Agentic state and legitimacy of authority

• agentic state: when a person is under the influence of another person's authority and does not consider themselves responsible for their actions.
• autonomous state: a state in which the individual is able to make decisions about their own actions.
• agentic shift: when an individual shifts responsibility for their actions onto someone else (typically an authority figure). this involves moving from an autonomous state to agentic state.
• why do some people adopt an agentic state?

  self preservation
• legitimacy of authority: the extent to which a person or group is accepted as having the right to make decisions, having a position of social control.
• strength of the agentic state explanation: research support from Milgram’s study, obedient participants said they just did what they were told rather than taking responsibility. Provides evidence for the effect of agentic shift, key for the explanation.
• limitation of the agentic state explanation: limited explanation for real life behaviour and influence. doctors at auschwitz changed irreversibly from caring doctors to comitting experiments on helpless prisoners. rather than agentic shift being responsible, it is the experience of carrying out these acts over a long period of time.