agentic state and legitimacy of authority

Question 1

what is an agentic state

Answer 1

milgram - obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person does not take authority

instead they believe they are acting for someone else - agent

agent - unfeeling puppet that experiences high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise that what they are doing in wrong but feel powerless to disobey

Question 2

what is autonomous state

Answer 2

opposite of being in an agentic state

person in an autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions

shift from autonomy to agency - agentic shift

milgram suggested that thus occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure

authority figure has greater power because they have a higher position in a social hierarchy

in most social groups when one person is in charge other defer to the legitimate authority of this person and shift from autonomy to agency

Question 3

what are binding factors

Answer 3

milgram - observed that many of his participants said they wanted to stop but seemed powerless to do so

wondered why they remained in an agentic state

binding factors - aspects of the situations that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour

reduce the moral strain they are feeling
strategies
shifts responsibility to the victim
denying damage they were doing to the victim

Question 4

what is legitimacy of authority

Answer 4

auothroty people have in higher up positions such as teachers and parents

authority is legitimate as it is agreed by society

most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly

one of the consequences of this legitimacy of authority is that some people are granted the power to punish others

willing to give up some of our independence and hand control over to people we trust to excessive their authority properly

learn acceptance if legitimate authority from childhood from parents and then teachers

Question 5

what is destructive authority

Answer 5

problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive

charasmatic and powerful leaders can use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes ordering people to behave in ways that are cruel and dangerous

obvious in milgrams study when the experimenters used prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences

Question 6

give a strength for agentic state

Answer 6

research support

strength - milgrams own studies support the role of agentic state in obedience

most of milgrams participants resisted giving the shocks at some point and often asked the experimenter questions about the procedure

one of these - ‘who is responsible if learner is harmed’

when experimenter replied ‘i’m responsible,

participants went through with no further objections

shows that once participants perceived they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour they acted more easily as the experimenters agent as milgram suggested

Question 7

give a limitation of agentic state

Answer 7

limited explanation

limitation - agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience

example - does not explain the findings of Rank and Jacobsons study

found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose of a patient

doctors - authority figure

but almost all of the nurses remained autonomous

suggests that at best the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Question 8

give a strength of legitimacy of authority

Answer 8

explains cultural differences

strength - useful account of cultural differences in obedience

many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority

example - Kilham and Man found that 16% if australian women went all the way to 450 volts in a milgram style study

Mantel, - 85% fir german

shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals

this reflects the ways that different societies are structured and ow children are raised to perceive authority figures

Question 9

give a limitation for legitimacy of authority

Answer 9

cannot explain all disobedience

limitation - legitimacy cannot explain instance of disobedience in a hierarchy where the legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted

includes nurses in Ranks and Jacobsons study

most of them were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchal authority struture

also a significant minority of milgrams participants disobeyed despite recognising the experimenters authority

suggests that some people may just be more or less obedient than others

it is possible that innate tendencies to obey or disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than the legitimacy of authority figure