Situational Explanations

• Legitimacy of Authority: Milgram

  believed that there is a shared expectation among people that many situations do ordinarily have social controlling figures.
• • The authority is wielded because society has agreed and accepted that the authority figure of a certain institution will have the right to exercise social control to help society run smoothly.​
• Agentic State

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

  
  

  Frees us from our conscience and allows us to obey authority figures regardless if they're destructive
• Legitimacy of Authority 


  suggests that we are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us.

  
  

  This is justified the the individual's position of power within a social hierarchy
• Autonomous State

  • Opposite of being in an agentic state ​
  • They feel free to behave according to their own principles and therefore feel a sense of responsibility for their own actions ​
• The shift from autonomy to agency is called the agentic shift
• Agentic Shift

  • Milgram argues this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority ​
  • This person has greater power because of their position in social hierarchy ​
• The first condition for a person to shift from an autonomous state to an agentic state is the perception of a legitimate authority. ​

  
  

  Legitimate authority requires an institution e.g. criminal justice system
• Why do people remain in this agentic state?

  Binding factors (Milgram)
• Binding Factors

  • Aspects of the situation that allow the person to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain they are feeling ​
  • E.g. you shift the responsibility to the victim or you deny the damage ​
• Strengths for Situational Explanations of Obedience

  • Explains cultural differences - Kilham and Mann (Australia) found that 16% of female participants would use the 450V shock, but Mantell (Germany) found 85% would carry out the same order. This shows that in some cultures, authority is seen as more legitimate
  • My Lai - American soldiers murdered a village in Vietnam. The only soldier put on trial said he was only obeying orders. Commanding officers had the right to punish those who did not obey. Shows real life application of legitimacy of authority theory and
• Weaknesses for Situational Explanations of Obedience

  • Limited explanation: Agentic shift can’t explain why some people don’t obey in some situations
  • e.g. Rank and Jacobson (1977)​ 16 out of 18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from doctors to administer excessive dose of drug to patient despite doctor being an authority figure
• Real life application ​

  • It can explain real life crimes ​
  • Lifton (1986) found doctors had gradually changed from medical professionals who were caring to being capable of carrying out lethal experiments on prisoners. (Auschwitz, Germany) ​