Explanations for obedience: Agentic State/ Legitimacy of Authority

Question 1

what was milgram’s initial interest in studying obedience originally triggered by?

Answer 1

by Adolf Eichmann’s trial in 1961 for his crimes in overseeing the Nazi death camps, with his defence being he was only following orders.

Question 2

What are the three hypothesis’ Milgram proposed regarding agentic state?

Answer 2

-a person may hurt someone if they’re obeyed by an authority figure
-Social Hierarchy hypothesis
-Social contract hypothesis

Question 3

what is the agentic state?

Answer 3

this is when people feel they are an agent for someone else, typically an authority figure.

Question 4

what is the autonomous state?

Answer 4

this is when a person feels as though they’re independent, and they are independent from the authority figure.

Question 5

What did Milgram suggest (1974) about the agentic shift?

Answer 5

suggested people shift between the agentic state and autonomous state depending on the situation they are in

Question 6

What is the social hierarchy hypothesis, proposed by milgram?

Answer 6

he believed that when people higher in this hierarchy they have greater power and authority, which triggers with those who are lower.

Question 7

who is more likely to switch from the autonomous to agentic states in society?

Answer 7

Those who are lower down in the social hierarchy.

Question 8

what are binding factors?

Answer 8

these describe why a person continues to act in an agentic state even though they don’t want t and express they want to stop (e.g in milgram’s experiment)

Question 9

what are the two binding factors regarding obedience?

Answer 9

-shifting responsibility to the victim for volunteering
-shifting it to the authority figure as they are in charge

Question 10

What is the ‘social contract’ hypothesis regarding the agentic state?

Answer 10

• a person may feel rude or look arrogant if they break this, therefore makes them ‘bind’ to the authority figure.

Question 11

Give 2 examples of the ‘social contract’ hypothesis

Answer 11

• Mai Lai Massacre taking place during the Vietnam war
  -Eichmann who masterminded the holocaust

Question 12

What occurred in the Mai Lai massacre ad who led it ?

Answer 12

A platoon of soldiers killed predominantly children and elderly in a group of 500 innocents, as they were ordered to do so by William Calley, who used the defence ‘ i was obeying orders’ resulting to spending 6 months in jail.

Question 13

Why did Staub (1989) disagree with the agentic state explanation and what did he find out?

Answer 13

disagreed because he proposed that the holocaust doctors were carrying out barbaric crimes due to carrying out increasingly evil acts over an extended period, with each bad thing becoming the new normal.

Question 14

How does Staub’s findings link to Milgram’s study?

Answer 14

Links to the gradual steps taken by Milgram in convincing the ppts to ‘kill’ the learner.

Question 15

What did Rank+ Jacobson (1977) find out regarding nurses and doctors?

Answer 15

Found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed the doctor, obviously an authority figure, when prescribing an excessive drug dose to a patient. They all remained autonomous.

Question 16

What do some social scientists suggest about the agentic state being a matter of natural aggression or forced aggression?

Answer 16

for some people their aggression may be influenced by entering an agentic state, or for others they can use their situation to show their natural cruel desire to inflict harm on others.
e.g stanford prison experiment

Question 17

What did Mandel (1998) criticise against the Agentic State explanation?

Answer 17

He suggested that it gives those who commit a crime an excuse in that they have been employed by an authority figure.

Question 18

Give an example of Mandel’s criticism (1998)

Answer 18

Reserve Police Battalion 101 shot many civilians in small town near Poland without orders to do so, done in an autonomous state.

Question 19

What is legitimacy of authority and what are the three factors it’s usually based on?

Answer 19

The perceived right of an an authority figure to have power and control over others.

-expertise
-position
-tradition

Question 20

what are two examples of legitimacy of authority?

Answer 20

People obey the police who are wearing uniform
They also obey doctors or nurses in a hospital /GPs

Question 21

What is the main factor influencing legitimacy of authority?

Answer 21

location

Question 22

Why did ppts in Milgrams study obey the experimenter?

Answer 22

they were at Yale University, and expected the experimenter to be an academic in charge, believing that the learner wouldn’t be harmed.

Question 23

What did Tarnow (2000) demonstrate that shows Legitimacy of authority to being a good explanation?

Answer 23

Through his studying of data from the US National Transportation Safety Board. He found that crew on flights obey the orders of the captain and in a substantial amount of cases the captain had been wrong, leading to crashes.

Question 24

What did Rank + Jacobson (1977) find out regarding nurses and doctors that suggests legitimacy of authority isn’t the only explanation to obedience?

Answer 24

found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor when administrated to prescribe a patient an excessive drug dose.
Most of them didn’t obey.