Social-Psychological Explanations of Obedience Flashcards Preview

Psychology - Social Influence > Social-Psychological Explanations of Obedience > Flashcards

Flashcards in Social-Psychological Explanations of Obedience Deck (8)
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1
Q

What are the two social-psychological explanations for obedience?

A

Agentic State

Legitimacy of Authority

2
Q

What is an agentic state?

A

This is the opposite of an autonomous state, individuals act on behalf of another authority figure, they therefore feel no sense of personal responsibility

3
Q

What are binding factors?

A

Aspects of a situation that allow an individual to ignore or minimise the damaging effect of their behaviour and thus reduce the moral strain of obeying immoral orders

4
Q

How may the agentic state explain obedience?

A

People may be more likely to obey in situations in which they feel limited personal responsibility - e.g guards for concentration camps

5
Q

What is the legitimacy of authority explanation?

A

This explanation says that we live in hierarchal societies in which we hand over power to those at the top - we therefore are more likely to obey leaders and people at the top of society.

6
Q

How are individuals given legitimate authority?

A

Through societies agreements - trust and upbringing enables us to hand control of our behaviour to authorities.

7
Q

What possible problems can arise from handing over authority to individuals?

A

Charismatic and powerful leaders can use their power for destructive purposes.

8
Q

What are the evaluation points for the social-psychological explanations of obedience?

A

+ There is research support for the agentic state explanation - students shown a film of Milgram’s study placed the blame with the experimenter not teacher
- The agentic state explanation is limited - not everybody shifts to an agentic state all live in same situations, surely all should? Partial explanation
+ LoA accounts for cultural differences - Aus more likely to obey than Get. - due to diff lvls of acceptance of authority
- Provides an obedience alibi