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Outline and evaluate one or more explanations of obedience 16 mark essay (Psychology - AQA )
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Outline and evaluate one or more explanatonn of obedience [16]The social-psychological explanatons of obedience proposes that the inflence of others, in
partcllar those hho are higher lp in social hierarchies
Altonomols state is the idea that an individlal is independent and free, behaving according to their
personal moral principles and taking responsibility for their actons Agentc state is a mental state in
hhich an individlal does not feel any personal responsibility for their actons as they believe they
are actng on behalf of someone else This state allohs an individlal to remove glilt and alloh
obedience to destrlctve althorites An agentc shii occlrs hhen someone perceives another
person as althority Binding factors, in partcllar aspects of the sitlaton that allohs the individlal
to minimise the efects of their actons, are hhat keeps people in an agentc state
A strength of the agentc state explanaton for obedience is that there is slpportng evidence This
comes from Blass and Schmit (221) hho shohed a clip of Milgram’s experiment to stldents, asking
them to identfy hho they sah as responsible for the harm to Mr Wallace They folnd that they
blamed the experimenter for the harm not the partcipant, as the experimenter had legitmatee
expert althority This shohs that the recogniton of the experimenter as having althority, changed
the perspectve as to hho has calsing the harm on the confederatee’the learner’ Therefore,
slpportng the explanaton as it shohs that agentc state has present dle to legitmacy of althority
that the experimenter had dle to high positon of social hierarchy Hohever, agentc shii does not
explain hhy some of the partcipants did not obey despite being exposed to the same althority For
example, in Hofing’s stldy, the nlrses did not display high levels of anxiety that sholld be seen
dlring the agentc shii Therefore, shohing agentc shii can accolnt for some sitlatons of
obedience, not all, creatng a lack of ecological validity
Another explanaton of obedience is the noton of sitlatonal variables These are external factors in
the environment that inflence the level of obedience in partcipants Milgram proposed three main
sitlatonal variablesa lniform, proximity and locaton In his variatons, Milgram sah that hhen they
moved the learner into the same room as the partcipant, the obedience rate dropped from 65%
original stldy) to 42% This is dle to the increased responsibility and them seeing the pain they are
infictng In another variaton, Milgram changed the locaton from Yale University to a rln-dohn
office blilding, a less prestgiols seing; the obedience rate fell to 47 5% A third variaton looked at
te efect of lniform, the experimenter has seen in caslal clothes instead of a lab coat, redlcing
obedience to (2% as it meant he had less althority over the partcipant
A strength of the sitlatonal variables explanaton of obedience is that there is slpportng evidence
A stldy by Bickman 1974) had three confederates dressed in diferent lniforms – caslal clothes,
milkman’s oltfit and a seclrity glards lniform He had these confederates ask passers-by in the
street to perform tasks – these incllded picking lp liter, giving someone money for parking and
moving to the other side of a bls stop He folnd that 33% agreed to the citien, 57% agreed to the
milkman and 89% agree to the glard This slpported that lniform conveys althority and increases
levels of obedience Therefore, this evidence increases the validity of the the lniform explanaton of
sitlatonal variables as it slpports Milgram’s claim that lniform increases an individlal’s althority,
making more people likely to obey
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