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Go back the way you came and take a different

route.

Let me have a look in the boot of

your car

Give me £10 from your purse.

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Today’s session

You will learn about Context

Describing theoriesUsing research findings to support or challenge theories

Situational and dispositional explanations of obedience

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Explaining obedience

Agency theory Authoritarian personality theory

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Agency theory

A situational explanation of obedience People have two ways of acting

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… 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

A dispositional explanation of obedience

Adorno (1950) claims a particular personality type (authoritarian) is more likely to obey an authority

Authoritarian traits: Status oriented Conventional and conformist Suspicious & hostile

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Authoritarian personality

Fear ofparents

Excessively respectful of

authority figures

Hate & anger displaced onto

others

Hatred ofparents

Harsh and punitive

upbringing;little love,

much punishment

Based on Sigmund Freud’s idea that the adult personality is determined by childhood experiences

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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

High F-Scale score

High obedience

to authority

Low SES & poor

education

Hyman & Sheatsley

(1954)

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Authoritarian personality

Authoritarianism is linked to having right-wing political views. Are only right-wing people obedient to authority?