Obedience Psychology And Changes Of Behavior
Authority and subsequent concepts of obedience and disobedience are typically considered fundamental elements in every social context. Humans generally exist in a hierarchical authority structure. Rules may be established for the greater good of a family, organization, or society. Still, the psychology of obedience can be nuanced and has been extensively studied, particularly the concept of destructive obedience, which can refer to following orders that may harm your own or others’ well-being. If you’ve noticed that you may be prone to destructive obedience, speaking with a licensed therapist may enable you to get to the root of this tendency and address it accordingly.
Change of behavior in obedience versus conformity?
Obedience can be defined as a social response to orders from an authority figure. The necessity of hierarchy for obedience may be important when distinguishing it from another type of social influence: conformity.
Both conformity and obedience usually require amenability, or a behavioral change based on social influence. However, obedience normally entails changing one's behavior due to an order from an authority figure, while conformity typically refers to changing one's behavior, thoughts, or attitudes to align with the opinions and actions of other people or social norms.
Social sciences and obedience
Obedience to authority has historically been an important topic of scientific investigation in social psychology and sociology. One of the first studies to empirically investigate obedience occurred in 1936. The researchers generally sought to identify the psychological structures that determined how dependent humans were on the rules of society.
Researchers mainly focused on obedience within family structures because the family is usually the first to introduce the concept of authority. They then extrapolated their findings to a larger social context, determining that obedience to authority has likely been a crucial part of success for most human groups throughout history.
Obedience in ancient history
Before the scientific investigation of obedience, the concept was debated by philosophers throughout history. In antiquity, debates about obedience to authority appeared in the works of notable philosophers, including Plato's Crito and Apology. In those works, Plato describes the tale of his mentor, Socrates, who was unjustly convicted of corrupting youth and sentenced to death.
Destructive obedience
Psychologist Stanley Milgram and destructive obedience
Following World War II, the social sciences generally saw an increased interest in destructive obedience. In 1963, an American psychologist from New York named Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to search for conditions likely to lead to destructive obedience. The study established three roles: the teacher, the learner, and the experimenter.
Study participants were assigned as teachers, and the experimenter and learner were both confederates of the study, meaning they were placed to play specific roles. However, study participants believed that the experimenter and learner were both legitimate participants as well.
The purpose of Milgram's study was to observe how the participant (the teacher) reacted to the experimenter's commands, who was positioned as an authority figure. Milgram and his team theorized that most people would apply lower-level shocks at the experimenter’s behest, but few would apply the maximum electric shock, despite the experimenter’s pressure.
Psychological aspect of obedience through better-than-average effect
The study conducted by Stanley Milgram demonstrated that most people can be susceptible to the influence of a perceived authority figure. Contemporary research into obedience usually reinforces this finding and additionally identifies another layer of the psychological aspect of obedience through the better-than-average (BTA) effect.
The BTA effect states that most people believe they are better than the average person regarding certain abilities or traits. For example, in Milgram's study, the BTA effect indicates that most participants would likely consider themselves unwilling to comply with the authority figure’s instructions to administer harm.
Milgram’s obedience study design
Milgram's obedience experiments are not repeated today due to ethical concerns, as many participants were significantly distraught at the perceived torture. However, one 2012 study attempted to replicate the experiment by examining whether a person would disobey and become a whistleblower when encountering unethical behavior.
The study involved two groups of participants. The first group of participants received a description of the study and were asked how likely it was that they would follow the unethical instructions of the experimenter.
The second group of participants went through the pseudo-experiment and had three choices: follow the unethical instructions of the experimenter, disobey, or disobey and report the actions of the unscrupulous research team.
The results of the Milgram obedience study
The researchers compared the results of both groups. The first group established a baseline of perceived response to an unethical experiment, and the second group established what people would actually do.
