Agentic State

Question 1

What is the Agentic State?

Answer 1

• A mental state where an individual feels no personal responsibility over their behavior as they believe to be acting for an authority figure.

Question 2

What is the Autonomous State?

Answer 2

• Being aware of the consequences of own actions and therefore taking voluntary control of one’s own behavior.
• This explains why people act independently rather than obediently.

Question 3

What is the Agentic Shift?

Answer 3

• Changing from being in an Autonomous State to being in an Agentic State (moving from taking responsibility to believing one is acting on behalf of an authority figure).

Question 4

What does an individual give up in an Agentic State?

Answer 4

• Free will

Question 5

What did Milgram suggest about the Agentic State?

Answer 5

• It occurs when a person perceives someone as an authority figure.
• The authority figure has greater power than the individual because they have a higher position in the social hierarchy.

Question 6

What does an individual experience when acting ‘agentic’?

Answer 6

• They experience high anxiety which is ‘moral strain’.
• They know what they are doing is wrong, yet they feel powerless to disobey the authority figure.

Question 7

What are Binding Factors?

Answer 7

• Aspects of a situation that allow an agent to ignore or minimize the damaging effects of their behavior and thus reduce their moral strain.

Question 8

Give an evaluative point supporting the Agentic State.

Answer 8

• Milgram asked students who they thought was responsible for the shocks
• Students blamed the experimenter rather than the participant as the researcher was the authority figure
• Gives validity to his research as participant in Milgram’s study would have given up their responsibility an entered the agentic state.

Question 9

Give an evaluative point criticizing the Agentic State.

Answer 9

• 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient
• The doctor was an obvious authority figure
• Almost all the nurses remained autonomous- Theory cannot be applied to everyone

Question 10

Summarise your knowdge into roughly 6 points for a 16 marker.
What could you say?

Answer 10

• Define what the Agentic state is
• When an individual is acting as an agent, they experience high anxiety which is ‘moral strain’.
• Define what the Autonomous state
• Define what the Agentic shift is
• What are Binding Factors
• Milgram proposed several strategies that the individual uses such as shifting responsibility to the victim (‘he was foolish to enter’)