Agency theory (8mark)
Agency
. theory was proposed by Stanley Milgrim an American psychologist .This is a
theory that explains why people are obedient and why people tend to obey orders given
by authority figures. Stanley Milgrim says that every person has two mindset
autonomous state(one is responsible for their own behaviour so they feel guilt if they do
something wrong)and agenetic state(the authority figure or the person giving thorder is
responsible for one’s behaviour so one do not feel guilt in their behaviour) . salel Milgram
says that we perceive other people as authority figure based on their
rank,status,authority symbol etc eg: yale university is an example of authority
symbol .People tend to obey orders given by other ones who are above them in social
hierarchical order. people behave in their autonomous state when they are with their
peers or with people who are below them in social hierarchical order and people behave in
autonomous state when they are with people who are above them in social hierarchical
order. this theory also suggest that there is moral strain which is experienced by a person
when they have to go through two contradictory urges at the same time eg:if a authority
figure gives an order which is against our conscience we experience two contradictory
urges one to listen to our own conscience and the other to obey the authority figure
because that is the social expectation. He says that people move from autonomous state
to agentic state to remove moral strain. Moral strain can be seen as physical distress for
example shaking ,weeping and even crying. according to the study on obedience done by
milgrim he found out that people did a lot of things to remove moral strain for example
avoidance,degree of involvement,helping the learner,denial. Students and the teacher in
the study tried to make themselves believe that the shock was not painful even though it is
clearly written on the shock generator as danger,some teachers tried to help the students
by stressing the answer,some of the teacherseven tried to flick the switch of the
generator slowly thinking that it would reduce the intensity of the shock produced,some
students tried not to look at the generator and the person producing the shock this is
avoidance
Agency
. theory was proposed by Stanley Milgrim an American psychologist .This is a
theory that explains why people are obedient and why people tend to obey orders given
by authority figures. Stanley Milgrim says that every person has two mindset
autonomous state(one is responsible for their own behaviour so they feel guilt if they do
something wrong)and agenetic state(the authority figure or the person giving thorder is
responsible for one’s behaviour so one do not feel guilt in their behaviour) . salel Milgram
says that we perceive other people as authority figure based on their
rank,status,authority symbol etc eg: yale university is an example of authority
symbol .People tend to obey orders given by other ones who are above them in social
hierarchical order. people behave in their autonomous state when they are with their
peers or with people who are below them in social hierarchical order and people behave in
autonomous state when they are with people who are above them in social hierarchical
order. this theory also suggest that there is moral strain which is experienced by a person
when they have to go through two contradictory urges at the same time eg:if a authority
figure gives an order which is against our conscience we experience two contradictory
urges one to listen to our own conscience and the other to obey the authority figure
because that is the social expectation. He says that people move from autonomous state
to agentic state to remove moral strain. Moral strain can be seen as physical distress for
example shaking ,weeping and even crying. according to the study on obedience done by
milgrim he found out that people did a lot of things to remove moral strain for example
avoidance,degree of involvement,helping the learner,denial. Students and the teacher in
the study tried to make themselves believe that the shock was not painful even though it is
clearly written on the shock generator as danger,some teachers tried to help the students
by stressing the answer,some of the teacherseven tried to flick the switch of the
generator slowly thinking that it would reduce the intensity of the shock produced,some
students tried not to look at the generator and the person producing the shock this is
avoidance
