Flashcards for:
Understanding Obedience to Authority in Psychology

Supporting studies have explored real-world settings, the influence of uniforms, and obedience even when real harm was involved, like Sheridan and King's puppy experiment.

Moving the experiment from a high-status setting like Yale to a rundown office block caused obedience to drop to 47.5%.

Agentic State Theory proposes that people enter a state where they see themselves as agents executing orders, hence absolving themselves from responsibility.

The Authoritarian Personality theory suggests that individuals highly respectful of authority and dismissive toward inferiors are more likely to obey authority.

To understand why ordinary people follow orders leading to horrific consequences, inspired by Nazi wartime behaviors.

Legitimacy of Authority theory suggests that people are conditioned to respond to authoritative figures with legitimacy derived from societal structures, uniforms, and settings.

Issues such as ecological validity, possible detection of the experimental setup, and gender bias due to the original all-male sample.

Obedience dropped to 21% when authority figures were physically distant or gave instructions by phone.

The experiment raised ethical concerns due to the stress and emotional distress inflicted on participants, despite the insights gained.

When the lab coat authority figure was replaced by an ordinary person in regular clothes, obedience rates fell to 20%.

Today's class offered insights into situational contexts and inherent personality traits influencing human behavior under authority, with implications for understanding historical events and daily interactions.

Shockingly, 65% administered the maximum voltage shock (450 volts) and 100% administered shocks up to 300 volts despite visible signs of distress.