Situational explanations of obedience Flashcards
what are the two situational explanations of obedience?
- agentic state
2. legitimacy of authority
what is the agentic state explanation of obedience?
when someone sees themselves as an agent for carrying out someone’s wishes.
in the autonomous state: you are responsible
in the agentic state: authoritative figure giving command is responsible
the agentic shift (between these two states)
what causes the agentic shift?
people often refrain from actions that will damage their self image. but in the agentic state, that worry is no longer there as you aren’t responsible for your actions. as it no longer reflects your self image, you obey guilt freely.
why do we stay in the agentic state?
in all experiments and social situations, there is a level of social etiquette required (expectations of how to behave). EG in milgram’s study, if the p/p wanted to leave, they are breaking their commitment to milgram and the study and so would appear as rude.
such potential emotions bind the p/p to the agentic state and help keep them in an experiment
what are 2 limitations of the agentic state?
- the agentic state cannot be applied to all RL examples of obedience. for example; the holocaust/nazi behaviour. Lifton found that these doctors changed from ordinary, ‘good’ doctors, to evil people willing to carry out lethal acts. this isn’t a result of a constant shift between states, but a gradual and irreversible transition.
- doesn’t explain the findings of Milgram’s study. He suggested that the p/p’s were ‘good’ people, bind to the agentic state. however, zimbardo’s findings dispute this. in SPE, there were no authoritative figures ordering the guards to be cruel/inhumane, yet they did anyway.
what is legitimate authority?
a person who is believed to be in a position of social control within a situation.
what is the legitimacy of authority explanation of obedience?
milgram believed that in most social situations, there is a socially controlling figure, and their perceived position causes you to obey.
the p/p allows the legitimate authority to ‘define what is going on’. For example, in milgram’s study, the reassuring prods off the experimenter (legitimate authority) to define the situation as one where the learner was okay.
if an authority figures commands are potentially harmful, for them to be perceived as legitimate, they must occur within an institution.
what is a strength legitimate authority explanation of obedience?
applicable to real world which increases its ecological validity. Tarnow provided evidence for the explanation of obedience through a study of aviation accidents. he studied data reviewing all serious aircraft accidents in the US between 1978 and 1990, where a flight voice recorder was available, and where flight crew actions were a contributing factor in the crash. Tarnow found excessive dependence on the captain’s authority and expertise. A second officer said that although he thought the captain was taking a risky approach, he just assumed he ‘knew what he was doing’
what is a limitation of LA explanation of obedience?
legitimacy can serve as the basis for justifying the harm of others. if someone is obeying legitimate authority, they may feel that their own morals are no longer relevant and so becomes okay to do immoral actions
