Agentic state & Legitimacy of Authority

Agentic state

= when someone sees themselves as an agent accruing out/acting on behalf of another persons orders

- not responsible for own actions

- attribute responsibility to someone else (an authority figure)

- no personal responsibility/guilt for actions

Autonomous state

= seeing themselves as responsible for their own actions

--> free to behave according to their own principle and therefore feel a sense of responsibility for their own actions

agentic shift

when a person moves from an autonomous state to an agentic state

(Milgram, 1974)

suggested that this occurs when a person perceives someone else as a figure of authority and has greater power due to their position in a social hierarchy

obedience to destructive authority

Milgram's initial interest in obedience was sparked by the trial of Adolf Eichmann (1961) for war crimes

--> Eichmann had been in charge of Nazi death camps and argued that he was only carrying out orders

obedience to a destructive authority occurs because a person doesn't take responsibility and that they are acting for someone else

agents experience high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise what they are doing is wrong, but feel powerless to disobey

binding factors

"aspects of the station that allow the person to ignore or mimes the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce moral strain that they are feeling"

= why people remain in the agentic state

social etiquette

= regulates behaviour and tells us how to act around certain people

--> to fit in, not to embarrass ourselves and to be accepted as normal (NSI)

i.e.

in milgram's experiment, participates committed themselves to something and in order to get out of it would have to break that commitment

- breaking commitment may be seen as rude/arrogant,. person may feel guilty about leaving and the impact on the study

emotions are enough to bind individual into obedience

legitimacy of authority

= for a person to shift into an agentic state, there must be a perception of legitimate authority

= someone who has social control over the situation

- most situations have a socially controlling figure

- based off of perceived positions in that situation

- expected to be in charge in the situation

milgrams research

expectation os someone in charge (experimenter)

... demonstrated an air of authority and this wasn't challenged by participants, but accepted

- although participants perform the action, it is authority figure who provides the meaning of the action

... participant feel committed to authority figure

in order for authority figure to be perceived as legitimate, must occur within some sort of institutional structure

... suggests that perhaps it is the category of situation as opposed to the status that the category is within

Milgrams lab study change location and uniform + added another confederate to administer the shock

Milgram's research: legitimacy of authority

location + uniform = legitimate authority

LOCATION:

- yale university, prestige university = 65% administered 450v

- rundown building location = obedience dropped to 48%

legitimacy of location decreased = less trust in experiment

but...

... could be argued that obedience levels dint decrease by a significant amount as was still in a laboratory

laboratory = legitimate authority

UNIFORM:

- experimenter = lab coat = legitimate authority

- uniform variation, experimenter replaced by participant in ordinary clothes, obedience = dropped to 20%

... lack of uniform and questionable position of authority reduced credibility of authority, which meant participants were less likely to obey

Milgram's research: agentic state

In original experiment...

- participants were told experimenter had full responsibility and therefore continued carrying out the experimenters orders

if participants were told that they were responsible, obedience would have decreased

= 65% of participants administered full 450v were arguably in agentic state and said in interview after that

"I was just doing what the experimenter said"

In variation...

- additional confederate administered electric shock on behalf of the teacher and percentage of participants who administered the full 450v rose dramatically to 92.5%

= highlights the power of shifting responsibility (agentic shift) as participants were able to shift responsibility onto the person administering the shock and continued obeying orders as felt less responsible

A03 - WEAKNESS: limited explanation

P

= a weakness of the agentic shift is that it doesn't explain many of Milgram's research findings

EV

= for example, it doesn't explain why some participants did not obey as 35% of participants refused to administer an electric shock of 450volts

EX

= this suggests that individual differences may play a greater role in the likelihood of someones obedience and this has not been considered.

C

= however, research evidence from Class and Schmitt (2001), whereby a group of students were shown a film of Milgram's study and were asked to identify who they felt was responsible, supports the notion of obedience to a legitimate authority figure. the students indicated that the experimenter was responsible, not the participant, recognising how the legitimate and expert authority of the experimenter caused the obedience of the participant

LB

= despite this, supporting research still does not consider dispositional factors or why people disobeyed, and consequently the agentic shift may only be able to account for some situations of obedience or for the obedience of some individuals, rather than being used as a global reason for obedience

A03 - STRENGTH: cultural differences

P

= a strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it is a useful account of cultural differences in obedience. Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority

EV

= Kilham and Mann (1974) replicated Milgram's procedure in Australia and found that only 16% of participants were obedient to 450 volts. However, when Mantell (1971) replicated the study in Germany, obedience o the highest voltage was 85%

EX

= this demonstrates that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and therefore demand obedience from individuals

EXT

= as well as this, it could be argued that authority can be perceived differently depending on how children are raised, and whether a parent figure commands a strict or lenient upbringing in addition to moral values that children are taught

LB

= as a result of this, legitimacy of authority is supported by cultural differences and therefore can be recognised as a valid explanation for why people obey

A03 - STRENGTH: real life application

P

= another strength of the legitimacy of authority explanation is that it can help explain how obedience can lead to real-life war crimes

EV

= for example, Kelman and Hamilton (1989) argued that the My Lai massacre can be understood in terms of the power of the hierarchy in the US Army as the soldiers were only following orders that an authoritative figure had given, knowing there would be consequences if they disobeyed

EX

= in addition to this, the vents of Nazi Germany in WWII give further evidence of how obedience to a legitimate authority figure can lead to real-life war crimes, such as Adolf Eichmann (1961) who argued that his control over the Nazi death camps were only the result of him following orders

C

= however, research by Mandel (1998) contradicts the explanation that Nazi members obeyed due to an authoritative figure. Mandel described an incident involving the German Reserve Police Battalion 101, where men obeyed orders to shoot civilians despite not having direct orders to do so and that they could be assigned elsewhere if preferred. This behaviour suggests that they acted individually and did not engage in an agentic shift due to legitimacy of authority, as Milgram suggested.

LB

= on the other hand, the legitimacy of authority explanation for why people are obedient is a valid explanation because it can be applied to the majority of real-life situations