Obedience Presentation PDF

OBEDIENCE - Danae, Sofia, Lucas, Sadie and Sama What is obedience? Following an order to carry out an action. Orders are usually given by people with power or authority. The agentic state (My Lai massacre)  Agentic state – Is the state in which an i...

OBEDIENCE - Danae, Sofia, Lucas, Sadie and Sama What is obedience? Following an order to carry out an action. Orders are usually given by people with power or authority. The agentic state (My Lai massacre)  Agentic state – Is the state in which an individual carries out the orders of another person, acting as their agent with little personal responsibility.  Agentic shift – Is the shift from operating as an autonomous individual to acting as an agent for another person, usually an authority figure. Milgram argued that people could operate in different ways in social situations:  As autonomous individuals who are aware of the consequences of their actions  As agents of other people, usually those with authority or power Legitimacy of authority (Hofling et al 1966) Refers to the power held by the person giving the instruction. Most human, and also animal, societies are ordered in a hierarchical way, with some members of the group having power over those beneath them. Legitimate power is usually associated with social roles and power may also be associated with social status. From early childhood, social interactions in the family and at school teach us that we are more acceptable if we obey those who have authority over us. This may be because we trust them or because they have the power to punish, harm, or exclude us. Milgram's study shows the importance of legitimate authority, showing that 65% of the participants administered the full 450 volts. However, when he repeated the experiment in New York, the obedience level dropped to 50% of participants. Concluding that the reduction of legitimate authority led to a reduced willingness to obey.  Variables affecting obedience. Proximity – Milgram noticed that the proximity of the teacher and learner affected obedience. In the original version of the experiment, the teacher was unable to see the learner as they were in separate rooms but could hear his screams. Milgram altered the proximity of teacher and learner as follows: Milgram removed the experimenter from the room and instructed him to give the teacher orders over the phone Milgram brought the learner into closer proximity, placing him in the same room as the teacher. 'touch proximity', the teacher and learner were in the same room and in order for the learner to receive the shocks, he had to place his hand voluntarily on a shock plate. Location – One factor that Milgram thought may have contributed to the high levels of obedience was the setting of the experiment, Yale University. In order to see if obedience was caused by the prestige of the setting, Milgram packed up his shock generator and moved his experiment into a seedy office above a shop. Calling himself 'Research Associates Ltd' he advertised for participants in the paper and replicated the study exactly. Under this condition he found a significant drop in obedience.  Ethical issues in the study of obedience. Milgram failed to ask his participants for informed consent. He pushed them into continuing with the experiment, making it very difficult for them to withdraw. They were put in an extremely stressful situation in which they believed that they may have seriously injured or killed another person. This may have resulted in temporary or permanent psychological harm. Milgram responded to these charges… Consent- Milgram argued that he had attempted to gain presumptive consent before the study by asking the psychological community to predict the findings of the study. Pushing- Milgram argued that each person who took part in his experiment was able to accept authority or to reject it and that although it was difficult to withdraw, it was possible. Psychological harm- Milgram argued that his participants were provided with a thorough debriefing at the end of the experiment. They were told that the shocks were not real and were reintroduced to the unharmed 'learner'.  The after maths of the experiment. Milgram sent out a questionnaire to over 1000 people who had taken part in his studies. Of them, 92% responded. Milgram found that:  84% were either glad or very glad to have taken part  15% were neither glad nor sorry to have taken part  1.3% were either ‘sorry’ or ‘very sorry’ to have taken part  74% had learned something of personal importance POSTER TASK Option A) : Create a poster on key facts and information on OBEDIENCE and the Milner experiment from memory for your revision. (Feel free to ask us any questions) Option B) : Create a drawing map of the Milner experiment, use headings, arrows, figures. Whatever works for your revision!