Situational (social-psychological) Explanations Of Obedience

Question 1

State two social psychological explanations for obedience

Answer 1

1. Agentic state
2. Legitimacy of authority

Question 2

Define the agentic state

Answer 2

When a person sees themselves as an agent for carrying out another persons’s wishes

Question 3

Outline the autonomous state

Answer 3

When a person sees themselves as a free to behave according to their own principles

Question 4

Explain the agentic shift

Answer 4

The shift from being autonomous to taking on the agentic state- normally when in presence of perceived authority

Question 5

Outline binding factors

Answer 5

Aspects of the situation that bind us to the task and help us to block out the moral strain we are expecting

Question 6

Define the legitimacy of authority

Answer 6

A person who is perceived to be in a position of social control within a situation (condition needed to shift into agentic state)

Question 7

Describe the social-psychological conditions that make it more likely for a person to obey

Answer 7

If they shift from an autonomous to an agentic state and being given orders by a perceived legitimate authoritative figure

Question 8

State a study which shows support for both social-psychological factors

Answer 8

Blas and Schmitt (2001)

Question 9

Describe how the Blass and Schmitt (2001) study shows evidence for legitimate of authority and the agentic state

Answer 9

• showed a film of Milgram’s study and students blamed the experimenter for harm caused to the learner
• they argued that obedience was due to the naive participants perceiving the experimenter as an legitimate authoritative figure
• they also suggested that the naive participant was acting as an ‘agent’ on behalf of the experimenter, demonstrating how their perceived authority led them to shift from an autonomous to an agentic state