Obedience

Key Concepts: Obedience is the concept of following orders or command given from people in authority. Defiance is the opposite of obedience. If an order is given out, the person may resist it. This is an attitude of mind that decides to resist authority. People may say no when given an order or instruction, because they know it s not right to follow the order, or they just don t want to. This is also sometimes called resistance. Denial of responsibility is when a person defends a behaviour that caused damage and destruction, as simply carrying out orders given from a person of higher authority. Core Theory: Situational Factors Situational factors suggest that we behave because of the type of the situation. People are more influenced by external, situational factors than by internal traits or motivations. The obedience and defiance is all to do with the person s state of mind and the role of the authority of figures. There are 5 aspects, which influence and affect our obedience: setting, culture, authority, punishment and consensus. People are more likely to obey in a formal setting (e.g. school) and they obey more if the individual giving order has greater authority. People in a more collectivist culture are more likely to obey (e.g. Italians). The consensus aspect suggests that if the majority of the group are obeying then individuals are more likely to obey. Individuals are also more likely to obey if the actions have consequences or punishments (e.g. withdrawn if one will not attend college). An experiment executed by Milgram showed that social influence can trigger off obedience to instructions that are apparently dangerous or hurtful to others. The results suggest that the setting affects the level of obedience, however, Milgram s experiment was unethical as participants did not give informed consent and were caused distress as the first is carried out in a laboratory with 65% of participants willing to give electric shocks and only 48% when based in a rundown building. Hofling et al showed that obedience is true to life and it has high ecological validity. In this case, he conducted a field experiment a psychiatric hospital in USA. Nurses were ordered by unknown doctors to administer what could have been a dangerous dose of a (fictional) drug to their patients. In spite of official guidelines forbidding administration in such circumstances, Hofling found that 21 out of the 22 nurses would have given the patient an overdose of medicine. Zimbardo carried out an experiment on punishment and authority. He simulated a prison in the basement of Stanford University. Participants were male and assigned either as guard or inmate. The guards and inmates deindividualized the roles and became what they though a guard was like. The experiment was stopped after 6 days as guards became

unreasonable in their punishments and prisoners become withdrawn and distressed. The experiment showed that the consequences of the prisoners actions were punishments from guards and therefore obeyed. Unfortunately, this experiment lacked ecological validity as it wasn t set in the real world (e.g. prison). Although situational factor theory explains why people behave in different situations in terms of culture, consensus and setting, it ignores the personality of the person as a reason why they obey. Setting It refers to the fact that at times people act obediently because of where they are. For example, at the school or in a wedding or in a place of worship where people behave appropriately (i.e. they obey the unwritten or unspoken rules of the place or event). In Milgram s second experiment, the study was transferred away from Yale University to a run-down office building in downtown Bridgeport. The level of obedience fell from 65% to 47.5%. The results showed that the prestige or fame of the university had played some part in the level of obedience in the first experiment. Another important to note is Hofling s research with nurses, the command to administer the medication given by the doctor in the medical environment of a hospital. The nurses still give the medication which had a higher dosage than normal to the patient. They saw it as their job to do as to what the doctor had commanded when on the ward. Culture Every nation around the world has their way of life made out from different set of rules, standards as well as expectations. Most of the obedience research and studies took place in USA and many of the participants where white, middle class males, keen to earn money for their participation. Milgram s experiment was carried out in a number of countries. In Australia, it was found that the level of complete obedience was down to 40%. Other research showed the levels at 80% in Italy and 85% in Austria. Generally, psychologists do distinguish between collectivist cultures, in which individuals share tasks, belongings and income, and individualist societies, which put the emphasis on the rights and interests of the individual. This distinction also affects the general level of obedience in an individualist culture. Authority and Punishment With authority comes the power to punish. In countries where there was a dictator, the level of obedience rose very high, suggesting that the political situation can affect the obedience of ordinary people. Milgram did another variation of his study, where the experimenter did not wear a lab coat and was presented as another participant. In this case, obedience level fell to 20%. In Hofling et al study, many of the nurses justified their actions by saying that they trust the person in authority and feared that they might lose their jobs if they will follow the instruction. In other words, they are avoiding punishment.

