Evaluation of Agency Theory

Social power theory (French and Raven, 1959) is an ALTERNATIVE EXPLANATION. It believes that people may possess different types of power in social situations which make someone more likely to obey them. There are five different types of power a person could possess: Legitimate power – held by those in certain roles; Reward power – held by those with certain resources; Coercive power – held by those who can punish another; Expert power – held by those with knowledge, and Referent power – held by those who can win people over. In Milgram’s studies the experimenter certainly had reward power, legitimate power and expert power, so could have been obeyed because of being powerful in these ways.

Gupta (1983) studied obedience in India with a procedure similar to that of Milgram. She found that 27.6% of obedient males accepted responsibility for their actions compared to 49.4…