In the first group, 96.4% of participants reported they would disobey or become whistleblowers. However, the second group demonstrated different behavior, as 76.5% of participants obeyed the experimenter, and only 9.4% became whistleblowers.
The BTA effect can illustrate an important concept in obedience. Most people have difficulty accurately assessing their obedience tendencies. As research into obedience continues, more light may be shed on the unique differences between individuals' tendencies to obey.
Behavior reinforcement and conditioning while learning from commands
Therapy may enable you to explore your relationship with authority and obedience, among other topics.
Online therapy is often viewed as an increasingly popular way to avail psychotherapeutic services. You can avail of therapy from your home, and you can match with therapists outside of your geographic area. Those facing therapist shortages may turn to online therapy as a viable alternative.
Online therapists normally use the same evidence-based techniques as traditional therapists, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, which can effectively improve many mental health concerns. A therapist can help you understand your relationship to obedience and authority and encourage you to change your life. Evidence indicates that when therapy is administered online, it can be just as effective as in-person therapy.
Takeaway
What are good obedience psychology questions to discuss with your counselor or psychologist?
Talking to a counselor or therapist can be a helpful way to learn more about the psychology of obedience and explore its effects on your life and relationships. Depending on your current challenges, you might consider asking your counselor questions like:
How can I learn to follow my own morals and judgment, even when they go against what I’m being told to do?
Can learning to set healthy boundaries help me avoid destructive obedience? If so, where do I start?
How do environmental factors like work stress affect my tendency to obey others?
Can you help me explore how my upbringing and family history might have affected my relationship with authority figures?
How can I learn to resist peer pressure?
How do I unlearn the belief that disobeying orders makes me “difficult” or a “bad person?”
Questions like these can serve as a starting point for exploring obedience with your mental health professional.
What is an example of obedience psychology?
Several famous examples from history can help illustrate the power of obedience to authority in human psychology. For instance, in the aftermath of World War II, Nazi official Adolf Eichmann notoriously tried to justify his role in the Holocaust using the defense that he was “just following orders.” This defense sparked an interest in the psychology of obedience, and the effect of direct orders from someone of a higher status on a person’s sense of right and wrong.
Later, the Milgram experiment aimed to shed light on this topic. Psychologist Stanley Milgram wanted to understand if people could be led to harm others just by receiving orders from someone in a position of power. In the experiment, participants believed they were giving a series of electric shocks to someone in another room. Although the people in the other room were not actually being electrocuted, they pretended to be in increasing amounts of pain with each subsequent shock.
If the participant refused to keep delivering shocks, the experimenters would use a series of verbal prods to encourage them to continue, such as, “You have no other choice,” and, “It is essential that you continue.” The experiment would end if the person giving the shocks continued to refuse, or after they had delivered three shocks in a row at the maximum level.
The study found that people are often surprisingly obedient to authority figures, even when what they’re being asked to do harms others or goes against their morals. Nearly 65% of participants obeyed the experimenters, despite the cries of pain from the other participants.
What are obedience conditioning examples?
The term “obedience conditioning” typically refers to the process of training animals—often dogs—to obey commands like “sit” and “stay.” Often, this process of developing obedience involves:
Using rewards to encourage desired behaviors
Withholding rewards to discourage unwanted behaviors
Associating commands or gestures with behaviors and rewards
Practicing commands in different environments and with different people
Some of these strategies, like positive reinforcement and discipline, may also be used in other areas, like parenting. However, the term “obedience conditioning” is not typically used in these contexts.
What does learning about obedience psychology look like?
If you’re interested in learning about the psychology of obedience, you may want to start by:
Researching Stanley Milgram’s experiment, as well as other scientific studies on obedience, peer pressure, conformity, and authority
Educating yourself about group psychology and how peer pressure and social dynamics can affect behavior
Reflecting on examples of destructive obedience from politics, history, or current events
In addition, you may also find it helpful to talk to a psychologist or therapist about the ways obedience appears in your own life and relationships.
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