Social Influence - Situational explanations for obedience

what is the autonomous state

when a person is free to behave according to their own principles and feels responsibility for their own actions

what is the agentic state

when a person feels no responsibility for their actions as they’re acting for an authority figure

what is agentic shift

when in the presence of an authority figure, a person switches from the autonomous to agentic state

what are binding factors

aspects of a situation that allow a person to minimise the damaging effects of their behaviour and reduce their moral strain

what is legitimacy of authority

an explanation for obedience suggesting were more likely to obey people who we perceive to have legitimate authority over us

what is destructive authority

when legitimate authority figures use their power to harm others or be destructive

how does milgrams experiment support the role of the agentic state

• most of the participants resisted giving the shocks at some point

• when the experimenter said ‘im responsible’ they acted more easily as he experimenters agent

how does milgrams research NOT support the agentic state

Stephen Rank and Cardell Jacobson

• conducted experiment in hospital

• nurses had to give a patient an unknown injection

• 16/18 didnt administer it

• shows agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience

how does the agentic state explain cultural differences

• countries differ in how much they are obedient

• Kilham and Mann found only 16% of female australian participants went up to 450V in a milgram style study but 85% of germans did

• reflects how different cultures are raised to show different levels of obedience

disadvantage of agentic state - cant explain disobedience

• cant explain disobedience e.g the nurses in Rank and Jacobsons study

• suggests some people may just be more or less obedient than others