obedience: situation explanations Flashcards
AO1: agentic and autonomous state
agentic: mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authoritative figure
autonomous: behaves according to own principles and feels sense of responsibility
AO1: agentic shift and binding factors
agnetic shift- shift from autonomy to agency
binding factors- aspects of situation that allow person to ignore or minimse the damaging effects of their behaviour
AO3: strength- research support (Milgram)
P: research support (milgram)
E: most participants stopped and asked ‘who is responsible if learner is harmed’ and experimenter replied ‘I am’
E: often carried on with no further objections
L: shows support for agentic state
AO3: limitation- doesn’t explain nurses study
P: doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience
E: study where 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctors to administer overdose of drugs to patient
E: doctor is an authoritative figure
L: suggests agentic shift only accounts for some situations
AO1: legitimacy of authority and destructive authority
legitimacy: we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us
destructive: problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive e.g. hitler
AO3: strength- explains cultural differences
P: explains cultural differences
E: study found a low amount of australian females went up to 450V but most of German participants did
E: shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
AO3: strength of both is that they can explain real life situations
P: strength of both is that they can explain real life situations
E: For example it can be used to it explain the Nazis’ behaviour.
E: Before the soldiers joined the German Army, they were in
the autonomous state. However, as the time went by they
were receiving orders by Hitler.
L: This demonstrates that the two theories/explanations can
be used to explain real life situations.
