Agency Theory, (SP)

Question 1

What is obedience?

Answer 1

Compliance with an order, request, law or submission to another’s authority

Question 2

Define autonomous state

Answer 2

A mindset where we behave independently, make our own decisions and how to behave and take responsibility for the consequences of our own actions e.g. commingling a crime and accepting jail time as a consequence

Question 3

Define agentic state

Answer 3

A mindset which allows us to carry out orders from an authority figure, even if they conflict with our own personal sense of right and wrong e.g. following boss’ instructions to complete work

Question 4

Define agentic shift

Answer 4

The shift between the autonomous and agentic state that occurs when we perceive someone to be a legitimate source of authority and allow them to control our behaviour e.g. mom walks into your room and tells you to clean it

Question 5

Define moral strain

Answer 5

A state of mental discomfort or anxiety experienced in the agentic state when a persons actions conflict with their personal morality

Question 6

Define binding factors

Answer 6

Factors that lead you to listen to the authority figure e.g. physical appearance, clothing, the role they play, consequences for no listening

Question 7

Evaluate a strength of agency theory (with supportive evidence)

Answer 7

One strength of Agency Theory is that there is supporting evidence from Milgram’s experiment showed 65% of participants were willing to obey an authority figure.

This provides evidence for agency theory as an explanation for obedience as participants showed signs of moral strain (for example, anxiety or laughing). When debriefed, many of the participants said that their behaviour was the responsibility of the experimenter.

Therefore, this shows that the participants did displace responsibility and acted as agents to the authority, as Agency Theory proposes people do.

Question 8

Evaluate a weakness of agency theory (with supportive evidence)

Answer 8

A weakness of Agency theory is that it does not explain individual differences why some people obey, and some do not.

For exampte, 35% of the participants in Milgram’s study did not give Call of the electric shocks, up to the full 450V.

This is a weakness as it shows that disobedience / dissent can occur for many reasons which are not accounted for by Agency Theory such as personality type, gender and situation, therefore, showing Agency Theory is an uncomplete explanation of obedience.

Question 9

Why do we obey according to Milgram?

Answer 9

Milgram believed that if we all have a tendency to be obedient, it must serve some function in society. He suggested that we are pre-programmed to be obedient (ie it is innate) and that through socialisation, this obedience is reinforced.

Socialisation occurs at home and at school through system of rewards and punishments that tell us how to behave and who should be obeyed in society. We are taught from an early age that often, we must do things that we don’t want to do.