What is agency theory?
1 Answer
Agency theory (Milgram) states that a person can either be in an autonomous state or agentic state if they are faced with a situation which consists of destructive obedience.
Explanation:
Agentic state is where people do not take responsibility for their actions. Instead, they place the responsibility on the authority figure. For eg. "I shocked Mr. X because the experimenter asked me to do so..". Here, they carry out a demand from an authority figure, or someone they perceive to have authority, but do not take responsibility for the consequences.
However, the autonomous state is when a person does take responsibility for their actions. This is the opposite of the agentic state.
A good article to refer to is: caggie-harvey.over-blog.com/article-agency-theory-as-an-explanation-of-human-obedience-77020856.html
