Explanations of obedience: situational explanations. Flashcards
What happens in the agentic state?
In the agentic state, an obedience individual sees themselves as not been responsible for their actions and instead they attribute the responsibility to someone else e.g an authority figure.
What happens in the autonomous state?
This is the opposite of being in an agentic state. Autonomy means being independent or free so a person in this state is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions.
What is the agentic shift?
The agentic shift occurs when a person perceives someone else as having a higher position in the social hierarchy so they shift from autonomous to agentic.
What is needed for someone to undergo an agentic shift? (Legitemacy of authority)
In order for someone to undergo an agentic shift, they need to have a perception of a legitimate authority. Most societies are structured in a hierarchal way. This means that people in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us. For example, parents, teachers, police officers, nightclub bouncers.. all have authority over us at times. Most of us accept that authority figures have to be allowed to exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly. The power of a legitimate authority stems from his or hers perceived position in a social situation. Legitimate authority also require an institutional structure e.g university, school and military.
Give a strength of situational explanations for obedience. (Research support)
One strength is that Milgram’s own studies support the role of the agentic state in obedience. Most of Milgrams participants resisted giving the shocks at some point and often asked the experimenter questions like ‘who is responsible if Mr Wallace is harmed’?. The experimenter replied ‘I’m responsible’. The participants after hearing this often went through the procedure quickly with no further objections which shows that once participants perceived that they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they acted more easily as the experimenters agent.
Give a limitation of situation explinations of obedience. (Limited explination).
These explanations of obedience cannot explain why some people disobey even when an authority figure is present. The legitimacy of authority explanation cannot explain incidences of disobedience where an authority figure is present. A significicant minority (35%) disobeyed the experimenter. This suggests that some people may just be more obedient than others perhaps due to dispotiional factors such as having an authoritarian personality.
Give a strength of situation explinations of obedience. (Cultural differences).
One strength of the legitimacy explanation is that it is a useful acount of cultural differences in obedience. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority. For example, one study found that 16% of Australian women went all the way up to 450V whereas for German participants it was 85%. This shows that, in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals.
