🧡1.5 obedience: situational explanations

Define agentic state

A mental state where we feel no personal responsibility for our actions as we believe we are acting for an authority figure

Define legitimacy of authority

We are more likely to obey people who we perceive to have authority over us. This is shown by their position within a social heirarchy

Agentic state - who was Adolf Eichmann

• A solider in charge of Nazi death camps

• His defence was that he was obeying orders

Agentic state - what did milgram suggest from Adolf Eichmann

• people obey orders when they are acting as an agent

• Agent = doing acts for someone else. They experience high anxiety and moral strain but feel powerless to disobey

Agentic state - what is an autonomous state

To be independent or free, feeling a sense of responsibility for their actions

Agentic state - what is an agentic shift

The shift from autonomy to agency. This occurs when a person perceives someone else as an authority figure and higher in the social hierarchy

Agentic state - what are binding factors

• Aspects that allow the person to ignore or Minimise the effects of their behaviour. This reduces their moral strain

• E.g shifting responsibility or denial

Evaluation agentic state - research support

• milgram found that participants would often ask whose responsible

• When they heard it was the experimenter they would continue

Evaluation agentic state - limited explanation

• Rank and Jacobson found that only 2/18 nurses obeyed doctors

• So agentic shift can only be used to explain some situations

Evaluation agentic state - socially sensitive

• Mandel suggests this offers an excuse for criminal behaviour, such as Nazis in the holocaust

Legitimacy of authority - how is society structured

• in a heirarchal way

• `authority is agreed upon in society and we accept they have power (to punish)

• This allows society to function smoothly

Legitimacy of authority - what is destructive authority

• when authority figures use their power for destructive purposes

Evaluation LOA - explain cultural differences

• in some cultures authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate, so higher obedience

• E.g (milgrams study). Germany had an 85% obedience rate. Australia had a 16% obedience rate

Evaluation LOA - cannot explain all obedience

• Rank and Jacobson found that only 2/18 nurses obeyed doctors orders

• So indivual differences also have an influence on obedience

Evaluation LOA - real world

• American soldiers killed civilians during the Vietnam war at My Lai

• One soldier faced charges and his defence was that he was following orders

• However this is socially sensitive as it suggests people aren’t responsible for their actions