Legitimate authority and agent state Flashcards
Agentic state
A person see themselves as on. agent for carrying out another person’s wishes.
What what circumstance may a person change their state.
A person may shift from an autonomous state, where they feel responsible for their own actions, to an agentic state
Legitimacy of authority
A person who see themself as an agent for carrying out another person’s wishes
In Milgram’s experiment, p’s had the expectation that someone ‘would be in charge’, and the experimenter fufilled this expectation by having an ‘air of authority’.
One explanation for obedience
the need to maintain a postive self-image. By shifting responbility onto the authrotiy figure, the person does not feel guilty about their actions
AO3
The agentic state explanation does not explain real-life obedience
Lifton (1986)
Stuab (1989) it was the experience
P: Lifton (1986) argues that Milgram’s claim that people shift back and frth between an autonomous and agentic state does not explain the behaviour of German doctors at Auschwitz
E: These doctors changed gradually and irreversibly from medical professionals concerned with the welfare of paitents into people capable of horrific experiments on prisoners.
(went through agenetic shift- from acting autonomously by caring for patients, to entering an agentic state where they feel no responsibility for their actions and simply carry out orders from nazi officials).
E: Staub (1989) suggest it was the experience of carrying out these actions over a long time that changed the way doctors thought and behaved rather than agentic shift.
Milgram’s obedient p’s might just have been cruel
used to satify
Limitation
P: Milgram did not concede that there could be other possibilities that would explain p’s behaviour.
E: The possibility that obedient p’s used the situation to satify sadistic impules was shown by Zimbardo’s finding that guards were willing inflict cruetly on prisioners without being ordered to do so.
E: This suggests that, although obedience may be due to being an agentic state for same people, for others it is the desire to inflict harm on another person.
The legitimate authority explanation can account for some acts of destructive obedience
Legitimate authority evaluation
P: Despite having many positive consequences, legitimacy of authority can also sevre as a justification for causing harm to others.
E: If people are willing to let authority figures make judgements about what is acceptable conduct, then they no longer feel their own moral values are relevant to how they behave
E: A consequence of this is that people may readily engage in unquetioning obedience to authority, no matter how destructive or immoral these actions.
Obedience in the cockpit provides a test of the legitimate authority explanation.
Importance of obedience to legitimate authority
Tarrow (2000)
dependence
to enforce
P: Tarrow (2000) provided support for the importance of obedience to legitimate authority in a study of aviation accidents.
E: As with Milgram’s study, Tarrow found that excessive dependence on the captain’s authority (lack of monitoring errors) was a contributory factor in a large proportion of the accidents investigated.
E: This provides a real-life demonstration of the power of legitimate authority figures to enforce obedience in those around them
What AO3 are you using?
- Lifton (1986) & Stuab (1989) The agentic state explanation does not explain real-life obedience
- Milgram’s obedient p’s might just have been cruel
- The legitimate authority explanation can account for some acts of destructive obedience
- Tarrow (2000) Obedience in the cockpit provides a test of the legitimate authority explanation
