what are the psychological processes that may be involved in obedience to authority?

Question

things to examine: Agentic shift, Blind obedience, Socialisation, Exposure to legitimate authority, Authoritarian personality, Resistance to obedience.

Answer 1

I assume that you've been asked to do Homework on the theories of obedience or the factors influencing obedience to authority. I will start by briefly summarising the theories you mentioned and finish by briefly summarising the factors influencing obedience. Theories of Obedience include:

Milgram's Agency theory- According to this theory we live our lives in 2 levels/states of mind. In the Autonomous (independent) state, we are totally in control of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour and take on full responsibility for the consequences of our actions. In the Agentic state, we believe that we are acting on behalf of others and that we don't have to deal with the consequences of our actions (i.e. we just blindly do what we have to do like Robots without really thinking about it). According to Milgram, the Nazis and participants in his experiment 'switched' from the autonomous to the agentic state of mind (aka agentic shift). E.g. 'I was only obeying orders'. NB. remember the verbal prods 'please continue' etc.

Legtimancy of authority- we do as we told because we think that the person has the right (power) to do so. These people are called authority figures and include police, teachers, Doctors and nurses. The Nazis were encouraged to do whatever by Hitler (German Government) and in Milgram's study, obedience levels dropped when the study was carried out in a seedy office block instead of Yale University.

Gradual Commitment- We do as we're told because harmless requests turn into bigger ones that we can't refuse because we can't get out of saying no. Salesmen call this the 'foot in the door technique'. NB. In Milgram's experiment, the shocks started off low (15V) and eventually increased to 450V. By this stage, people felt that they couldn't stop because they were 'committed' (the participants volunteered and were paid for taking part in the experiment, even though Milgram stressed that the money was theirs, regardless of what happened).

Buffers- We're more likely to carry on doing as we're told if we are 'psychologically protected' from dealing with the consequences of our actions. E.g. In Milgram's variations, obedience levels dropped when the teacher was in the same room as the larner (psychological & physical barrier removed-now have to see how the learner is 'harmed' by what they're doing). Obedience levels also dropped when the researcher gave orders by telephone, instead of face to face (Phone-physical distance acted as a 'barrier' to protect participants from the wrath of the researcher for refusing to do as they were told).

Authotarian personality- this suggests that people are born with certain personality traits which make them more likely to do as they're told. As a previous respondant wrote, people tend to score more highly on 'authotarian' and 'psychopathic' traits. E.g. Enjoying inflicting pain on others. NB. The evidence for this theory is poor. Socialisation/social dispositional theory would also come under this type of theory. However, this is NOT a psychological theory, but a historical/sociological one. E.g. This theory would suggest that the Nazis (and Germans, for that matter) did as they were told because they enjoyed it because they were born evil and believed that 'getting rid of the Jews' would be for the 'good of all'. NB. This theory is also NOT generally accepted and strongly contradicted by the results of Milgram's studies as such a high % of people did as they were told and they were all American!

Factors influencing the resistance of obedience include:

The moral principles of the person giving the orders-later research showed that people were less likely to obey orders if they distrusted the motives of the person giving the orders.

Time-Later research showed that people are less likely to obey orders if they've got time to think about what they're doing. Also, milgram found that levels of obedience dropped when the study took place in a seedy downtown office building instead of Yale university.

Consultation with others (I'll call the factor this because I've forgotten its proper name for the moment)- People are also less likely to obey orders if they can consult with other people. E.g. Rank and Jacobson's replication of Hofling's nurses study showed that the nurses were less likely to take orders from an unknown doctor on the telephone if they were able to check what to do with other nurses. Also, Later Psychologists (e.g. Orne and Holland) who reinvestigated Milgram's study found that people were also less likely to obey orders if they had already seen someone else (politely but firmly) refuse to obey them (another factor-the participants who originally resisted in Milgram's original study did so in this way and were willing to stick by their convictions that they weren't carrying out anymore orders, as it was 'harming' the learner).

Finally, Knowledge (again, I've called this factor that but you could probably include this with another one)- E.g. In Rank and Jacobson's study, fewer nurses obeyed the unknown doctor's orders because the drug that he asked them to give to a patient was valium (which the nurses knew about). In contrast, the nurses in Hofling's study were asked to give astrofen (a drug that they didn't know about).

