obedience: situational explanations

• agentic state definition

  a mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure
• agentic state

  Milgram's study in obedience was sparked due to the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961 for war crimes where his defence was that he was only obeying orders from an authority figure

  when a person shifts from the autonomous state(where the person fully feels responsible for their own actions) to the agentic state is called the agentic shift the person knows what they are doing was wrong but felt powerless to disobey, this is because of binding factors, they allow the person to ignore the damage they've done and reduce moral strain
• agentic state evaluation strengths

  research support - in Milgram's research the participants asked who was responsible for the shocks and the experimenter said they were, therfore the participants were no longer responsible for their actions and acted as the experimenters agent
• agentic state evaluation limitations

  it is a limited explanation as still doesn't explain why some of Milgram's participants disobeyed
• legitimacy of authority definition

  an explanatin for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us, this authority is justified by the individuals position of power within a social hierarchy
• legitimacy of authority

  people are more likely to obey them if they feel like they are a higher status than us, hence why students obey teachers and parents over unknown adults, in Milgrams study we see the experimenter has authority as they knew he was a scientist and therefore knowledgable - expert authority

  problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive, charismatic and powerful leaders such as hitler can use their power in cruel and dangerous ways
• legitimacy of authority evaluation strengths

  it explains cultural differences as when replicating Milgram's study in different countries, in Australia 16% obeyed but in Germany 85% obeyed shows that it relates to the structure of society
• legitimacy of authority evaluation limitations

  it cannot explain all disobedience suggesting people may just be more obedient than others and don't follow a societal hierarchy