Dispositional Attribution Theory

The tendency of an individual to exert disobedient behaviour depends on dispositional attribution. Thus, dispositional attribution or internal attribution is characterized as an assumption that the behaviour of an individual is caused by the person’s internal characteristics rather than external factors (“Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology”).
On the other hand, looking at studies that portray a contradicting argument are essential in constituting a holistic view on the concept of obedience. Thus, individuals are often encouraged to disobey certain orders, when one sees other people denying to obey an authority figure. This assumption is indicated in the study of Milgram (1974) where in one of the variations of the experiment, the

This has been shown by a real-life example, on December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks who happened to be a black citizen was returning home from work by a bus. Back then, according to the law, the front rows of the bus was always kept for the white citizens and the back seats for the black citizens. Thus, that day all of the front row seats were taken, thereupon a white man had no available seat. The black citizens who were sitting right behind the whites were ordered to give up their seats for the white man. Rosa Parks refused to obey orders from a bus driver when she was told to give up her seat to a white man, this motivated other black civilians to resist white control (“Rosa Parks”). Therefore, this indicates that with disobedient models being present, the tendency of an individual to disobey the authority is high, due to the fact that rebellious behaviour creates an opportunity for others to choose independently between alternatives. Another study on obedience that was carried out by Meeus and Raaijmakers in the 1980s, indicated similar results to Stanley Milgram obedience experiment (1974). The sample of

Emotions can influence one’s behaviour for instance when a person is angry they are likely to display aggressive behaviour and so forth. The main evidence that shows how emotions can influence an individual to exert disobedient behaviour is the Stanley Milgram experiment. In one of the variations of the experiment, most of Milgram’s participants refused to continue with administering electric shocks when the learner was present in the same room as the teacher, the obedience rate dropped to around 40%. When the teacher was asked to hold the learner’s hand on the shock plate, obedience level significantly dropped to 30%, due to the fact that the teacher thought the learner was in pain or distressed and this resulted in the feeling of empathy and responsibility for the well-being of the learner (“Obedience”). However, it is vital to take into consideration the fact that it is difficult to measure the feelings of an individual. Thus, the following question arises whether or not Milgram’s results are reliable. This shall be examined in the discussion