AGENCY THEORY Flashcards
Who created agency theory?
Milligram
Why was agency theory developed?
Milgram rejected the dispositional explanations that Nazi war crimes occurred because of something particular brutal in the German national character. He created agency theory as a response.
How is agency theory significant?
- It underlines all Miligrams obedience studies
- It is a deterministic theory, suggesting people have much less free well than they think when it comes to decision-making
- It shows how people’s own decisions are actually expressions of their social situation
- it ties into the key question in social psychology, since it helps explain prejudice and how to reduce it
What is the agentic shift?
When we enter an agentic state from an autonomous state and shift responsibility onto someone else when in the presence of an authority figure
- An order from an authority figure triggers and agentic shift into an agentic state
How does Milgram explain the agentic shift?
- Milgram argues that obedience is a survival trait that allows a society to function.
- Hierarchy has evolved because obedience ensures a stable society and survival, it creates social order and harmony
- We have been conditioned to obey from a early age through socialisation, reward and punishments
- To enable us to give up a degree of our free will we have evolved 2 states: Agentic and Autonomous
- We use agentic state to avoid moral strain
- As obedience has become social etiquette, an agentic state has become a key part of our lives as it is a strategy to cope with doing things we don’t want to do
Nazi Germany that is an example of agentic shift backfiring because people obeyed orders when they should’ve rebelled against
Nature and nurture in obedience
Evolution may have given us a predisposition towards obedience and hierarchy, but it is also strengthened by our upbringing. They are complementary explanations.
Evaluating Agency Theory (strength) - Krackow & Blass (1995)
- 68 US nurses were given a questionnaire asking them the last time they disagreed with the doctors orders
- The two factors influencing the nurses decisions on whether they obey or disobey were, the legitimate authority of the doctor and the seriousness of the consequences to the patient
- Where the situation was more serious, the nurses were more likely to take responsibility for the decision themselves and challenge the doctors orders
Evaluating Agency Theory (strength) - Bushman (1988)
- He recreated Milgram study but varied the authoritativeness of the authority figure
- When the authority figure had more perceived status (i.e uniform) obedience rates were higher
Evaluating Agency Theory (strength) - application to real life
- It can explain the reluctance of people who become “whistle blowers”
- E.g - the US military now have ethical guidelines for soldiers who are encouraged to challenge perceived immoral orders from senior officers
- E.g - In 1943 a group of German women protested in Berlin where the Gestapo were holding 2000 Jewish men (who were married to non-Jewish partners or were children of mixed marriages) despite threats to be shot, the woman remained and eventually the Jews were set free. The presence of disobedient peers gave the woman more confidence and courage to resist the authority of the Gestapo together.
Evaluating Agency Theory (strength) - Tarnow (2000)
Provides support for agency theory and the power of legitimate authority
- He analysed serious aircraft accidents in the US
- Tarnow found that excessive dependence on the captains authority and expertise resulted in many accident - the captains definition of the situation was accepted and not challenged sufficiently, such lack of monitoring accounted for 19/37 accidents
Evaluating Agency Theory (strength) - Meeus & Raaijmakers (1985)
- Study of obedience showed that pps were prepared to inflict psychological harm when instructed to do so by perceived authority figure (levels of obedience were 92%)
- As psychological harm is much more common than physical harm this research might have more ecological validity than other obedience research and can explain real life experiences
Evaluating Agency Theory (Weakness) - Zimbardo et al
- Some argue that Milgram theories are not necessarily explained by being in an agentic state but more by individual differences in personality
- Zimbardo et al showed that within a few days ‘guards’ inflicted rapidly escalating cruelty on increasingly submissive prisoners despite the fact that there was no obvious authority figure instructing them to do so
Evaluating Agency Theory (Weakness)
- Personality (charisma)
Some people might be more naturally predisposed to obey while some people can get others to obey even when they have little or no authority over them. It is simply the force of their personality (charisma) which elicits obedience.
Evaluating Agency Theory (Weakness) - Circular argument
An agentic state is generated when an order is given by perceived authority figure, however this concept is an internal mental process that cannot be measured directly only inferred from behaviour - it becomes a circular argument: agency theory cannot be defined independently from obedience - people obey because they are in an agentic state but are in an agentic state because they obey
Evaluating Agency Theory (Strength) - Retested
Blass (1999) carried out statistical analysis of all Milgrams obedience research conducted by others throughout a 20 year period. He found no difference in levels of obedience between later and earlier studies.
Burger (2009) found levels of obedience, almost identical to those found by Milgram half a century later
Milgrams study still appears to apply as much today as it did then
