Situational Explanations

Question 1

Agentic state

Answer 1

When a person believes they are acting for someone else- an agent. Don’t take responsibility

Question 2

Autonomous state

Answer 2

Opposite of agentic state. Independent. Free to behave according to their own principle and feels a sense of responsibility for their actions. Shift from autonomy to ‘agency’ is called the agentic shift.

Question 3

Binding factors

Answer 3

Factors of the situation which reduce our moral strain, such as reassuring ourselves it is not our responsibility or justifying our actions by saying the victim was ‘asking for it’.

Question 4

Legitimacy of authority

Answer 4

Taught from early age who is at top of social hierarchy. E.g. teachers, police have legitimate authority. We trust them to exert their power over us appropriately and we are willing to give up our independence if they do so.

Question 5

Destructive authority

Answer 5

Problems arise when legitimate authority becomes destructive. Historical leaders have sometimes used their power in destructive ways, ordering people to behave in ways that are cruel and dangerous. Destructive authority was in milgrams study, when the experimenter used prods.

Question 6

Strength- agentic state- research support

Answer 6

Milgrams study- experimenter claimed he was responsible for harm not the participant, the participant then went through with it. Therefore participant is acting as an agent- not responsible.

Question 7

Limitation- agentic state- limited explanation

Answer 7

Agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience. E.g. findings of Rank and Jacobson (1977) study. 16/18 nurses disobeyed orders from a doctor to administer a lethal dose of a drug to a patient.

Question 8

Strength- legitimacy- cultural differences

Answer 8

Many studies show that countries differ in the degree to which people are obedient to authority . 16% of Australian women went all the way up to 450 V, Germans- 85%. Shows that in some cultures, authority is more likely to be accepted as legitimate and entitled to demand obedience from individuals. Reflects the way children are raised in different cultures.

Question 9

Limitation- legitimacy- can’t explain all disobedience

Answer 9

Some cases of disobedience- Rank and Jacobsons study, also a significant minority of milgrams participants disobeyed despite recognising the experimenters scientific authority . Suggests individual differences- as some people may be more or less obedient- may play a bigger role than legitimate authority figures.