Situational Explanations In Obedience Flashcards
What are the 2 situational explanations of of obedience
Agentic state and legitimacy of authority
Define agentic state
Being under the control of someone else and obeying their orders even if they cause you distress
What a re the 2 states of behaviour that milgram argues we have
Agentic and autonomous
Define the autonomous state
Being under ones own control and having the power to make you own decisions
How are the 2 behaviours of obedience that milgram studied developed
They developed because we live in complex social groups and we must, at times, surrender aspects our individuality, conscience and free will for the interest of the wider group
What did milgram propose bout obedience in terms of destructive authority
He believed that obedience to destructive authority occurs because a person doesn’t take reposnisibility and in stead they believe they are acting for so else ie and agent
What is an ‘agent’ in terms of milgrams explanation of obedience
Someone who acts for or in place of another and experiences high anxiety due to moral strain, when they realise what they are doing but feel powerless to disobey
What is the opposite of the agentic state
Autonomous state
What does autonomy mean
To be independent or free
What is the shift from autonomy to agency
Agentic state
When does milgram say that an agentic shift occurs
When a person perceives someone else as an authority figure (someone who has a higher position in social hierarchy)
What are binding factors
Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and therefore reduce their moral strain that they are feeling
How did Milgram find out about binding factors
He observed that many of his participants wanted to stop but felt powerless and so he wondered why so many of them remaine in an agentic state
What are some of the strategies that milgram found people do in terms f binding factors
Shifting responsibility to the victim or denying the damage
define legitimacy of authority
the perceived right of an authority figure to have power and control over others
how is society structured in terms of legitimacy of authority
we obey people at the top of a social hierarchy, people in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us such as teachers, police ect…
why do authorities have legitimacy through society’s agreement
most of us have accepted that authority figures should exercise social power over others as this allows society to function smoothly
why do we as a society hand control of our behaviour over to authority figures
because we’ve been taught since childhood that we should trust authority figures to help society run well
Is legitimacy of authority always used correctly
no because many historical leaders and even current people who hold ‘authoritative’ roles , use legitimate authority destructively and they abuse their power to cause destruction due to greed and power, they order people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways
what is the strength of the research of legitimacy of authority
-its a useful account for cultural differences in obedience such as in an Australian study there was only 16% obedience whereas in a German one there was 85% obedience
-authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate in some cultures and this shows how different cultural societies are structured and brought up
-cross cultural research found similar findings therefore increasing the validity of the explanation
what is the limitation of how legitimacy of authority can’t account for the behaviour of Nazis
Mandel described German policemen shot civilians in a small polish town during ww2 even though they weren’t directly told to (autonomous behaviour) and this challenges the agentic state explanations because the police weren’t powerless to obey
what is the limitation of how legitimacy of authority doesn’t explain many of the research findings
In R&J study, most nurses disobeyed a doctors order to give an excessive drug dose and despite the doctor being the authority figure, the nurses remained autonomous and did not shift into an agentic state. This shows that the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.
