evaluation

• agentic state - strength pt 1

  a strength of the agentic state as an explanation for why people obey is that there is research evidence from milgrams experiment. most of milgrams participants resisted giving the shocks at some point, and often asked the experimenter questions about who is responsible if the learner is harmed.
• agentic state— strength pt 2

  when the experimenter replied ‘I am responsible’ the participant often went through the procedure very quickly without any further objections. this shows that once participants percieved that they were no longer responsible for their own behavior, they acted more easily as the experimenters agent.
• legitimacy of authority - strength pt 1

  A strength of legitimacy authority as an explanatiom for obedience is that it’s a useful account of cultural differences. may studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority. for example Kilham and Mann found that only 16% of Australian women went all the way up to 450 V in a miligram study.
• legitimacy of authority - strength pt 2

  However, Mantell found a very different figure for German participants, 85%. This show that, in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to deman obedience from individuals. This reflects the ways that different societies are structured and how children are raised to perceive authority figures.
• agentic state - limitation pt 1

  One limitation is that the agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience. For example, it does not explain the findings of Rank and Jacobson‘s study. They found that 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor administer an excessive drug dose to a patient.
• agentic state - limitation pt 2

  The doctor was an obvious authority figure. But Almost all the nurses remained autonomous, as did many of Milgram’s participants. This suggests that, at best, the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience.
• legitimacy of authority - limitation pt 1

  one limitation of legitimacy of authority as an explanation for why people obey is that it cannot explain instances of disobedience in a hierarchy where the legitimacy of authority is clear and accepted. this includes the nurses in Rank and Jacobson‘s study. most of them where disobedient despite working in a riding fly heirarchial authority structure.
• Legitimacy of authority - limitation pt 2

  Also, a siginifigant minority of Milgram’s participants disobeyed despite recognizing the experimenter’s scientific authority. This suggests that some people may just be more of less obedient than others. It is possible that innate tendencies to obey or disobey have greater influence on behavior that the legitimacy of an authority figure.
• legitimacy of authority - supporting evidence pt 1

  One strength of legitimacy of authority as an explanation for why people obey is that is can explain real world crimes of obedience. Kelman and Hamilton argue the notorious ward crimes committed at My Lai can be understood in terms of the heirarchy of the Us army.
• legitimacy of authority - supporting evidence pt 2

  For many of the soldiers tried their defense was the same as the Nazi officers at the Nuremberg trials. that they were only doing their duty and following orders. This suggests that legitimacy of authority can h]Eli explain real world crimes.