Situational explanations of obedience

• What is the agentic state as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • During Eichmann's trial for war crimes he defended Nazi death camps by saying he was only obeying orders
  • Led Milgram to the idea of the agentic state: a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we believe we are acting as an 'agent' for an authority figure
  • This frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey destructive orders
  • Experience 'moral strain' which is high anxiety when they realise they are wrong but feel powerless to disobey
• What is the autonomous state?

  • The opposite of being in an agentic state where we are free to behave according to our own principles and feel a sense of responsibility for our own actions
  • Agentic shift: a shift from autonomy to agency, occurring when someone perceives another person as an authority figure who has greater power because they are higher up in the social hierarchy
• What are binding factors?

  • Aspects of the situation that allow a person to ignore or minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour and reducing the 'moral strain' they are feeling
  • Milgram proposed that individuals shift the responsibility to the victim or deny the damage they caused
• What is legitimacy of authority as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Suggests we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us - this authority is legitimised by their position of power within a social hierarchy
  • Problems arise when this becomes destructive where people use their legitimate powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways
• What is one strength of the agentic state as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Research support: Milgram (1963)'s participants asked the Experimenter questions when resisting giving the shocks, often asking who was responsible for the harm
  • When the Experimenter replied that he was responsible, participants obeyed with no further objections
  • Shows that once ppts. perceived they were no longer responsible for their own actions they acted as the Experimenter's agent more easily, supporting the explanation
• What is one limitation of the agentic state as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Limited explanation: Rank and Jacobson (1977) found that 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer an excessive drug dose to a patient despite the fact that the doctor was an obvious authority figure
  • Almost all nurses remained autonomous, suggesting that the agentic shift can only account for SOME situations and ignores dispositional factors
• What is another limitation of the agentic state as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Obedience alibi: Mandel (1998) described an incident during WW2 involving the German Reserve Police Battalion 101 - these men shot civilians in a small town in Poland despite not having direct orders to do so, behaving autonomously
  • Challenges the agentic state explanation as it suggests not everyone experiences moral strain and can act destructively even without being ordered to by an authority figure
• What is one strength of legitimacy of authority as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Explains cultural differences in obedience: Kilham and Mann (1974) found that only 16% of Australian women went up to 450V in a Milgram-style study BUT Mantell (1974) found this was 85% for German participants
  • Suggests that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals, reflecting the different ways societies perceive authority figures
• What is one limitation of legitimacy of authority as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Limited explanation: Rank and Jacobson (1977)'s study showed most nurses were disobedient despite working in a rigidly hierarchical authority structure
  • A significant minority of Milgram's ppts. disobeyed despite recognising the Experimenter's scientific authority
  • Suggests some people may just be more or less obedient than others or innate tendencies to obey or disobey have a greater influence on behaviour than legitimacy of an authority figure
• What is another strength of legitimacy of authority as a situational explanation for obedience?

  • Explains real-world situations: My Lai massacre during the Vietnam war saw 504 unarmed civilians killed by American soldiers - women were gang-raped, buildings were blown up, animals were all killed and the village was burnt to the ground
  • Soldier charged defended himself, saying he was only doing his duty by following orders
  • Suggests legitimacy of authority can explain this as commanding officers have greater power to punish