agency theory of obedience

Question 1

milgram argued

Answer 1

obedience is an essential function for a stable society to create social order and harmony

Question 2

autonomous state

Answer 2

everyone begins in the autonomous state in which we have free will, act according to our conscience and feel responsible for our actions

Question 3

agentic state

Answer 3

once an order is given from a legitimate authority figure we go through the agentic shift from the autonomous state to the agentic state in which we surrender our free will to the authority figure, defer responsibility to the authority figure, and don’t act according to our conscience. we are an AGENT to those in authority.

Question 4

moral strain

Answer 4

some acts of obedience may cause us to experience moral strain, moral strain occurs when we have to perform an act we believe to be immoral in order to function as an agent of authority. milgram identified the use of defence mechanisms to cope with moral strain, particularly denial was common.

Question 5

socialisation of obedience

Answer 5

through primary socialisation (0-5) our parents will reward us and speak to us nicely when we obey and punish us when we don’t, this socialises us to naturally follow orders from an authority figure.

Question 6

:) face validity

Answer 6

agency theory explains a great deal of aspects in all walks of life and in particular can explain how ordinary people can go against their conscience to commit atrocities t/f the theory appears to make sense and has practical applications to everyday obedience behaviour

Question 7

:) supporting research

Answer 7

the theory is supported by many studies including milgrams original experiment and the different variations of the experiment. in milgrams study 65% of people obeyed an order from an authority figure to harm an innocent person T/F milgrams study shows people are more likely to obey the greater status of an authority figure and supports his agency theory

Question 8

:( hypothetical construct

Answer 8

it is difficult difficult to prove the existence of an agent state because it is a hypothetical construct, as Jarvis et al said “saying that someone obeys because they are in an agent state and that they’re in an agent state because they obey is circular logic”
T/F the agent state cannot be empirically proved

Question 9

:( post hoc

Answer 9

it is difficult to test the assumption that people have evolved the potential for obedience as psychologists cannot go back in history to assess this T/F reduces the validity of the theory.