Outline two explanations for obedience 6 marks

One explanation for obedience is an agentic state. This explanation claims that a person obeys when they are in such a state, this state is characterised by the person viewing themselves as not responsible for their actions as they have passed responsibility onto the person, they perceive to have legitimate authority. When they are in this state, they are an “agent” of another person. The opposite of this state is known as an autonomous state, where the person takes personal responsibility for their actions. When a person changes state from autonomous to agentic this is known as an agentic shift, once this shift has taken place the person will obey blindly. Another explanation for obedience is the authoritarian personality. Adorno believed that people obey because of their personalities. He believed that those who are most likely to obey have what he called authoritarian personalities. These are people who have extreme respect for authority and who treat those beneath them with contempt. Adorno claimed that this personality was caused by strict parenting which enforced high standards of discipline. Since the child cannot show the resentment they feel towards their parents due to fear of reprisals, they displace this resentment onto those below them. Meaning they will always obey authority due to fear of reprisals and expect those below them in social status to show the same respect to them.