Obedience Theories Flashcards
Who was agency theory proposed by?
Milgram as a response to Nazi war crimes
What are the two mental states in agency theory?
Autonomous and agentic
What is the autonomous state?
Perceiving ourselves to be responsible for our own actions and behaviour as we feel guilty. This happens when we disobey orders from authority
What is the agentic state?
Perceiving ourselves to be the agent of someone else’s (authority figure) will so we don’t feel guilty. This happens when we obey orders therefore going through the agentic shift
When an order is given we may feel…
Moral strain - uncomfortable with orders as it goes against morals and values
What happens when we go through the agentic state?
The diffusion of responsibility (to authority figure)
AO3 for autonomous state?
OG Milgram (1963)- 35% disobeyed and didn’t go to 450v therefore in autonomous state
AO3 for moral strain?
Variation 5 (chest pain) - more participants dropped out at 150v than OG showing they are going through moral strain
AO3 for agentic state?
OG milgram- 65% obeyed the authority figure and went to 450v
AO3 for diffusion of responsibility?
OG milgram - 65% obeyed and went to 450v as they are following the authority figures instructions therefore they believe it is not their own will
Who proposed social impact theory (SImT)
Latané (1981)
What is strength in SImT?
How much power (status/ authority) you believe the person influencing you has
What is immediacy in SImT?
How recent the influence is (time) and how close they are to you (proximity)
What is numbers in SImT?
The more people putting pressure on you to do something the more social force they will have
What is divisions of impact in SImT?
When social force gets spread out between all the people it is directed at. If all force is directed at one person there is a huge pressure to obey but the pressure is halved if there is two people.