Agentic State

Question 1

What is Agentic State?

Answer 1

• Normally people act in the autonomous state – choosing their own behaviours and follow the orders of LAfs.
• If they are issued an order by a LAF this produces moral strain. The two dynamics above conflict.
  -The brain’s response to moral strain is to shift into the ‘agentic state’
• In this state responsibility is displaced onto the LAF and the immoral order is followed without guilt.

Question 2

A03 - Not in the Agentic State

Answer 2

• A limitation of this explanation is that it appears that many participants in Milgram’s studies were not in an agentic state.
• Some obedient participants experienced a strong conflict between the experimenter’s demands and their own conscience. They seemed very tense and nervous, they perspired, they bit their lips, and they clenched and unclenched their fists, 3 P’s had seizures.
• In addition, many argued strongly with the experimenter about what they were asked to do.
  -Therefore, this suggests that the agentic state may not be a full explanation for obedience.

Question 3

A03 - Strength - Abu Ghraib

Answer 3

• A strength is that Milgram’s explanation matches the reports given by officers known to have carried out immoral orders
  (e.g. WW2 or Abu Ghraib).
• However, the validity of these accounts is questionable as they could be a form of minimisation, where attempts are made to minimise the psychological trauma of accepting personal responsibility for past actions.
• Therefore, care should be taken when drawing conclusions from first-hand accounts.

Question 4

A03 -Lifton

Answer 4

Contrary to Milgram’s theory, there could be long effects of following immoral orders (rather than the agentic state being something people simply switch in and out of). Lifton (1986) found that doctors working at Auschwitz had changed from ordinary caring doctors into people capable of carrying out vile orders. Rather than being due to agentic shift, it may be that the experience of carrying out acts of evil over a long period of time can gradually and permanently change the way an individual behaves.