Situational Explanations In Obedience

Question 1

What are the 2 situational explanations of of obedience

Answer 1

Agentic state and legitimacy of authority

Question 2

Define agentic state

Answer 2

Being under the control of someone else and obeying their orders even if they cause you distress

Question 3

What a re the 2 states of behaviour that milgram argues we have

Answer 3

Agentic and autonomous

Question 4

Define the autonomous state

Answer 4

Being under ones own control and having the power to make you own decisions

Question 5

How are the 2 behaviours of obedience that milgram studied developed

Answer 5

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

Question 6

What did milgram propose bout obedience in terms of destructive authority

Answer 6

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

Question 7

What is an ‘agent’ in terms of milgrams explanation of obedience

Answer 7

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

Question 8

What is the opposite of the agentic state

Answer 8

Autonomous state

Question 9

What does autonomy mean

Answer 9

To be independent or free

Question 10

What is the shift from autonomy to agency

Answer 10

Agentic state

Question 11

When does milgram say that an agentic shift occurs

Answer 11

When a person perceives someone else as an authority figure (someone who has a higher position in social hierarchy)

Question 12

What are binding factors

Answer 12

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

Question 13

How did Milgram find out about binding factors

Answer 13

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

Question 14

What are some of the strategies that milgram found people do in terms f binding factors

Answer 14

Shifting responsibility to the victim or denying the damage

Question 15

define legitimacy of authority

Answer 15

the perceived right of an authority figure to have power and control over others

Question 16

how is society structured in terms of legitimacy of authority

Answer 16

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…

Question 17

why do authorities have legitimacy through society’s agreement

Answer 17

most of us have accepted that authority figures should exercise social power over others as this allows society to function smoothly

Question 18

why do we as a society hand control of our behaviour over to authority figures

Answer 18

because we’ve been taught since childhood that we should trust authority figures to help society run well

Question 19

Is legitimacy of authority always used correctly

Answer 19

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

Question 20

what is the strength of the research of legitimacy of authority

Answer 20

-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

Question 21

what is the limitation of how legitimacy of authority can’t account for the behaviour of Nazis

Answer 21

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

Question 22

what is the limitation of how legitimacy of authority doesn’t explain many of the research findings

Answer 22

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.