Agency Theory Flashcards
What does Milgram say about agency theory?
- People will obey orders when they believe the person giving them is perceived as a legitimate authority figure
How is obedience an important behaviour in psychology?
- Usually used to keep others and ourselves safe e.g speed limits
What does agentic state mean?
Where a person will blindly follow the orders of an authority figure
- remove their free will
- remove any feeling of responsibility and feel justified in carrying out actions
How does the agentic state occur?
When confronted with a person they percieve as having legitimate authority and begin to act as an ‘agent’ on behalf of the authority figure
What do people in the agentic state believe?
That the authority figure is responsible for their actions and therefore won’t be held accountable
What is the autonomous state?
When not in the presence of an authority figure
- People behave independently and feel responsible for the consequences, making decisions according to their own freewill
What do people in the agentic state that commit destructive obedience
May experience moral strain and shuns of psychological and physical anxiety as their behaviour conflicts with their beliefs about right and wrong
How can obedience be seen as a survival value and how does natural selection play a role?
NS favoured those creatures who fitted into the social hierarchy and avoided confrontation, maintaining social harmony
CREDIBILITY
- MILGRAM 1961 study variations
- 65% of participants shocked the actor to 450 volts obeying the orders of the researcher who wore a lab coat as a symbol of an legitimate authority
- Some showed moral strain
- Participants believed that the responsibility would be with the researcher
CREDIBILITY
- Milgram variations
- When the experiment was done in civilian clothes, in a run down office
- Obedience dropped to 45%
CREDIBILITY
-Burger 2009
Repeated in 2009 to see if people were still as obedient and got similar results
- 70% obedience
OBJECTION
- Agency theory doesn’t explain what?
The process of obedience
OBJECTION/DIFFERENCE
- What does SIT state that Agency theory doesn’t?
SIT doesn’t just state having an a.f but its to do with the S,N and I
DIFFERENCE
- Social Impact Theory
- It looks at multiple factors of force and uses a formula to predict when obedience occurs
OBJECTION
- Theordore Adornos Authority Personality
Some individuals are born with a personality type and naturally look up to strong leadership and for the need to be obedient
APPLICATION
- How can it help fight prejudice
Obeying orders from positive role models, can help fight against prejudice
- Seen in sports, no racism in football
CONCLUSION
- Basic theory with simplistic views in a one-on-one situation with an authority figure
-SIT shows more complex social group and obedience levels.
This has led to further research but it is too reductionist
Describe the agentic state in agency theory
- Individual acts as an agent for the authority figure
- Displaces responsibility of their actions onto the authority figure
- Likely to obey
- E.G: the 65% in Milgram’s study who obeyed to give 450v electric shocks to the actor
Why can agency theory be argued to be reductionist?
- Doesn’t consider the S/I/N of sources, personality, culture…
- Doesn’t explain why not everyone experiences agentic shift
Describe the autonomous state in agency theory
- Individual acts upon their own free will and will disobey if they don’t want to complete an order
- Full responsibility of their actions
- E.G: 35% withdrew from Milgram’s experiment
Why is agency theory not a very scientific theory?
Components are all mental states which are difficult to operationalise and measure
- Lack empirical evidence of their existence
Using Agency Theory, why did Tom listen to his teacher…
Agency theory would explain that Mrs Smith is an authority figure who has given Tom an order (1)
Tom would have chosen not to run errands if in an autonomous state, but will experience moral strain if he refuses to obey (1).
Therefore moral strain will cause an agentic shift and Tom will become an agent for Mrs Smith (1).
Any negative aspects associated with his obedience, such as not doing his homework, will be displaced on to Mrs Smith
