Obedience: Situational explanations Flashcards
1
Q
What are situational explanations?
A
- Any explanation of behaviour that highlights importance of the environment (external)
2
Q
What does Milgram say Agentic state is?
A
- A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure (as their agent)
- frees us from demands of our conscience & allows us to obey even a destructive authority figures
3
Q
Why are agents not unfeeling puppets?
A
- they experience high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise what they are doing is wrong but feel powerless to disobey
4
Q
What is autonomous state?
A
- opposite of being in an agentic state
- person is free to behave according to their own principles & feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions
5
Q
What is the agentic shift & when does this occur?
A
- The shift from autonomy to agency
- Milgram suggested this occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure
- the authority figure has power as they have a higher position in the social hierarchy
6
Q
What are binding factors?
A
- aspects of a situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour & thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling
7
Q
What examples of binding factors were at play in Milgram’s study?
A
- shifting of blame to confederate
‘their fault for volunteering’ - when the experimenter said they’ll take the blame
8
Q
What is legitimacy of authority?
A
- Explanation that suggest we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us.
- This authority is justified by their position of power within a social hierarchy
9
Q
How is society structured and what does this mean?
A
- in a hierarchal way
- people in certain positions have authority over us
- This authority is legitimate as it is agreed by society - allows society to run smoothly
10
Q
What are the consequences of LOA?
A
- some people are granted the power to punish others i.e. police
- we are willing to give up some of our independence & hand control of our behaviour to people we trust to exercise authority appropriately (learn LOA from childhood)
11
Q
How is destructive authority shown in Milgram’s study?
A
- When the experimenter used prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their conscience
12
Q
What support is there for the role of agentic state?
A
- Milgram’s study
- participants asked experimenter ‘who is responsible if the learner is harmed’
- When experimenter replied ‘I’m responsible’ > p’s often continued with procedure with no further objections
» shows p’s acted as experimenter’s agent, as they perceieved they were no longer responsible
13
Q
Why is agentic state explanation limited?
A
- doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience
- Rank & Jacobson found that 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed order from a doctor (authority figure) to give excessive drug dose to patient
- naturalistic=high ecological validity
- discrediting agentic state theory
14
Q
How does Bickman support LOA explanation?
A
- conducted a field experiment
- three male confederates dress as a milkman, guard or as a civilian & made requests of passers-by in a street
e.g. pick up litter - more likely to obey guard (viewed as an authority figure) and least likely to obey civilian
15
Q
What is a limitation of LOA explanation?
A
- cannot explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where LOA is clear & accepted
- e.g. Rank & Jacobson study > most disobedient despite working in a hierarchal structure
- suggests some people may be more or less obedient (innate tendencies)