This is only an overview but I hope it answers your question.

For further information, comsult one of the following:

Psychology for AS-Cardwell, M, Clark, A and Meldrum, C

Psychology for AS Level-Eysenck, M

www.psyonline.org.uk

Fantastic website withb resources for AS Level

www.s-cool.co.uk

Great website for AS Level revision

www.freewebs.com/psychedout

My free, non-commercial, non-profit teacher resource website (I will be adding my resources on this in the next few weeks).

Answer 2

What an interesting quesiton.
People come to Yahoo Answers and they ask questions realizing some are chosen as the best Answerers.

*from this point on, everything is fictionalized! lol*

Some people begin to trust " the best answerer" and start praising his answers because he is identified as a know-it-all.
The authority now has a base support and anytime someone resists his perceived superior opinions, his followers will largely shame or reject any poster that questions or counters his opinion. People don't even realize he is actually a cyber character created by Yahoo.

"He" decides to start a cult and encourage his followers to sell their properties and build a commune in the mountains of Colorado. The faithful sell their houses and turn in all their money to "him" without meeting him ever.

A couple with three children signs over their life savings. They are so sure he is the absolute authority and one to be trusted. They resigned their critical thinking via the process of association, blind obedience, peer pressure and a trust that it is approved by Yahoo and therefore, no matter how far out it gets, it must be okay.

They get to Colorado where the family is separated and trained to recruit others to their community. They convert a few prominent movie stars and people love these stars so therefore the group begins to grow and gain perceived legitimacy.

The wife decides to leave because she gets tired of doing personality testing and turning her money in for the "privilege" of living at the commune where she sleeps in a bunk bed in a room of eight and follows a rigid schedule.

When she leaves, she takes her children. She starts realizing all the crap she swallowed and attributes it to the bad cult leader. Hey, the cult leader IS bad, but the person does not relate to having gone along with signing over the house or losing everything because it is all attributed to the parasite ( who is a parasite) who runs the cult.

Answer 3

Obedience is submissive behaviour

It would be a passive personality that has been dominated in upbringing with aggressive and inflexible parents.

I would also suggest that there is a much lower risk-taking element of the individual and a very low score on the Arousal Seeking Tendency (AST) scale.

The brain is hardwired over time as these behaviours are cemented to form the basis of decision-making and reasoning.

Authority is obeyed whenever the past situations arise and the decision is taken from the options presented.

Answer 4

Are you describing a person with a "personality disorder"? If not, your question is far too broad. All forms of torture can be infected on a human, that will condition them to do anything. Others can be raised in an environment where No Respect is taught or exhibited. But when raised in love, blended with principles,the person develops into a well rounded citizen and therefore obeys authority, but will definitely NOT obey totalitarianism!

Answer 5

my first answer is brain washing and I believe there is some truth to that. I also believe the is ligitimate authority based on respect and trust and illigitimate authority based on fear and humiliation. Both are equally powerful.

Blind obedience scares me because is assumes a mindless acceptance of the authority and that, in my humble opinion, is never good.

great question - got my mind working

Answer 6

because of this, i've got considered some Christians (exceedingly youthful ones) so ridiculously committed to their mother and father that they decline to have confidence that that is ethical to disagree with them, even whilst the mother and father are incorrect or flat out risky or risky. i detect this sort of blind obedience creepy. wish: extreme high quality straw guy. Morals could be absolute or no longer (and that i tend to think of they seem to be a sprint greater subtle than any style of specific crucial view--the only many Christians take--could have them be), yet that does no longer recommend *all people* thinks morals could desire to be counted on a custom. you're conflating custom with evolution, yet custom is one in all those community deal and humanity as an entire isn't. for that reason, we are able to declare that particular cultural practices are immoral devoid of resorting to claiming that a god gave us our morality. C'mon! Your view of "morals *could desire to* come from God" has been lifeless considering that a minimum of Nietzsche, and your declare that throughout the time of any different case something is permissable is passe.

Answer 7

Pavlovian Conditioning and Operant Conditioning come to mind.

That is why we have SHEEPLE instead of CITIZENS today.

Answer 8

Not Smoking.

Answer 9

Pavlo.

Answer 10

acceptance than conditioning.