social influence -> obedience: situational explanations Flashcards
What are social-psychological explanations?
Social-psychological explanations concern the influence of other people on an individual’s behaviour rather than situational factors
What are the two situational theories?
- Agentic state
- Legitimacy of authority
What is the Agentic state?
A mental state when an individual acts as an agent of someone in authority with little personal responsibility and reduced moral strain for their actions
What is the autonomous state?
Individuals direct their own behaviour and take responsibility for the consequences
- the opposite to the agentic state
What is an agentic shift?
The movement from an autonomous state to an agentic state which happens in the presence of an authority figure
-> shift from autonomy to ‘agency’
What are binding factors?
Although people in such a situation may want to stop, they may feel unable to do so due to binding factors
- aspects of a situation that allows a person to minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the ‘moral strain’ they are feeling
What did Milgram propose people do to feel less guilty?
A number of techniques of neutralisation and strategies that the individual uses
What are some strategies a person may use to feel less guilty?
Shifting the responsibility to the victim or denying the damage they were doing to the victims
How did Milgram test the agentic state?
In one variation, an additional confederate administered the electric shocks on behalf of the teacher
What did Milgram find in this variation on the agentic state?
The percentage of his participants who administered the full 450V rose dramatically from 65% to 92.5%
What did Milgram conclude about the impact of the agentic state on obedience?
Highlights the power of shifting responsibility (agentic shift) to another person by having them act as an agent
What is legitimacy of authority?
An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive as having authority over us e.g. parents and teachers
What justifies an authority figure?
This authority is seen as justified or legitimate by the individual’s position of power within a social hierarchy that is agreed upon by society
What is socialisation?
A process where people learn their position within the social hierarchy
What are the three factors explaining legitimacy of authority?
- Legitimacy of the system
- Legitimacy of authority within the system
- Legitimacy of demands or orders given
What is legitimacy of the system?
Refers to the extent to which the system is seen as a legitimate source of authority
- e.g. governments, army, school, family
What is the legitimacy of the authority within the system?
- The power the individual holds because of their position in the system
- This therefore is linked to status and the hierarchy within a particular establishment
What is legitimacy of demands or orders given?
Refers to the extent which the orders are perceived to be a legitimate area for the authority figure
Evaluation: Can explain real life situations -> strength
- Kelman and Hamilton (1989) argue that a real-world crime of obedience (My Lai massacre - man murder conducted by American soldiers of about 500 unarmed citizens in south vietnam)
- One soldier, William Calley the commanding officer was fund guilty and his defence was ‘doing his duty and following orders’
- Has practical applications - if legitimacy of authority and agentic shift is a useful explanation of real life situations, then there is a possibility that it could help us to understand how to prevent such crimes in the future
Evaluation: Research support -> strength
- Support for the role of the agentic state in explaining Milgram’s high obedience rates
- Blass and Schmidt (2001) found that people who watched the film of Milgram’s study blamed the experimenter, indicating that they believed the participants were agents of authority
- strength because the explanation is reinforced by other’s views
- Also supported by many historical events which demonstrate that as a result of social pressure, normal people can act in callous and inhumane ways
Evaluation: The Obedience Alibi - socially sensitive -> limitation
- Some people consider a situational perspective on the Holocaust offensive because it removes personal responsibility from the perpetrators
- To suggest that Nazi executioners of Jews were ‘only doing their duty by obeying orders’ implies that they were also victims of situational pressures and that anyone faced with a similar situation would have behaved in the same way
- This is an important issue because it runs the risk of trivialising genocide or excusing those who took part
