Obedience: Social - psychological factors Flashcards
What other explanation did Milgram offer to explain the levels of obedience?
Milgram offered social - psychological explanation for the levels of obedience
What do social - psychological factors explain concerning the levels of obedience?
Social - psychological factors explanations concern the influences of others on an individual’s behaviour as opposed to external factors
What is the agentic state?
The agentic state refers to a state of mind that where a person feels no personal responsibility for their behaviour because they believe they are acting for an authority figure
What is an agent?
An agent is someone who acts for or in place of another
When the agent is in an agentic state, what does the agent experience? What is this experience referred to as?
The agent experiences high anxiety levels (moral strain) when they realise that what they are doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey
What is the autonomous state?
The autonomous state is the opposite of being in the agentic state. The person in a autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and feel a sense of responsibility for their own actions
What is the shift from autonomy to agency known as?
The shift from autonomy to agency is known as the agentic shift
When did Milgram suggest the agentic shift occurred?
Milgram suggested the agentic shift occurred when a person perceived someone else as a figure of authority
What did Milgram suggest was the reasoning for people remaining in an agentic state?
Milgram suggested that binding factors were the reason as to why people remained in an agentic state
What are binding factors?
Binding factors are aspects of a situation that allow a person to minimise/ignore the damaging effects of their behaviour, as a result reducing the ‘moral strain’ experienced
What is the legitimacy of authority?
This is authority given to people who are deemed responsible enough and as a result making their authority legitimate as it has been agreed by society
What is the explanation for the legitimacy of authority?
The legitimacy of authority is the explanation for obedience which suggests that people are more likely to obey people who are perceived to have authority over us
What is a consequence of legitimacy of authority?
A consequence of legitimacy of authority is some people may be granted power to punish others
What is destructive authority?
Destructive authority is when legitimate authority becomes destructive, a leader using their legitimate authority for destructive purposes
How is destructive authority shown in the Milgram’s obedience study?
Destructive authority is shown when the experimenter uses prods to order participants to behave in ways that went against their consciences
What is a strength of the social - psychological factors used to explain Milgram’s obedience study? (students + responsibility)
Blass and Schmitt showed a film of Milgram’s obedience study to students and asked them to identify who they felt was responsible for harming the learner. The students also indicated that the responsibility was due to legitimate authority but also due to expert authority, because he was the scientist. This shows that they recognised legitimate authority as the cause of obedience, supporting the explanation
What is a limitation of the social - psychological factors used to explain Milgram’s obedience study? (lack of agentic shift explanation)
The agentic shift does not explain many of the researched findings. For example, it does not explain why some participants do not obey. In other studies, the agentic shift expianation is not followed with participans unable to show the same levels of anxiety similar to Migram’s participants as they their role in a destructive process. However this did not occur. This suggests that the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience
What is a strength of the social - psychological factors used to explain Milgram’s obedience study? (cultural differences)
A strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it acts as a useful account of cultural differences in obecitence. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are traditionally obedient to authorities. For example, Milgram’s study has been replicated in Australia to find only 16% of participants went to the highest voltage. On the other hand, studies in Germany found 85% of participants went to the highest voltage. This shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals.
