Obedience = situational explanations

Question 1

What is agentic state?

Answer 1

• A mental state where we feel no responsibility for our behaviour as we are acting for an authority figure
• This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey a destructive authority figure

Question 2

What is autonomous state?

Answer 2

• When we are free to behave according to our own principles and feel a sense of responsibility for our actions

Question 3

What is the shift from autonomy to agency?

Answer 3

• agentic shift

Question 4

When did Milgram suggest agentic shift happens?

Answer 4

• when there is presence of someone else who is an authority figure. The authority figure has greater power as they have a greater position in social hierarchy

Question 5

What are binding factors?

Answer 5

• aspects of a situation that allow us to minimise or ignore the damaging effects of our behaviour and reduce the moral strain

Question 6

What is legitimacy of authority?

Answer 6

• the position of power people hold in the structural hierarchy of society
• This allows people who are of higher authority to exercise social power over us
• A consequence of this is that we grant people the power to punish us and we have to give up our independence to hand control over to others

Question 7

What is destructive authority?

Answer 7

• This is when people use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways

Question 8

What is a strength of agentic state?

Answer 8

• A strength is that Milgrams own studies support the role of agentic state.
• Most of Milgram’s participants resisted the shocks and asked who was responsible if the learner was harmed. When the experimenter replied that they were responsible, the participant went through the procedure with no objections
• This shows that once participants went into agentic state, they could easily shock the learner

Question 9

What is a limitation of agentic state?

Answer 9

• One limitation is that agentic shift does not explain research findings about obedience
• Rank and Jacobson found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a paitent. This shows that even though the doctor was a authority figure, the nurses stayed autonomous

Question 10

What is another limitation of agentic state? (O)

Answer 10

• David Mandel described an incident in WW2 involving the police battalion 101
• The man shot many civillians despite having no direct orders to do so, they behaved autonomously

Question 11

What is a strength of the legitimacy of authority?

Answer 11

• One strength is that it explains cultural differences.
• Kilham and Mann found that 16% of Australian women went to 450v, however Mantell found that 85% of german participants went to 450v
• This shwos that some cultures are more willing to accept authority as legitimate. This reflects the way that different societies are structured

Question 12

What was a limitation of legitimacy of authority?

Answer 12

• One limitation is that legitimacy can not explain instances of disobedience where legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted
• In Rank and Jacobson’s study, most were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure
• Also some of Milgrams participants disobeyed despite due to the experimenters scientific authority
• This shows some people may be more obedient than others and have an innate tendency to obey or disobey orders

Question 13

What is another strength of legitimacy of authority? (M)

Answer 13

• real world applications, the My Lai massacre