Milgrams Agency theory

Question 1

what does Milgram’s agency theory explain?

Answer 1

why people behave the way they do, especially when it comes to obedience

Question 2

what are the three factors of the agency theory?

Answer 2

Agentic state
autonomous strain
moral strain

Question 3

what is the agentic state?

Answer 3

when we hand over responsibilities because we see ourselves as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes.
when we move from seeing ourselves as being responsible for our behaviour to seeing someone else as being responsible for it, an agentic shift has occurred.

Question 4

what is an autonomous state?

Answer 4

when we see ourselves as being responsible for our behaviour.

Question 5

what is a moral strain?

Answer 5

when we do something against our moral beliefs.

Question 6

what are some binding factors for the agentic state?

Answer 6

• money
• prods
• agreements and commitments
• prestigious university
• obligation to finish

Question 7

what are some strengths of Milgram’s agentic state?

Answer 7

+helps to explain real-life situations like the Holocaust, where obedience was well beyond what would be expected of autonomous human beings

+the findings on the variations in Milgram’s study reinforces the theory because the less they were agents (e.g the experimenter not being in the room), the less they obeyed

Question 8

what are some weaknesses of Milgram’s agentic state?

Answer 8

• the theory acts as more of a description than an explanation. Obedience is defined as obeying an authority figure, so saying that people obey because they are agents of an authority figure does not add much.
• sometimes people resist the power to obey. Agency theory does not explain why some people obey while others do not i.e. it does not consider individual differences.