agency theory Flashcards
what does milgrams agency theory argue
that people are predisposed to obey but this is only realised when they are socialised to follow direct orders
what is the first stage in the agency theory
atounamous stage
what is the autonomous stage
where individual has free will over their behaviour and feels resposnible for their own actions
what is the next stage after the autonomous stage
agentic shift
what is the agentic shift
where individual is given orders from a legitimate authority figure and will surrednder them self as an agent to a legitmate authority figure
what is the agentic stage
where individual suurenders free will to laf and becomes an agent of a legitmate authority figure and will perform LAF biding
when individual is an agent of legitmate authority figure what may happen if they are accused
deffer responsibility to the agent
what may the agent experiance that is illustrated by milgrams
moral strain
define moral strain
this is when an individual feels anxiety about actions they have been asked to carry out as they feel it goes against their moral compass. they result to defence mechanisms to help cope with anxiety
what is a supporting research for agency theory
milgram
how can milgram be used
moral strain- he found that when pp where obeying orders from laf they exhibited moral strain such as sweating and digging their nails into their palm
t/f this shows that pp who are given orders by laf will obey but experiance moral discomfort thus increasing valididty of agency theory
what is a weakness of agency theory
reductionist
how can agency theory be seen as reductionist
it doesn’t account for other explinations of obediance such as socila impact theory and the role of the psycosocial law.
t/f this explination is too simplistic as their are other alternate ways of explaining obediance thus agency theory is reductionist
what is anouther strength of agency theory
burger
what did burger find
found that when pp where asked to administer electric shocks to conferderate, they surrendered their free will to the laf and 70% of pp continued after 150v
t/f this shows how an individual with surrender their free will to become an agent of the LAF, thus increasing the validity of agency theory
