situational explanations

• the agentic state is a situational explanation of obedience
• the agentic state is a mental state in which we feel no responsibility for our behaviour as we believe we are acting on behalf of an authority figure
• the autonomous state is the opposite of the agentic state stating that a persons behaviour is determined by their own principles and as a result they feel responsible for their own actions
• legitimate of authority is a situational explanation of obedience
• legitimacy of authority suggests we are more likely to obey authority figures as we perceive them to have the right to do so due to having higher status than us
• milligram suggested we go through an agentic shift where we move from being in the autonomous state to the agentic state when we perceive authority
• one strength of legitimacy of authority is that it can help us understand cultural differences in obedient behaviour. for example, Kilman and Mann found only 16% of Australian women administered the full voltage whereas Mantel found 85% of German participants to be fully obedient. these differences can be explained by legitimacy of authority as it shows how different cultures perceive authority figures differently and may be more or less obedient depending on how they are raised to view authority figures
• one strength of the agentic state there is there is supporting evidence. many participants in milgram's study resisted at some point and often questioned what they were being asked to do 'who is responsible if the learner is harmed?' to which the experimenter replied 'I am responsible' - after this participants carried on with no concerns, showing how the agentic state can explain obedience as after this point participants felt they were acting on behalf of an authority figure so obeyed instructions
• one limitation of agentic state is that it cannot always explain obedience. Rank and Jacobson found that 16/18 nurses disobeyed an order from a doctor over the phone to administer a drug to a patient (remaining autonomous), despite the doctor being an authority figure who they would be acting on behalf of. shows that the agentic state cannot account for all cases of obedience/disobedience, making it less externally valid. But, the fact that orders were administered over the phone could effect obedience