situational explanations

• situational explanations

  agentic state

  legitimacy of authority
• agentic state 


  this is when someone feels they are not responsible for the consequences of their actions

  soomeone believes that they are an agent and are carrying out someones orders without being affected by the consequences of their actions

  this ca lead to someone blindly obeying a destructive authority figure
• autonomous state 


  opposite of agentic state

  this is when someone believes they are responsible for their actions

  a person is in an autonomous state is free to behave as they wish according to their morals and principles and are aware that they are responsible for the consequences of their actions
• agentic shift

  the shift from autonomy to 'agency's called a n 'agentic shift'

  this happens when someone percieves someone else to be a legitimate authority figure

  the perceived authority figure has more power as they are higher up the social hierarchy
• binding factors 


  aspects of a situation that causes a person to ignore or minimize the damaging effects of their behavior

  this reduces the 'moral strain' on a person

  one way someone might do this is by shifting the responsibility to the victim (he was foolish to volunteer) and thus deny the damage done by their actions
• research support (agentic state)


  P: strength - research support

  E: ppts would stop mid-experiment and ask who is responsible if the learner is harmed

  E: When the researcher would reply I am, ppts would carry on

  L: therefore shows when ppts weren't responsible the acted more easily
• limited explanation (agentic state)


  P: limitation - limited explanation

  E: 16 out of 18 nurses refused to give an overdose of meds prescribed by a doctor

  E: doctor was an authority figure but nurses stayed autonomous

  L: therefore agentic state doesn't account for all types of obedience
• explain cultural differences (legitimacy of authority)


  P: strength - explains cultural differences

  E: 16% of Australian women went up to 450 volts

  E: however 85% of German ppts went up to 450 volts

  L: therefore accounts for how obedience is percieved differently in different cultures
• can't explain all disobedience (legitimacy of authority)


  P: limitation - can't explain all disobedience

  E: many nurses disobeyed the doctor (authority figure)

  E: many of the Milgrams ppts disobeyed even after recognizing experimenters' scientific authority

  L: therefore some people may be more obedient than others
• Legitimacy of authority

  An explanation for obedience which suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This authority is justified (legitimate) by the individual's position of power within a social hierarchy.
• Who holds authority over us?

  Teachers, parents, police officers etc
• What is one of the consequences of legitimate authority?

  It grants some people the power to punish others e.g. the police or court
• When do we learn acceptance of legitimate authority and where from?

  We learn it from childhood, firstly from our parents, then teachers and adults in general
• How does destructive authority arise?

  It arises when people with legitimate authority use it for destructive purposes
• Give an example of a leader who had destructive authority

  Hitler or Stalin
• How was destructive authority shown in Milgram's study?

  By the experimenter using prods such as "it is absolutely essential you must go on" to make the participants administer shocks