4.1.1 - Agentic State Flashcards
What are social-psychological explanations of obedience
These explanations concern the influence of others on an individuals behaviour, rather than the external factors in a situation
The two theories are:
- agentic state
- legitimacy theory
What is the agentic state theory
From his research, Milgram proposed the agentic state theory:
- when we act as the agent of someone in authority we find it easy to deny personal responsibility for outer actions as its “just doing out job” and following orders
What is an agentic shift
When people have two ways of acting:
- their autonomous state
- their agentic state
What is the autonomous state
Where individuals direct their own behaviour and take responsibility for the consequences
What is the agentic state
Where individuals allow someone else to direct their behaviour and pass responsibility to them
How does an agentic shift occur
When people move from the autonomous state into the agentic state when confronted with an authority figure
A shift from “autonomy” to “agency” occurs
What is moral strain
Is we obey an order that goes against or conscience, we are likely to experience a mortal strain.
- results in people having to do something they believe is immoral in order to function as an agent of authority.
What are binding factors
When people are in a situation of moral strain, they are likely to want to stop what they are doing
- however they often feel unable to do so due to biding factors
- these are aspects of the situation that allow a person to minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour (eg: denying the damage that they are doing to others i their minds)
What is legitimacy of authority
·An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we percieve to have authority over us
- This authority is justified/legitimate by the Individuals position of power within a social hierachy.
What is destructive authority
·History has shown all too often that powerful leaders (eg: Hitler) can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes.
- Destructive authority was shown in Milgrams study when the experimenter used prods to order the ppts to behave in ways that went against their consciences.
Agetic state A03 - research support
blass and schmitt(2001)
- shows a film of milgrams study to students and asked them to state who they felt was responsible for the harm to the learners
- the majority of the students blames the experimenter rather than the teacher
- the students therefore identified an agentic shift due to the directions from an authority figure
- increases external validity of theory
Agetic state A03 - limited explanation
The agentic shift explanation doesn’t explain why some ppts obey when others don’t. They also dont explain the findings from Hofling( nurses in hospital)
- agentic shift theory claims that when passing responsibility over to the doctor, the nurses should have shown levels of anxiety however this wasn’t the case.
Legitimacy of authority A03- explains cultural differences
- the explanation shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be deputed as legitimate - therefore people will be more entitles to obey
- in Germany authority is perceived as more legitimate than in Australia therefore the findings of milgrams studies in different locations can be explained
- has explanatory power and high external validity