Consensus Peer support can heavily influence actions, in terms of both obedience and defiance. Another variation of the Milgram experiment was carried out in which groups of participants tested Mr. Wallace . Participants were in groups of 3, but only 1 was the genuine. Milgram had arranged for the other 2 participants (Milgram s assistant) to disobey orders to shock Mr. Wallace. Obedience levels, in this case, fell to 10%. It seems that support from peers or others often gives a person the confidence to say no to disobey an order. There is strength in numbers majority, including the strength to resist what you see as an unfair command or order. Criticisms y y y Lacks ecological validity. The settings for the experiments do not reflect real life situations. i.e. in a laboratory Showed ethical problems. Situations are manipulated to see what effect this has on obedience. This can cause distress, embarrassment, deceiving people, and potentially causing long-term harm. It has not given enough weight on the role of personality. It tends to suggest that our behaviour is nearly always just a reflex or reaction to something or someone. It s as if we live our lives ignoring our feelings, ambition, frustrations, imagination, sense of right and wrong and so on.

Alternative Theory: Dispositional Factors This refers to factors about a person themselves, their personality traits. The theory of authoritarian personality appeared on the scene shortly after the WWII. Adorno and his colleagues tried to understand the people behind holocaust, and the state of mind that allowed so many to go along with Hitler s belief that people should submit to the overwhelming need to obey . Authoritarian personality is the type that is more prone to obedience than others. Adorno used F-scale ( F stands for Fascism a form of government or belief that praises the virtues of obedience, strong leadership, and law and order.) The research required the participants to indicate their support of opposition on a sliding scale, from slight to strong. He classified the people who scored high on the F-scale as authoritarian personalities. The analysis revealed the characteristics of a typical authoritarian personality as: y Someone who feels an active dislike of people from lower social classes. y Someone with fixed and conventional ideas of right and wrong, good and evil. y Someone who cannot deal with any uncertainty about the right way to behave, and acceptable attitudes or beliefs y Someone who is always willing to be bossed by those of a higher status than themselves. People with this type of personality are great supporters of obedience.

Core Study: Bickman (1974) Bickman carried out a field experiment into obedience in which he manipulated the appearance of three male experimenters who gave orders to 153 randomly occurring pedestrians on a street in Brooklyn, New York. The experimenters took turns to dress as; the everyday person, a milkman, and a guard s uniform. This was to see the reactions to the uniform not the individual. Each experimenter gave one of the following orders to each passing pedestrians: y y Picking up litter The experimenter pointed to a bag lying on the ground and ordered. Pick up this bag for me. Coin and parking meter The nodded in the direction of a helper who stood nearby at a parking meter and said, This man is overparked at the meter but doesn t have any change give him a dime. Bus stop The experimenter approached a subject waiting for a bus and exclaimed. Don t you know you have to stand on the other side of the pole? This sign says No standing.

Results y y People were 2 to 3 times more likely to obey the guard than the civilian. In the parking meter experiment, 89% obeyed the guard, 57% the milkman and 33% the civilian.

Bickman concluded that this showed the power of uniform. Dress alone can suggest authority, and when people think someone has authority to punish them, they most likely to obey. Criticisms y y y y y Because it was a field experiment there was a lack of control over extraneous variables (e.g. crowding, noise, weather, etc.). The pedestrians were selected by opportunity sampling. There were no prior knowledge of the personality of circumstance of each participant (e.g. in a hurry, depressed, absent-minded, etc.). The study is unethical. There is no consent from the participating pedestrians and no debriefing. As all the experimenters were male, gender might have played a part in the results. People are more likely to obey an order from a man than from a woman. The study was carried out in one city in one country. The culture affects the level of obedience. Therefore, we cannot be sure that the passers-by in other cities or countries would be as obedient. In this sense, the research in culturally biased.

Application y y Keeping order in institutions and situations Keeping order in prisons, in armed forces and in schools

Most groups in our society share one important feature, known as hierarchy. A hierarchy is the structure of an organization or group, which starts with a person at the top with the most authority, and with a sliding or descending line of command and decision making.