Compliance to authority figures' orders or demands.

What is agency theory?

Theory suggesting individuals can relinquish autonomy to authority.

What is Adorno's theory of authoritarian personality?

Theory linking obedience to early childhood experiences.

Milgram focuses on situational factors, Adorno on personality.

Criticized for association with extreme right-wing politics.

Milgram's experiment illustrates how individuals can exhibit obedience to authority figures, even to the extent of inflicting harm, highlighting the power of situational factors in shaping behavior.
Adorno's theory emphasizes that obedience can be rooted in childhood experiences and personality traits, suggesting a deeper psychological foundation for compliance beyond immediate situational pressures, though criticized for its potential alignment with extreme political ideologies.

What is obedience?
Compliance to authority figures' orders or demands.
What is agency theory?
Theory suggesting individuals can relinquish autonomy to authority.
What is Adorno's theory of authoritarian personality?
Theory linking obedience to early childhood experiences.
How does Milgram's research differ from Adorno's theory?
Milgram focuses on situational factors, Adorno on personality.
What is the critique of the authoritarian personality concept?
Criticized for association with extreme right-wing politics.

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Obedience is defined as behavior resulting from orders or demands of an authority figure, as demonstrated by Stanley Milgram's famous experiment where participants administered what they believed were painful electric shocks under an authority figure's instructions.
Milgram's agency theory suggests that individuals can relinquish their autonomy to an authority figure, leading to obedience, influenced by social factors like proximity to the victim and societal hierarchies.
Adorno's theory of the authoritarian personality posits that excessive obedience stems from early childhood experiences of strict discipline, leading to displaced anger towards socially inferior groups, measured by the F scale questionnaire.
While Milgram's research supports the idea of obedience influenced by situational factors, Adorno's theory focuses on personality differences, with the authoritarian personality concept critiqued for its association with extreme right-wing politics.