Explanations for Obedience to Authority

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What are the three main explanations for why people are obedient to authority? LAD

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1. Legitimate authority (Milgram) 2. Agentic State (Milgram) 3. Dispositional (Personality) explanation (Adorno)

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What is legitimate authority & give 2 examples in UK?

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Legitimate authority refers to someone entitled to make decisions and rules, often due to their position in a hierarchy of social power. Examples include the Prime Minister and police.

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What 3 studies support the role of legitimate authority in obedience?

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1. Milgram's study: Obedience was 65% at Yale with a researcher in a lab coat, 20% with normal clothing, and 48% in a downtown office. 2. Bickman's field experiment: 33% obedience with normal clothing vs. 89% with a security guard outfit. 3. Hofling's study: 95% of nurses obeyed a fake doctor's order over the phone.

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What practical applications arise from the legitimate authority explanation?

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Encouraging the use of uniforms in jobs requiring obedience, such as police, to ensure smoother societal operations and save taxpayer money.

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What are the validity concerns regarding the legitimate authority explanation?

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Milgram's study may have low ecological validity as participants suspected the setup was fake. However, real-life studies like Hofling's and Bickman's support the explanation.

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What alternative factors might influence obedience beyond legitimate authority?

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1. Dispositional factors like personality (e.g., Authoritarian Personality). 2. External locus of control (Holland found those with high external LOC are more obedient).

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What is the agentic state explanation for obedience?

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The agentic state occurs when individuals see themselves as agents carrying out orders, shifting responsibility to the authority figure and reducing personal accountability.

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What are the two states people can shift between according to Milgram?

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1. Autonomous state: Individuals act based on their own decisions and feel morally responsible. 2. Agentic state: Individuals act on behalf of an authority figure and feel less responsible for their actions.

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What study and real life event supports the agentic state explanation?

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1. In Milgram's study, participants continued obeying when the researcher took responsibility. 2. German soldiers in WWII claimed they were following orders, supporting the agentic state theory.

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What practical applications arise from the agentic state explanation?

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It helps explain real-life war crimes, such as the Mai Lai massacre during the Vietnam War, where soldiers followed orders from superior officers.