Obedience: Situational explanations Flashcards
Agentic State
SItuational explanations: Agentic state
Milgram’s inital interest in obedience was sparked by trial of Adolf Eichmann, who had been in charge of Nazi death camps
His defence was that he was only obeying orders
This led Milgram to propose that obedience to destructive authority occurs because person doesn’t take responsibility instead they believe they’re acting for someone else (i.e. they’re an agent)
Agent is not unfeeling puppet - they experience high anxiety (moral strain) when they realise what they’re doing is wrong but feel powerless to obey
Autonomous state
SItuational explanations: Agentic state
Oppoiste of agentic state is autonomous state
Person in autonomous state is free to behave according to their principles & feels sense of responsibility for their actions
Shift from autonomy to agency is agentic shift
Milgram suggested this occurs when person perceives someone else as authority figure
Authority figure has greater power because they have higher position in social hierarchy
In most social groups, when one person is in charge others defer to legitimate authority of this person & shift from autonomy to agency
Binding factors
SItuational explanations: Agentic state
Milgram observed many of his ppts said they wanted to stop but seemed powerless to do so
He wondered why they remained in agentic state - answer is binding factors
Aspects of situation that allow person to ignore or minimise damaging effect of their behaviour & thus reduce moral strain
Milgram propsed number of strats that individual uses such as shifting responsibility to the victim
Evaluation: Research support
SItuational explanations: Agentic state
Strength: Milgram’s own studies support role of agentic state in obedience
Most of Milgram’s ppts resisted giving shocks at some point & often asked experimenter questions about procedure
One of these was ‘Who is responsible is (Leaner) is harmed?’
When experimenter replied ‘I am’, they went through procedure quickly w/ no further objections
Therefore, once ppts percieved they were no longer responsible for their own behaviour, they acted more easily as Experimenter’s agent
Evaluation: Limited explanation
SItuational explanations: Agentic state
Limit: agentic shift doesn’t explain many research findings about obedience
E.g. does not explain findings of Rank & Jacobson’s study
Found that 16/18 hospital nurses disobeyed orders from Dr to administer excessive drug dose to patient
Dr was obvious authority figure but almost all nurses remained autonomous, as did many of Milgram’s ppts
Therefore, the agentic shift can only account for some situations of obedience
Legitimacy of authority (LOA)
SItuational explanations: Legitimacy of authority
Most societies are structured in hierarchical way
Authority those ‘above’ wield is legit in sense that its agreed by society
Most of us accept that authority figures are allowed to exercise social power over others because this allows society to function smoothly
One consequence of (LOA) is some people are granted power to punish others
We agree police & courts have power to punish wrongdoers so we’re willing to give up some independence & hand control of our behaviour over to people we trust to excerise authority appropriately
We learn acceptance of legit authority from childhood
Destructive authority
SItuational explanations: Legitimacy of authority
Problems arise when legit authority becomes destructive
History has shown that charismatic & powerful leaders can use their legit powers for destructive purposes, ordering people to behave in cruel & dangerous ways
Destructive authority was obvious in Milgram’s study, when experimenter used prods to order ppt to behave in ways that went against their consciences
Evaluation: Explains cultural differences
SItuational explanations: Legitimacy of authority
Strength: useful account of cultural diffs in obedience
Many studies show that countries differ in degree to which people are obedient to authority
E.g. Kilham & Mann found only 16% of Oz women went up to 450v in Milgram rep
However, Mentall found very diff figure for german ppts - 85%
Therefore, authority is more likely to be accepted as legit & entitled to demand obedience from individuals
Evaluation: Cannot explain all (dis)obedience
SItuational explanations: Legitimacy of authority
Limit: cannot explain instances of disobedience in hierarchy where LOA is clear & accepted
Includes nurses in Rank & Jacobson’s study
Most of them were disobedient despite working in rigidly hierarchical authority structure
Also, sig minority of Milgrams ppts disobeyed despite recognising Experimenter’s scientific authority
Therefore, some people may just be more (or less) obedient than others
