Situational

• Agentic state


  A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our Behavior because we believe ourselves to be acting for an authority figure I.E as their agent
• Autonomous state


  Behaving according to one's own principles and feeling responsible for one's actions
• Agentic shift


  The shift from autonomy to being an agent
• Agentic shift occurs when we perceive someone else as an authority figure
• Binding factors in the agentic state


  • aspects that allow individuals to minmise the damaging consequences to reduce moral strain on then
  • eg. denial of consequences on victim
• Agentic state


  Frees us from the demands of our conscious and allows us to obey even a destructive authority figure
• 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
• Authority is Justified or legitimate by the individual's position of power within a social hierarchy
• Destructive use of legitimate authority

  • Hitler
  • Stalin
  • Pol Pot
• Soldiers at My Lai

  Obeyed their commanding officer due to his power to punish them
• Some people disobey legitimate Authority, e.g. nurses disobeying a doctor's order to give an excessive drug dose
• Respect for legitimate Authority can lead to destructive obedience, as seen in the my lai massacre