Obedience: Situational explanations Flashcards
Agentic state
-individual feels no responsibility for their actions as they carry out the orders of an authority figure and acts as their agent. Adolf Eichmann war trials, little responsibility for Nazi death camps, ‘only obeying orders’
Autonomous state
-opposite of Agentic state, free to behave according to their own principles, responsible for own actions
Agentic shift
-shift from autonomy to agency. Occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure who has higher position in hierarchy (Legitimacy of Authority)
Evaluation (strength)
-support for agentic state by Milgram’s studies, most pps resisted giving shocks at some point when experimenter (legitimate authority) said they were responsible. Experimenter said he was responsible pps obeyed. Once they were not responsible they obeyed easily as an agent
Evaluation (weakness)
-limited explanation agentic shift, Rank & Jacobson study, 16/18 nurses disobeyed doctor’s orders to give excessive drug dose. Doctor was authority figure, why did nurses remain autonomous. Agentic shift accounts for some
Destructive authority
- Problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive (Hitler, Stalin), use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes
Evaluation (strength)
-legitimacy of authority is useful to explain cultural differences in obedience, countries differ in the degree to which people obey authority , Kilham & Mann found 16% of female aussie pps went to 450 volts however Mantell found 85% for German pps. Some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
Evaluation (weakness)
-legitimacy cant explain all disobedience , Rank & Jacobson nurse study, most were disobedient despite rigid hierachy structure. Some are more or less obedient, innate tendencies to obey/disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than LOA
