Transcript Do you obey? - psychlotron.org.uk

Give me £10 from
your purse.
Let me have a
look in the boot of
your car
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Go back the way
you came and
take a different
route.
Today’s session
You will learn about
Context
Describing
Situational
and
dispositional explanations
of obedience
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theories
Using research findings
to support or challenge
theories
Explaining obedience

Agency theory
Authoritarian personality theory
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Agency theory
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A situational explanation of obedience
People have two ways of acting
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Autonomous –direct own behaviour, and take
responsibility for consequences
Agentic –allow someone else to direct their
behaviour, pass responsibility to them
People are conditioned to respond to certain
types of cue with agentic behaviour
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

What sorts of cue might produce agentic
behaviour?
When and where do we learn to respond to
such cues agentically?
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Evidence for agency theory
Studies have demonstrated agentic
behaviour when…
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Authority explicitly takes responsibility (Milgram,
1963)
Authority is wearing a uniform (Bickman, 1974)
Authority claims/appears to have higher status
than PP (Hofling et al, 1966)
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Authoritarian personality
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A dispositional explanation of obedience
Adorno (1950) claims a particular personality
type (authoritarian) is more likely to obey an
authority
Authoritarian traits:
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Status oriented
Conventional and conformist
Suspicious & hostile
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Harsh and
punitive
upbringing;
little love,
much
punishment
Fear of
parents
Excessively
respectful of
authority figures
Hatred of
parents
Hate & anger
displaced onto
others
Based on Sigmund Freud’s idea that the adult
personality is determined by childhood
experiences
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Authoritarian personality

Does Milgram’s study suggest that obedience
is confined to a particular personality type?
How far do you accept that there may be a
personality type that makes people more
likely to obey an authority figure?
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Authoritarian personality
Hyman &
Sheatsley
(1954)
High
obedience to
authority
Low SES &
poor
education
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High
FScale score
Authoritarian personality
Authoritarianism is linked to having right-wing
political views. Are only right-wing people
obedient to authority?
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