explanations for obedience

• A common way of thinking for the obedient individual is to see themselves as not being responsible for their own actions. Instead, they put this on someone else, particularly a figure of authority. Milgram referred to this movement as the ‘agentic shift’. This is where they go from being responsible (autonomous state) to not perceiving themselves to be responsible for their actions (agentic state). Interviews at the end of Milgram study showed that the pt said ‘I was just doing what I was told’. This showed that they didn’t feel responsible, but it was on the experimenter.
• There are explanations for why people go into an agentic state. One is due to self-image. Once the pt has moved into the agentic state, the action is no longer their responsibility and so this doesn’t damage their self-image, guilt free.
• There is also binding factors to stay in the agentic state. This is due to social etiquette that plays a part in behaviour. The pt may feel like it would be rude to break off the experiment, this leaves them to be binded in. Legitimacy of authority is needed for someone to go into the agentic state. In every social situation there is someone who is perceived to have authority. For example, in Milgram’s study, the experimenter was perceived to have authority in the situation.
• Some claim that agentic shift occurs when a person feels they have a reduction in self-control.

  Under such circumstances, people may show an increased acceptance of external sources of control to compensate for this. Not only does it lead to obedience, but also and increase in bystander apathy (remains passive in presence of unresponsive others when faced with an emergency).

  This concludes that the process of agentic shift is not confined to obedience to authority, but may also extend to other forms of social influence when ‘not in control’.
• An issue with this is that it can serve as the basis for justifying harming others.

  If people authorise another person to make judgements for them about what is appropriate conduct, they no longer feel that their own moral values are relevant t their conduct. When instructed by an authority to engage in immoral actions, alarmingly, people will.

  A consequence of this is that people may engage in obedience to authority, no matter now immoral the actions are.
• Milgram believed that the idea of the agentic state best explained findings, other possibilities were ignored.

  One common belief is that he had detected signs of cruelty among his pt, who used the situation to express this. This belief was given substance from the Standford prison experiment as the guards, after a few days, inflicted cruelty on the prisoners despite the fact there was no authority figure telling them to do so.

  This suggests that, for some, obedience may be due to agentic shift, but others it may be for the desire to harm others.