obedience - situational explanations

Question 1

how many situational explanations are there & name

Answer 1

2
- agency theory/state
- legitimacy of authority

Question 2

who proposed the agency theory

Answer 2

milgram

Question 3

definition for agency theory proposed by milgram

Answer 3

obedience to a destructive authority occurs as a person doesn’t want to take responsibility & instead believe they are acting for someone else (as an agent)

Question 4

what does an ‘agent’ feel

Answer 4

• high levels of anxiety (moral strain)
• powerless to disobey

Question 5

2 proposals by milgram

Answer 5

• obedience is an evolutionary mechanism for sustaining a stable society
• we’re pre-programmed to develop social rules involving giving up some of our own free will

Question 6

2 states within the agency theory & definitions

Answer 6

• autonomous state = act how our conscience dictates
• agentic state = surrender free will & conscience to serve interests of wider group –> see ourselves as agents of authority

Question 7

what’s it called when we go from 1 state to the other

Answer 7

agentic shift

Question 8

why do individuals remain in the agentic state & explain

Answer 8

due to binding factors
–> people use strategies to reduce moral strain & shift responsibility for results of actions onto figure of authority who gave the orders

Question 9

what are the 2 things required for a person to enter the agentic state

Answer 9

• person giving the order is perceived as being qualified to direct other people’s behaviour (figure of authority)
• person being ordered is able to believe the authority will accept responsibility for what happens

Question 10

evaluation of milgram’s agency theory - AO1

Answer 10

recall all of above

Question 11

evaluation of milgram’s agency theory - AO3

Answer 11

+)
P: research support - milgram’s own studies support role of agentic state in obedience
E: most of milgram’s participants resisted giving shocks at some point & often questioned experimenter. eg. ‘who’s responsible if (the learner) is harmed?’ & the experimenter replied ‘i’m responsible’. the participants often continued the procedure with no objections
T: shows that once the participants perceived they were no longer responsible for their own actions, they acted more easily as the experimenters agent

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P: limited explanation - agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings on obedience
E: eg. doesn’t explain findings of rank & jacobson’s (1977) study. they found 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. doctor was clearly an authority figure but almost all nurses remained autonomous.
T: suggests that, at best, the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Question 12

according to legitimacy of authority, who are people more likely to obey

Answer 12

those who we perceive to have more authority over us

Question 13

what is the authority justified by

Answer 13

individuals position of power within a social hierarchy

Question 14

when do we learn our authority figures

Answer 14

from our childhood, parent & teachers (etc.)

Question 15

give an example of when legitimacy of authority became destructive

Answer 15

• charismatic leaders (eg. hitler, stalin) use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes & order people to behave in cruel/dangerous ways

Question 16

evaluation of legitimacy of authority - AO3

Answer 16

+)
P: explains cultural differences in obedience
E: eg. kilham & mann (1974) found only 16% of female australian participants went all the way to 450V in a study similar to milgram. however, mantell (1971) found a different figure for german participants at 85%.
T: shows obedience is different in different cultures as they obtain different hierarchies of authority

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P: cannot explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where legitimacy of authority is clear & accepted
E: eg. rank & jacobson (1977) found 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient. the doctor was an obvious authority figure but almost all nurses remained autonomous (as did many of milgrams participants)
T: reduces validity of theory as it cannot explain the reasoning behind the nurses disobedience & suggests some may have a bigger tendency to obey than others

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P: different theory
E: the agency theory says obedience occurs when we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure
T: contradicts legitimacy of authority theory & reduces the validity

+)
P: practical application
E: kelman & hamilton (1989) argue that real-world crime of obedience (eg. mai lai massacre) can be understood in terms of power to the hierarchy of the us army - commanding orders operate within a clear, legitimate hierarchy
T: means there’s evidence to prove legitimacy of authority happens in everyday life & thus, means the theory obtains high mundane realism