Factors of obedience

Factors of Obedience 

The factors that can increase or decrease obedience level include:

• Presence of the authority figure
• Power (including appearance/clothing
• Peers
• Personality
• Personal responsibility

Presence of the authority figure

The Milgram study (1963) is a good example. He conducted a an experiment in New York using fake electric shocks. Forty participants believed they were giving shocks to a stooge who had been introduced as "Mr Wallace". They were told that they would play the role of a teacher in an experiment about memory and learning, when in fact the aim was to study their willingness to obey. The electric shock apparatus had a series of switches, the first of which was labelled 15V with the voltage supposedly increasing by a further 15V with each subsequent switch; participants were asked to increase the shock level with each wrong answer. There were labels below the switches: for example, 375V- "Danger, severe shock". The last switch was labelled 450V. Prior to the study, Milgram's students and colleagues had thought that American participants would not obey the instructions. They predicted that just 3% of participants would continue right up to the 450V level. In fact, 65% obeyed. Many showed signs of being stressed by the experiment, but none stopped before 300V.

Power

The Bickman study (1974) is an example of power. The aim of this experiment was to see if uniform influences authority and obedience. Two people were dressed, one as a milkman and one as a security guard. People of the public were approached and asked to pick up litter. It was seen that people only obeyed the security guard over the milkman. This shows that people think security guards have more power over a milkman therefore obeyed the security guard.

Peers

Peer pressure is an influence when a peer group, or individual encourages another person to change their values, or behaviours to suit other peoples convenience. Respecting others can get you very far in life and this is positive because if you respect others in return they will respect you. (“Treat others the way you want to be treated” ). Also If you have a lot of respect for others, people will have a positive view of you. An example would be that if one of your friends doesn't follow the instructions of their parents then you might do the same to your own parents.

Personality

Adorno et al. (1950) presented the concept of the authorisation personality to describe people whose traits and attitudes make them likely to develop fascist views like those of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The researchers believed that certain people develop an authorisation personality because they have had a very strict upbringing, leading to them repressing a lot of anger. Because of their fear for the authority, they show an exaggerated respect for conventional values, and the unconscious anger is displaced onto weaker targets- usually minorities in society. Authoritarians are found to have a high level of trust for authorities such as the government. For example, they are more likely than average to tolerate illegal government actions.

Personal responsibility

Personal responsibility, particularly as it relates to study skills, is taking charge of one’s own learning. It implies completing assignments on time, studying for tests, taking the responsibility for one’s own learning mistakes or failures, and performing to the best of one’s ability. Personal responsibility recognises the importance of parents and teachers as learning partners but puts the student in charge.