Obedience: Situational explanations

• There are two situational explanations of obedience;

  1. Agentic state
  2. Legitimacy of authority
• Agentic state -> mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we are acting on behalf of an authority figure
• Agentic state is when we feel no personal responsibility for our behaviour as we are acting on behalf of an authority figure.
• The opposite of the Agentic state is an autonomous state
• The autonomous state is when a person is free to behave according to their own principles and feel a sense of responsibility for their own actions
• The shift from autonomy to agency is known as Agentic shift and occurs when person perceives someone as an authority figure
• Legitimacy of authority -> we are more likely to obey those who we perceive to have authority over us
• An example of legitimate figures are teachers, doctors or police
• Milgram suggested two things must be in place for a person to enter the Agentic state;

  1. person giving the orders is a legitimate authority
  2. person being ordered believe authority will accept responsibility for what happens
• We learn acceptance of legitimate authority from childhood - through parents and then teachers
• A consequence of legitimacy of authority is that some people are granted power to punish others such as police and courts. We trust them to exercise their authority appropriately.
• Problem's arise when the legitimate authority becomes destructive. Powerful leaders like Hilter used their power for destructive reasons.
• A03 - Strength to Agentic state

  Milgrams study supports Agentic state as once participants perceived they were not responsible for their behaviour, they acted more easily.
• AO3 - Weakness to legitimacy of authority

  Cannot explain instances of disobedience were legitimacy is clear and accepted.

  • Some people may be less obedient than others
  • Innate tendencies to obey/disobey have an impact on influence of behaviour rather than LoA