OBD - Situational Explanations

• Definition of agentic state

  A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for your behaviour because we believe that we are acting for an authority figure, this frees us from the demands of our conscience, and the binding factors keep minimise the responsibility or consequences of our actions
• define autonomous state


  the mental state where we are free to believe and behave on our own principles whilst feeling a sense of responsibility
• what is a binding factor?


  a factor that keeps us in the agentic state as we allow ourselves to dissociate/ignore the responsibility and damaging effects of our behaviour, thus reducing moral strain
• definition of Legitimacy of Authority


  an explanation that suggests we are more likely to obey a person we perceive to have authority over us within a social hierarchy, because the authority is justified.
• where can a social hierarchy be found?

  in most everyday societies
• what is destructive authority?


  Abuse of power.
• 1st eval of agentic state

  research support: Milgram's studies -> when participants resumed (without objections) giving shocks after being told that the responsibility was put on the experimenter and not them, this shows that the participants acted more easily as an agent for the experimenter - giving a valid explanation for obedience
• 2nd eval of agentic state


  limitation of agentic shift: Rank and Jacobson 1977 -> 16/18 nurses disobeyed the orders from a doctor to administer more medicine to a patient, even though the doctor was the clear person of authority.

  The nurses didn't go into the agentic state and remained autonomous
• 3rd eval of agentic state

  weakness: Alibi revisited: Mandel 1998 -> WW2 German Reserve Police Battalion 101 shot ad killed a small village in Poland without orders to do so, therefore they acted autonomously.

  does personality have a large role into the agentic state?
• 1st evaluation of Legitimacy of Authority


  Strength: Cultural differences -> Kilham & Mann 1974 - conducted a study where only 16% of female Australians went all the way to 450 volts, in a Milgram style study.

  -> However, Mandel 1971 found that 85% of German participants went to 450 volts

  this shows that some cultural authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate
• 2nd eval of Legitimacy of authority


  strength: real world crime -> Hamilton 1989

  crime: My Lai Massacre - could be understood through the power of the hierarchy in an army (US)
• 3rd eval of Legitimacy of Authority


  weakness: cant explain all disobedience -> Rank & Jacobson 1977

  Nurses were disobedient despite the working hierarchy of authority. And some of Milgram's participants disobeyed the experimenter despite the scientific authority.

  Suggesting that some people are less obedient than others, disposition playing an important role