obedience situational explanations: agentic state

Question 1

define agentic state

Answer 1

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

this frees us from the demands of our consciences and allows us to obey a destructive authority figure

Question 2

define autonomous state

Answer 2

free to behave according to own principles and feel a sense of responsibility for actions

Question 3

explain agentic shift and why it occurs

Answer 3

the shift from autonomy to agency

this occurs when a person perceives someone else an authority figure so they follow the instructions

Question 4

define binding factors

Answer 4

aspects of the situation that allow a person to ignore or minimise the effects of their behaviour and therefore reduce the moral strain that they are feeling

milgram suggests people often shift the responsibility to the victim or denying the damage that they were causing

Question 5

what is the research support for agentic state

Answer 5

Milgram

most of the participants resisted the shock and asked the experimenter questions about the procedure

for example: who is responsible if Mr Wallace is harmed?

when the experimenter replied “I’m responsible”
participants often carried on with no objections

this suggests when people were told they weren’t responsible they were happy to act as the experimenters agent