Situational explanations (5)

Agentic State (1)

act on behalf of another person)

 

• Milgram proposed that obedience to destructive authority occur because a person become an ‘agent’ someone who acts for or In place of another.

• In an agentic state a person feels no personal responsibility for their actions

Autonomous state (1)

• Autonomy’ means to be independent or free. So a person in an autonomous state behaves according to their principles and feels responsible for their actions.

 

Not an agent

Agentic shift

• The shift from autonomy to being an agent is called an agentic shift

• Milgram suggested that this occurs when we perceive someone’s else as an authority figure

• This person has power because of their position in a social hierarchy

 

Binding Factors

• Binding factors are aspects of a situation that allow the person to minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and reduce the ‘moral strain’ they feel

• Milgram proposed several strategies that the individual uses, such as shifting the responsibility

A03 (Agentic state) - if it’s another’s responsibility participants will be less of agents

• Most of Milgram’s Participants given the shocks and asked ‘who is responsible if Mr Wallace (the learner) is harmed

• When the experimenter replied ‘I’m responsible’ the participants went through the procedure quickly without objecting

• This shows participants acted more willingly as an agent when they believed they were not responsible for their behaviour.

A03 (Agentic state) - WW2 police violence despite no direct orders to do so

• During the Second World War German reserves  police battalion 101 shot civilians in a small town in Poland despite not have direct orders to do so. They could have been assigned to their orders if they preferred.

• The men of battalion 101 did not have to direct order to short civilians in one polish town (mandel 1998).

•  Even so, they did perform the massacre behaving autonomously.

This suggests that the agentic shift is not required for destructive behaviour

Legitimacy of authority (1)

We obey people further up a social hierarchy

• Most societies are structured hierarchically

• People in certain positions hold authority over the rest of us (parents and caregivers, teachers, police officers, nightclub door supervisors

 

Authorities have legitimacy through societies agreement

• The power that authorities wield is legitimate because it is agreed by societies

• Most of us accept that authority figures should exercise social power over others to allow society to function smoothly

Legitimacy of authority (2)

We hand over control to authority figures

• People with legitimate authority have the power to punish others.

• We give up some independence to people we trust exercise authority properly.

• We learn to accept authority during childhood (caregivers, teachers, etc.)

 

Destructive authority

• History has shown that some leaders use legitimate authority destructively, ordering people to behave in cruel and dangerous ways

 

A03 (Legitimacy of authority) - legitimacy can explain cultural differences

• Research shows that countries differ in obedience to authority

• 16% of Australian women obeyed (Kilimanjaro and Mann 1974), 85% of German participants did (mantell 1971)

• This shows that authority is more likely seen as legitimate in some culture reflecting upbringing.

A03 (Legitimacy of authority) - legitimacy cannot explain all disobedience

• People may disobey even when they accept the legitimacy of the hierarchal authority structure

• Most of Rank and Jacobson’s 1977 nurses were disobedient as were some of milgrams participants

• This suggests that other factors may be more important than legitimacy of authority