AGENTIC STATE & LEGTIMACY OF AUTHORITY

Question 1

agentic state
(act on behalf of another person)

Answer 1

• miligram proposed that obedience is distructive authority because a person becomes an agent of someone who acts for or place of another
• in an agentic state a person feels no personal responsibility for actions.

Question 2

AUTONOMOUS STATE
not an agent

Answer 2

autonomy means to be free. so a person is in an autnomous state behaves according to their principles and feels responsible for actions.

Question 3

AGENTIC SHIFT
moving to agentic state

Answer 3

• shift from autonomy to being an ‘agent’ occurs when we percieve someone else as authortiy so we respect orders, miligrams pp went through this

Question 4

BINDING FACTORS
reduces moral strain

Answer 4

• binding factors are aspects of a situation which allow person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviours and reduce the moral strain they feel.
• miligram proposed a number of strategies the ind uses, such as shifting resp to the victims or Denying the damage they are doing to the victims

Question 5

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE(AGENTIC STATE)

Answer 5

• Most of miligrams pp asked the experimenter who was responsible, who is resp if Mr Wallace is harmed (the learner)
• when the experimenter replied “im responsible” the pp went through the experiment quickly without objecting
• this shows pp act more easily as an agent when believed they were not resp for their behaviour.

Question 6

agentic shift doesnt explain many research findings

Answer 6

• Rank and jacobson found that nurses disobeyed a doctors order to give excessive drug dose.
• the doctors was an authority figure but the nurses remained autnomous and did not shift into an agentic state. this is the same for most of miligrams pp.
• similarly hofling study, nurses didnt show anxiety while giving responsibility to doctor.
• understood destructive process. agentic shift accounts for some situations of obedience
• only exp some situtations

Question 7

we obey ppl futher up the social hierachy

Answer 7

• most societys are structured on a social hireachy.
• people in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us, e.g parents, teachers, police officers, nightclub bouncers

Question 8

authorities have legitimacy through society agreement

Answer 8

• the power that authorities wield is legitimate bc it is agreed by society.
• most of us accept that authority figures should exercise social power over others to allow society to function properly.

Question 9

we hand control over to authortiy

Answer 9

• ppl with legitimate authority have the power to punish others. we give up some independence to ppl we trust to exercise social power over others to allow society to function

Question 10

leaders use legitimate power

Answer 10

• history has shown that some leaders (Hitler, starlin) use legitimate authority destructively, ordering ppl to behave in creul and dangerous ways

Question 11

one strength is that it can exp cultural differences

Answer 11

• research shows that countries differ in obedience to authority
• for exp Khiliman and man found 16% australlian women obeyed mantell found that 85% in germany.
• this shows that authority is more likely seen as legitimate in some cultures reflecting upbringings

Question 12

EXPLAINS REAL LIFE OBEDIENCE (LEGITIMATE OF AUTHORITY)

Answer 12

• research shows that some people disobey legitimate authority e.g Rank and jacobson - nurses disobeyed authority (doctor) even in hierachy.
• but doctors at my Lai obeyed their commanding officers maybe he had more power to punish than a doctor.
• kelman and hamiliton
• therefore there is some evidence in real world situation that respect for legitimacy authority can lead to distrutive obedince.