Social- psychological factors Flashcards
agentic state
we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure, allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure
autonomous state
free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feels a sense of responsibility for their own actions
agentic shift
shift from autonomy to agency
binding factors
allow individuals to ignore the damaging effects of their obedient behaviour
legitimacy of authority
suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us, created by hierarchical nature of society
destructive authority
problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive eg hitler
research support
Blass and Schmitt (2001)- showed a film of Milgrams study to students and asked who they felt was responsible, they all blamed the experimenter due to legitimate authority and expert authority
Limited explanation
agentic shift doesn’t explain many of the research findings eg why some participants didn’t obey and the findings from Hoflings study
Agentic shift predicts that as the nurses handed over responsibility to the doctor they should have shown levels of anxiety similar to Milgrams participants
Cultural differences
Mann (1974)- replicates Milgrams procedure in Australia and found only 16% gave highest voltage
-Mantell (1971)- repeated for Germans and found 85% went to highest voltage
obedience alibi
there is research evidence to show that the behaviour of the Nazis can’t be explained in terms of authority and an agentic shift. Mandel (1998) described an incident involving German police battalion where men obeyed orders to shoot civilians despite being told they could be assigned to other duties
real life crimes
can help explain how obedience can lead to real life war crime.
Kelman (1989)- argue that the My Lai massacre can be understood in terms of the power hierarchy
