Agentic state and legitimacy of Authority (lesson 6) Flashcards
A01 A03
what is the agentic state
The agentic state is the idea that the individual believes they don’t have responsibility for their behaviors as they are the agent of an authority figure. This is the opposite to an autonomous state where an individuals actions are free from control
what does the agentic state allow for ?
The Agentic state allows individuals to commit acts that they personally and morally oppose. they will often feel discomfort as a result of their actions but feel they are unable to resist the demands of the person in authority so they therefore feel they lack any responsibility.
what does the term Legitimacy of authority mean?
Legitimacy of authority is the idea that individuals accept that other individuals who are higher up the social hierarchy should be obeyed, and that there is a sense of duty. such as a police officer or your parents.
when is legitimacy of authority learned
the legitimacy of authority is learned in childhood through socialization processes through relationships such as parent or child, teacher or student.
what is a binding factor
milgram said there are always aspects of the situation which bind us to the task and allow us to block out the moral strain we are experiencing. these are called binding factors, there are a number of strategies we use to do this, including denying responsibility and making out it’s the victim’s fault.
what is an example of a powerful figure that has exploited their authority in a destructive way.
Hitler is a charismatic leader who used his legitimate authority to order those lower in society to behave in a cruel, evil and torturous way.
what do miligram variations tell us about legitimacy of authority
location- the location of the study had an effect on rates of obedience when it was performed in a run-down office or in normal clothing. obedience rates dropped which showed that there was less belief that the authority figure was legitimate.
what do milligrams variations of his experiments tell us about agentic state
proximity- the experimenter (an authoritative person) was further from the teacher participant meaning that he remained within the autonomous state as there was nobody for the participant to shift the responsibility onto to enter the agentic state. so obedience rates decreased
what supporting research was there from Blass and Smit
Blass and Smit demonstrated the strength of the idea of the legitimacy of authority in society, as when shown videos of Milgram study many people placed the responsibility for the shocks with the experimenter, no the participant. arguing that he had responsibility due to his authority. this shows a second supply of data that shifted the responsibility to the experimenter.
discuss the weakness of legitimacy of authority due to cultural differences
many different countries differ in the degree in which people are traditionally obedient to authority. EG- Kilburn and Mann replicated the Milgram procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of participants went to the top of the voltage scale. and on the other hand, another experiment in Germany showed German participants delivered 85% of the maximum shock. this shows that in other countries, authority is more or less likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals. this shows a weakness of the explanation as it doesn’t take into account the cultural variations that affect authority figures. so the explanation is not applicable to the full population.
