Obedience - Situational Explanations

Question 1

Situational explanations

Answer 1

• Agentic state
• Autonomous state
• Binding factors
• Legitimacy of authority
• Destructive authority

Question 2

Agentic state

Answer 2

• people act for someone else - they are an ‘agent’ (is someone who acts for or in place of another) - they may experience high anxiety (‘moral strain’) when they realise what they are doing is wrong but feel powerless to disobey

Question 3

Autonomous state

Answer 3

• Opposite of agentic state
• ‘Autonomy’ - be independent/free
• They are free to behave according ot their own principles + feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions

Question 4

Agentic shift

Answer 4

• shift from autonomy to agentic
• Milgram - occurs when a person perceives someone else as authority figure (have greater power, higher position - social hierarchy)

Question 5

Binding factors

Answer 5

Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore/minimise the damaging effect of their behavior - reduces the ‘moral strain’ they feel.
* Milgram - proposed num of strategies that the indv uses e.g. shift responsibility to the victim (‘he was foolish to volunteer’)/ denying the damage they were doing to others

Question 6

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 6

• Social hierarchy - police, teachers, parents, the govt - have authority over us at times
• Authority is legitimate - as it is agreed by society, believe they are allowed to exercise social power over others = allows society to function smoothly
• CONSEQUENCE = people are granted the power to punish others
• We give up some of our independence + to hand control of our behavior to people we trust

Question 7

Destructive authority

Answer 7

• Authority can become destructive - e.g. Hitler, Stalin = use their power for destructive purposes
• Milgram’s study - destructive behavior apparent - experimenter used prods to order pps to behave in ways that go against their consciences

Question 8

Strength

EVAL: research support

Answer 8

• support the role of the agentic state - obedience
• Milgram’s study - pps often asked ques about procedure - “who is responsible is … is harmed?”, experimenter replied with “me”
• pps went through procedure + no further objections - they no longer feel responsible, were the experimenter’s agent

Question 9

limitation

EVAL: limited explanation

Answer 9

• doesn’t explain some research findings
• Steven rank + Cardell Jacobson’s (1977) study: 16 out 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor (authority fig) to administer an excessive drug dose to patient - nurses remaind autonomous + so did M’s pps
• agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

Question 10

Strength

EVAL: explains cultural differences

Answer 10

• Kilham + Mann (1974) - 16% of Australian women went to 450 V in milgram style sutdy
• David Mantell (1971) - German pps - 85%
• Shows in some cultures - authority more likely to be accepted as legitimate + entitled to demand obedience. Reflectss ways diff societies are structured

Question 11

Limitation

EVAL: cannot explain all (dis)obedience

Answer 11

• legitimacy cannot explain disobedience when legitimacy of authority is clear + accepted
• Rank + Jacobsons - nurses still disobeyed
• M’s pps disobeyed even with experimenter’s authority
• People vary in obedience