Obdeience: Agentic State And Legitimacy Of Authority Flashcards
Def agentic state
When we blame the person giving the order for any negative consequences of our actions, becoming an ‘agent’ of theirs
What opposite to being an agent
Autonomous state
Autonomous state def
Feeling sense of responsibility for our own actions
Agentic shift
The shift from autonomy to agency
The person remains in the agentic state due to
Blinding factors
What are blinding factors
Aspects of the situation which allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce the moral strain they’re feeling
Strength of agentic state
Research support
Description of strength - research support
- milgrams own studies showed many people will follow instructions seven when acting against their own conscience
- Blass and Schmitt found people who saw milgrams study blamed the experimenter, indicating they believed ps were agents of authority
- also supported by many historical events which demonstrate that as a result of social pressure normal people can act in a callous and inhuman way
Negative of agentic state
Alternative reasons for why people obey authority figure
Elaboration of weakness - alternative reasons why people obey authoritative figure
- could be due to personality rather than the situation
- agency theory cannot explain why some people disobey as was shown by one third of ps in original milgrams study
- reducing validity
Legitimacy of authority suggests
We are more likely to obey when whom we see to have accepted power over us
Legitimacy of authority believes society is….
Heirachal and we are taught to and accept that some people have power over us and we should hand control of our behaviour over to them
The authority someone has is justified by…
The individuals position of power within the social heirachy
Strength of legitimacy of authority
Accounts for all cultural differences
Elaboration of strength - accounts for cultural differences
- countries differ
- eg Germany 85%, Australia 16%
- some cultures affect legitimacy if authority more than others showing theory can be applied to lots of cultures
- increasing generalisability