obedience : situational explanations Flashcards
what are the situational explanation of obedience
agentic state
legitimacy of authority
what is agentic state
A mental state where we feel no responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure I.e. as their agent. This frees us from the demands of our conscious and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure
When a person shifts from an autonomous state (the state where a person believes they will take responsibility for their own actions) to the agentic state–> agentic shift
Therefore people are more likely to obey when they are in the agentic state as they do not believe they will suffer the consequences of those actions –> they believe that they are acting on behalf of their agent
what is autonomous state
A person is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions
what is agentic shift
A shift from autonomous state to agentic state
Milgram (1974) suggests that this occurs when a person perceives someone as an authority figure
The authority figure has greater power because they are in a higher positions in the social hierarchy
what is legitimacy of authority
An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified (legitimate) by the individual’s position of power in a social hierarchy
Describes how credible the figure of authority is. People are more likely to obey them if they are seen as credible in terms of being morally good/right, and legitimate (I.e. legally based or law abiding). –> why students are more likely to listen to their parents or teachers than other unknown adults
In Milgram’s study, the people saw the experimenter as legitimate as they knew he was a scientist and therefore is likely to be knowledgeable and responsible.
This authority is legitimate because the researcher held the highest position within the social hierarchy of the experimental scenario
what are binding factors
Aspect of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling
Remaining in agentic state
Strategies individual uses e.g. shifting the responsibility to the victim, denying the damage they are causing the victims
strength of situational explanations of obedience
P - milgram studies support
E- Support the agentic state in obedience,Most of milgram’s participants resisted giving the shocks at some point and asked the experimenter about the responsibility of the actions in which they replied they were responsible .Participants then went through with the procedure with not further objections
E- This shows that once the participants perceived they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour they acted more easily as the experimenter’s agent
L- Hence the agentic state could be a useful explanation of obedience.
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P- real life case
E- Eichman refused to accept responsibility for his crimes, stating that he “never gave any order in my own name but rather always acted on orders” and hence he does not feel guilty
E- This shows that eichman had entered the agentic state where he took on the role of an agent for the government and felt no remorse for his actions as he felt that he is not responsible for them
L- Therefore the agentic state could be a useful explanation of obedience
weakness of situational explanations of obedience
P - limited explanation
E- Rank and jacobson’s nurses study, they found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed order from a doctor to administer an excessive known drug dose to a patient.
E- In this case the doctor was obviously the authority figure but yet almost all of the nurse remained autonomous
L- This suggest that at best the agentic shift could only account for some situations of obedience
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P- real life contradictory
E- Mandel (1998) described the police battalion 101 where these men shot many civilians in a small town in Poland despite not having direct orders to do so
E- This could mean that they still remained in the autonomous state but they just chose to shoot many civilians imply because they wanted to
L- This is a limitation for agentic state as an explanation of obedience as they simply did not have an agentic shift but yet their actions resembles those in agentic state
