obedience:Social-psychological factors

Question 1

autonomous state

Answer 1

person is acting independently

independent or free

free to behave according to their own principles

feel responsibility for their own actions

Question 2

agentic state

Answer 2

occurs when individual carries out orders of an authority figure and acts as their ‘agent’ with little responsibility and reduced moral strain for their actions

Question 3

what is the name of the shift from autonomy to agency

Answer 3

agentic shift

Question 4

legitimacy of authority

Answer 4

milgram believed that by focussing on the procedure and following the instructions that were given by the experimenter, participants were recognising the legitimacy authority of the researcher

e.g in run down office obedience fell

Question 5

moral strain

Answer 5

state of mental discomfort when in an agentic state

Question 6

strength-research support for the role of the agentic state in obedience

Answer 6

most of the participants involved in milgrams study resisted shoving the shocks at some point. often asked experimenter questions about the procedure

Question 7

strength-explains cultural differences

Answer 7

many studies show that countered differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority

Question 8

strength-agentic state as loss of perosnal control

Answer 8

dennis and aarts suggest that the process of agentic shift is not confined to obedience to authority, but may also extend to other forms of social influence.they suggest that the reason for agentic shift is a reduction in indidivualds experience of personal control

Question 9

strength-research support for legitimacy of authority

Answer 9

there is evidence from variations of milgram procedure and from other research to support the view that perceptions of legitimacy of the authority figure has an impact on obedience behaviour