Obedience - Situational explanations

Question 1

Agentic state - what did Milgram propose?

Answer 1

Obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person becomes an ‘agent’.

Question 2

Agentic state - what is an ‘agent’ ?

Answer 2

Someone who acts for or in place of another.

Question 3

Agentic state - act on behalf of another person

Answer 3

In an agentic state a person feels no personal responsibility for their actions.

Question 4

Agentic state - what is an Autonomous state?

Answer 4

A person in an autonomous state behaves according to their principles and feels responsibility for their actions..

Question 5

Agentic state - what does autonomy mean?

Answer 5

Autonomy means to be independent or free.

Question 6

Agentic state - what is the agentic shift?

Answer 6

The shift from autonomy to being an ‘agent’.

Question 7

Agentic state - Milgram - moving to the agentic state

Answer 7

Milgram suggested that this occurs when we perceive someone else as an an authority figure.
This person has power because of their position in a social hierarchy.

Question 8

Agentic state - Binding factors - reduce of moral strain

Answer 8

Binding factors are aspects of a situation that allows the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce the ‘moral strain’ they feel.

Question 9

Agentic state - Binding factors - Milgram

Answer 9

Milgram proposed a number of strategies the individual uses, such as shifting the responsibility to the victim or denying the damage they are doing to victims.

Question 10

Legitimacy of authority - why we obey

Answer 10

Most societies are structured hierarchically.

People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us.

Question 11

Legitimacy of authority - society’s agreement

Answer 11

The power authority wields is legitimate because it is agreed by society.
Most of us accept that authority figures should exercise social power over others to allow society to function smoothly.

Question 12

Legitimacy of authority - handing control over to authority figures.

Answer 12

People with legitimate authority have the power to punish others.
We give up some independence to people we trust to exercise authority properly.

Question 13

Legitimacy of authority - handing control over to authority figures - When do we learn to accept authority?

Answer 13

During childhood.

Question 14

Legitimacy of authority - use for destructive purposes

Answer 14

History has shown that some leaders use legitimate authority destructively, ordering people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways.

Question 15

Evaluation - One strength - Agentic state - research support - Milgram’s participants

Answer 15

Most of Milgram’s participants asked the ‘experimenter’ who is responsible if Mr Wallace is harmed ?

Question 16

Evaluation - One strength - Agentic state - research support - Experimenter

Answer 16

The experimenter answered the participants stating he was responsible.
The participants then carried on quickly without objecting.

Question 17

Evaluation - One strength - Agentic state - research support - what does this show?

Answer 17

This shows that participants acted more easily as an agent when they believed they were not responsible for their behaviour.

Question 18

Evaluation - One limitation - Agentic state - no explanation for research findings - Rank and Jacobson (1977)

Answer 18

Found most nurses disobeyed a doctor’s orders to give an excessive drug dose.

Question 19

Evaluation - One limitation - Agentic state - no explanation for research findings - Rank and Jacobson (1977) - Explanations

Answer 19

The doctor was an authority figure but the nurses remained autonomous and did not shift into an agentic state.
The same is true for some of Milgram’s participants.

Question 20

Evaluation - One limitation - Agentic state - no explanation for research findings - Rank and Jacobson (1977) - what does this show?

Answer 20

This shows that the agentic shift can only explain obedience in some situations.

Question 21

Evaluation extra - Agentic state - obedience alibi revisited - Men of battalion

Answer 21

The men of Battalion 101 did not have direct orders to shoot civilians in a polish town.

Question 22

Evaluation extra - Agentic state - obedience alibi revisited - Men of battalion - what did they do?

Answer 22

Even so, they did perform the massacre, behaving autonomously.

Question 23

Evaluation extra - Agentic state - obedience alibi revisited - Men of battalion - what does this suggest?

Answer 23

This suggests that the agentic shift is not required for destructive behaviour.

Question 24

Evaluation - One strength - legitimacy - can explain cultural differences

Answer 24

Research shows that countries differ in obedience to authority.
For example, 16% of Australian women obeyed (Kilham and Mann 1974), 85% of german participants did (Mantell 1971).

Question 25

Evaluation - One strength - legitimacy - can explain cultural differences - what does this show?

Answer 25

This shows that authority is more likely seen as legitimate in some cultures, reflecting upbringing.

Question 26

Evaluation - One limitation - legitimacy - cannot explain all (dis)obedience - when may people disobey?

Answer 26

People may disobey even when they accept the legitimacy of the hierarchical authority structure.

Question 27

Evaluation - One limitation - legitimacy - cannot explain all (dis)obedience - Rank and Jacobson.

Answer 27

The nurses were disobedient, as were some of Milgram’s participants.

Question 28

Evaluation - One limitation - legitimacy - cannot explain all (dis)obedience - what does this suggest?

Answer 28

This suggests that innate tendency towards (dis)obedience may be more important than legitimacy of authority.

Question 29

Evaluation extra - real world crimes of obedience - research

Answer 29

research shows that some people disobey legitimate authority

Question 30

Evaluation extra - real world crimes of obedience - research - My Lai

Answer 30

Soldiers at My Lai obeyed their commanding officer, maybe he had more power to punish than a doctor (Kelman and Hamilton, 1989).

Question 31

Evaluation extra - real world crimes of obedience - research - what does this show?

Answer 31

Therefore, there is some evidence to in real world situations that respect for legitimate authority can lead to destructive obedience.