Essay
Explain 2 explanations of obedience
- Module
- Social Influence
- Institution
- AQA
An essay of why people obey from social influence chapter 1, 1st year of A level psychology. This was graded 14/16.
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Ellie Mitchell RevisionReadyUKOutline and evaluate 2 explanations for obedience (16 marks)
There are 2 explanations into obedience, agentic state band
legitimacy to authority.
When people are in the agentic state they want to seem good by
following rules to impress people. These people think they are not
responsible for their actions because they obey to an authority figure
who seems to know what they are doing. Milgrim referred to this
process of shifting responsibility for one’s actions onto someone else
as an agentic shift. The agentic shift involves moving from an
autonomous state (where they see themselves viable for their
actions) to the agentic state, where they see themselves carry out
someone else’s wishes. In Milgrim’s study, when participants were
interviewed after and asked why they carried on the electric shocks
the most common reply was “I wouldn’t have done it myself, I was
just doing what I was told to”. The participants feel responsible to
the authority figure but however take no responsibility over their
actions. Self-image plays a crucial role in describing why people obey
to an authority figure, even if internally they know it isn’t right
(adopting an agentic state). Wanting to maintain a positive self-
image, tempted to do what was requested, such as shocking the
learner. The participant may asses their consequences of this action
for their self-image and refrain. Furthermore, once the participant is
in the agentic state this consequence evaluation becomes no longer
a concern, as this is no longer their responsibility and doesn’t reflect
their self-image. Any action performed under the agentic state are
from the participants perspective and virtually guilt free, however
inhumane they may be. A way of keeping someone in the agentic
state is binding factors, in all social situations and experiments, social
etiquette plays a part In regulating our behaviour. In order to break
off the experiment, a participant must breach the commitment that
they gave to the experimenter. Leading to the participant fearing to
break away from the experiment, thinking he will appear
arrogant/rude and wont take their decision lightly. These emotions,
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