparked by the trials of Nazis who had worked in the death camps: their defence was that they had simply been obeying orders
  • This led Milgram to look at Agentic State as an explanation of obedience i.e. an individual carrying out the orders of an authority figure, acting as their agent (the shift is from autonomy to agency)
  • Autonomous State:
    • An autonomous state is the opposite of an agentic state and means the person has autonomy over their actions and can act according to their own principles
  • Binding Factors:
    • During Milgram's experiment, he observed that many participants said they wanted to stop but seemed powerless to do so
    • Milgram said this was due to them staying in an agentic state through binding factors
    • Binding factors are when aspects of the situation mean the individual is able to take away their own 'moral strain' and ignore their damaging behaviour

Legitimacy of authority 

  • Most human societies are ordered in a hierarchical way, where some members of the group have legitimate social power above those beneath them in the hierarchy e.g. police/teachers/doctors
  • We learn via socialisation that we will be accepted if we obey those who have authority over us (we trust them and/or because they have the power to punish us)
  • It is legitimate as it has been agreed by society that these positions carry power and most people accept this
  • Destructive authority and destructive obedience:
    • This is when power is used  for destructive purposes and when obedience is used to harm others
    • In Milgram's experiment, the experimenter displayed destructive authority when they were prodding and encouraging the teacher to continue with the electric shocks
    • The participant demonstrated destructive obedience when they acted against their conscience

Exam Tip

When using evaluation in an exam question, it is a good idea to consider the supporting research evidence and to use this wisely to address the demands of the question. For example when writing about Milgram's (1963) study as an example of destructive obedience you would need to acknowledge the moral strain felt by the participants as being evidence of them acting against their conscience. Their verbalisations and body language throughout the procedure illustrate the huge strain they were under: the fact that 66% of them went to 450 volts shows the power of the binding factors of the situation and can be used to explain acts of destructive obedience on a global scale e.g. the My Lai massacre; the Rwandan genocide.

Using examples from history/current affairs can really help to elevate your answer - as long as they are relevant!

Evaluation

  • The agentic shift cannot explain why some participants in Milgram’s study did not obey, as, in theory, they should all have been in an agentic state
  • Therefore, this cannot explain all obedience or obedience over long periods of time (such as in Nazi Germany)
  • Blass and Schmitt (2001) asked observers to explain who they thought was responsible for the harm caused to the learner in Milgram’s study
  • Most thought the experimenter was responsible, so supporting the agentic state explanation
  • The legitimacy of authority is supported by cultural differences
  • In countries where obedience and deference to authority are less valued (such as Australia), obedience rates are much lower than in countries that value legitimate authority figures (such as Germany)
  • This again suggests that legitimacy of authority plays a part in obedience

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Jenna

Author: Jenna

Jenna studied at Cardiff University before training to become a science teacher at the University of Bath specialising in Biology (although she loves teaching all three sciences at GCSE level!). Teaching is her passion, and with 10 years experience teaching across a wide range of specifications – from GCSE and A Level Biology in the UK to IGCSE and IB Biology internationally – she knows what is required to pass those Biology exams.