1. Dr Helen Owton
TMA05

2. TMA05 Title
“Context is vital to understanding obedience behaviour. Critically discuss this statement with reference to experimental and discursive approaches to the study of obedience.” 2000 words

3. Completing the assignment
This essay asks you to consider the idea of context.
Experimental context of the research itself - see Hollway’s Chapter 3, Section 4.1
The wider context of research in relation to this topic; e.g., the historical context of experimental and discursive research
what we can understand about social influence by taking this into consideration. 
ITs: agency and power.

4. Context Critique Milgrams’ work Experimental context:
consider how Gibson’s rhetorical analysis concentrates on interactions within the experiment and the implications of this analysis
Discursive perspective should start with Book 2, Chapter 7

5. Gibson
Gibson uses a method of the discursive perspective, ‘rhetorical analysis’
Investigates in detail conversational exchanges between experimenters and participants in Milgram’s famous experiments on obedience (see handout)
He applies rhetorical analysis to question Milgram’s interpretation of these exchanges as ‘destructive obedience’

6. Gibson’s analysis not only challenges Milgram’s interpretations of obedience from the experiments
He questions Milgram’s reliance on the experimental method as the chief method of understanding social influence.
Therefore the answer to this question could include discussion on the relevance of the ‘methodological framework’ (Dixon 2012, page 166) Milgram used and its link to the interpretations he was able to draw from the experiments.

7. Consider…
… the wider historical context of the research, and the assumptions available about the appropriate way to research obedience at the time Milgram conducted the experiments

8. What interrogative themes?
Situated knowledges
Agency-structure
Power relations

9. Gibson
Gibson argues that some of these actual verbal exchanges - participants used ‘rhetorical strategies’ which undermined the experimenter’s authority
(efforts made to inform/persuade experimenters)

10. Task of assignment
Develop a balanced discussion about the ‘experimental realism’ of Milgram’s approach
Consider the wider theoretical positions of the two perspectives which underpin Gibson’s and Milgram’s approach, in order to develop ideas about advantages and disadvantages of a discursive psychology approach to obedience, as it is used in rhetorical analysis – this will be useful in the development of a critical discussion of the two approaches. 
Consult Book 1, Chapters 2 and 3 - both the discursive and the cognitive social perspectives
Book 2, Chapter 4 which discusses a discursive approach to attitudes

11. Critical discussions
Some questions might help direct a critical discussion of the claims of the discursive approach:
How relations of power are seen differently with the application of rhetorical analysis, compared with Milgram’s experimental approach.
How might issues of agency and power help you to develop your discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the discursive approach to obedience?
Is there too much emphasis on the agency of those who challenged the experimenter in the discursive approach to obedience, for example?
What implications are there for granting agency to these participants?

12. LOs What you are being assessed on in TMA 05:
your ability to discuss the importance of context to develop or further your critical discussion
your understanding of Gibson’s analysis of Milgram’s experiments on obedience
your ability to critically discuss experimental and discursive approaches
your ability to build an argument that draws on relevant module materials and uses those materials to address a specific topic
your ability to write a clear, well-structured critical discussion focused on the topic.

13. Wider references
Billig, M. (1999). Whose terms? Whose ordinariness? Rhetoric and ideology in conversation analysis. Discourse and Society, 10, 543–558. doi: /
Burger, J. M. (2009). Replicating Milgram: Would people still obey today? American Psychologist, 64, 1–11.
Gibson, S. (2011). Milgram’s obedience experiments: A rhetorical analysis. British Journal of Social Psychology.
Reicher, S., & Haslam, S. A. (2011). After shock? Towards a social identity explanation of the Milgram ‘obedience’studies. British Journal of Social Psychology, 50(1),  
Russell, N. J. C. (2011) ‘Milgram’s obedience to authority experiments: origins and early evolution’, British Journal of Social Psychology, vol. 50, pp. 140–62.