Situational explanations Flashcards
Agentic state
A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure.
Autonomous state
opposite of agentic state. This means to be independent or free. So a person in an autonomous state is free to behave according to their own principles and feels a sense of responsibility for their actions, The shift from autonomy to agency is called an agentic shift. Milgram suggested that this happens when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure. The figure has greater power because they have a higher position in a social hierarchy.
Binding factors
Milgram observed that many of his ppts said they wanted to stop but seemed powerless to do so. he wondered why they remained in an agentic state. This is because of binding factors. Aspects of a situation allow a person to ignore or minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour to reduce moral strain. Milgram proposed a number of strategies that the individual uses such as shifting the responsibility to the victim.
Legitimacy of authority
Suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us.
Most societies are structured in a hierarchal way. This means some people have authority over us. e.g. teachers, police, parents.
One consequence is that people are granted the power to punish people. e.g. police.
Destructive authority
problems arise when L.A becomes destructive. E.g. in the times of Hitler and Stalin, they could use their powers for destructive purpose, ordering people to behave in ways that are cruel and dangerous. This was obvious in Milgram’s study when the experimenter used prods to order ppts to behave in ways that went against their consciences
STRENGTH-RESEARCH SUPPORT
Milgram’s own studies support the role of the agentic state in obedience. Most of his participants resisted giving the shocks at some point, and often asked the experimenter questions about the procedure. One of these were who is responsible if the learner is harmed? When the experimenter replied with i am responsible the ppts went through the procedure quickly. This shows that once participants perceived that they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour.
WEAKNESS-limited explanation
agentic shift doesnt explain many research findings about obedience. E.g. it doesn’t explain the findings of steven Rank and Cardell Jacobson’s . They found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug to a patient. THIS SUGGESTS THAT AT BEST THE AGENTIC STATE CAN ONLY ACCOUNT FOR AOME SITUATIONS OF OBEDIENCE
STRENGTH- explains cultural differences
it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient. E.g. Kilham and Mann found that only 16% of australian women went all the way up to 450v in Milgram’s study.
David Mantell found a very different figure for Germans-85%. This shows that in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from people.
WEAKNESS- cannot explain all obedience
Legitimacy cant explain instances of obedience in a hierarchy where the LOA is clear and accepted. This includes the nurses in Rank and Jacobson’s study. Most of them were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical structure. A significant minority in Milgram’s study disobeyed despite recognising the Experiment’s scientific authority. SUGGESTS THAT PEOPLE MAY BE LESS OR MORE OBEDIENT THAN OTHERS
