AO1: Milgram said that obedience to authority is necessary for the smooth running of
society. In a hierarchically organised society, subordinated individuals have to suppress their
personal desires in order to carry out the wishes of their superiors. He suggested that we
have two mindsets that enable us to operate on our own and with others. In the
autonomous state a person behaves independently and makes their own decisions on how
to behave and take responsibility for the consequences of our actions. In an agentic state a
person carries out orders from an authority figure, even if it conflicts with their personal
morals and values. The person absolves themselves of responsibility and believe that they
are acting on someone else’s behalf, blame for any negative consequences ultimately lies
with the authority. The switch between the autonomous and agentic state is the agentic
shift and it occurs when we perceive someone to be a legitimate source of authority and
allow them to control our behaviour. This change of state can cause moral strain which is
when a person feels mental discomfort and anxiety as the actions conflict their personal
morality, as cognitive dissonance occurs when two conflicting ideas are presented to us in an
agentic state. However, for majority of people this strain is not sufficient to provoke
defiance, Milgram explains that powerful binding factors ensure individuals remain in
agentic state and will not jeopardise the status quo.
AO3: One strength is that it is supported by Milgram’s 1963 study. In this study he found
that 100% of participants would administer a shock of 300V to a confederate as a
punishment for making a mistake on a word learning task and 65% would go right up to the
final 450V, beyond the shock labelled ‘danger, extreme shock’. This is important because it
clearly supports Milgram’s suggestion that in the face of legitimate authority people are
highly likely to carry out orders, despite high levels of moral strain. This provides evidence
for agency theory as ppt showed signs of moral strain such as anxiety and nervous laughter.
Thus showing that the ppt did displace responsibility onto the authority figure. However,
Perry (2012) questioned the internal validity of this saying that the participants sae through
the deception. Many question whether the shocks were real and therefore this questions
the usefulness of Milgram’s data and leaves the agency theory in question.
AO3: One weakness is that the agentic shift does not appear to be taking individual
differences into account. A study found that 16/18 of nurses failed to obey orders from a
doctor who asked them to administer an overdose of the drug Valium. This shows that
despite the doctors being an obvious source of authority, the vast majority of the sample
remained autonomous. This data demonstrates that the nurses did consider themselves
responsible for their actions. Therefore a better way of exploring obedience is by examining
the factors such as gender and personality that would lead people to resist deconstructive
obedience, allowing them to think more independently and take greater conscious control of
their actions. An alternative would be SIT as it examines when and why people disobey
whereas AT doesn’t.
STRENGTH 2: application to explain obedience in real life e.g. hospitals and shows position of
authorities effecting obedience
WEAKNESS 2: testability of theory; we cannot see agentic shift taking place or objectively
measure it so cannot be certain how an individual will behave.
, Evaluate Social Impact Theory (8)
AO1: This explains the way in which other people’s real or imagined presence can alter the
way an individual thinks or acts. The impact is determined by strength, immediacy and
number of sources during any interaction. The person doing the influencing is the ‘source’
and the people who are influenced are the ‘targets’. This is the formula to represent the
theory: impact on the target = fSIN). Strength refers to the perceived power/authority of the
source and the messages that they convey. This can be affected by economic status, age and
relationship to target. Immediacy reflects the closeness of the source and the target.
Physical or psychological barriers to communication will affect it. Number relates to how
many sources are present during the interaction which determines level of social impact.
The divisional effect explains the idea that social impact is reduced if there are more targets
than there are sources. Once the source group is bigger than 3 then each additional person
has less of an influencing effect.
AO3: One strength is that it is supported by research evidence. A study conducted a field
experiment at a New York zoo, where visitors were asked not to lean n a railing. The
researchers manipulated the strength of the source by dressing a confederate ether as a zoo
keeper or in a T-shirt and shorts. The obedience levels differed by 58% and 35%. Obedience
also declined when the visitors were further from the person making the request to test
immediacy. The obedience levels here differed by 61% when in the same room and 7% when
in a different room. This study demonstrates the importance of strength, immediacy and
number in social impact. However, as this was a filed experiment, the researchers were not
able to manipulate the number of people in each group which questions the validly of the
study. For example, people who choose to go around in larger groups may have less
obedient personalities which indicates that group size alone does not determine the level of
defiance observed.
AO3: One weakness is that the theory disregards the active nature of social interaction and
what people bring to the situation and sees individuals as passive receivers of other people’s
behaviours. For example, there may be dispositional factors based on personality, culture
and upbringing that make some individuals less likely to obey. This suggest that it may be an
incomplete explanation of obedience, we each bring past experiences to each unique
situation.
STRENGTH 2: testable I= F(SIN) equation. However reductionist.
WEAKNESS 2: general theory of social influence rather than specific theory of obedience.
Focuses on group dynamics unlike AT. However stresses importance of source like AT
Evaluate Milgram’s classic study (8)
AO1: The aim of the study was to understand behaviour of those Germans who followed
orders to kill over 10 million people in the holocaust. He waned to test obedience to
legitimate authority even when the command required destructive behaviour. He recruited a
volunteer sample of 40 men, aged 20-50 years in America through the local newspaper and
letters in the post. They varied from unskilled workers to professionals.they were offered
$4.50 for participation. On arrival, they were told that they could drop out at any point and
still keep the money. One confederate acted as the experimenter a ‘mild-mannered, likeable
man’ dressed in a grey technician’s coat called Mr. Williams and the other confederate was
introduced as the other participant called Mr. Wallace. Lots were drawn to decide whether
the real participant would be the teachers or the learner and since it was rigged they were
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