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How To Evaluate Milgram's Theory Of Obedience

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In 1963, Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, carried out an experiment into the obedience of seemingly normal Germans to Nazi authority during the Holocaust. He hoped to examine whether Americans would obey the instructions of authority, even if doing so contradicted their moral beliefs. A newspaper advertisement billed the experiment as a study into memory, calling for ordinary males from various professions. At the start of the experiment, each participant was introduced to, what they believed to be, another participant (he was in fact a confederate of Milgram). They drew straws to determine their role as either the 'teacher ' or 'learner ', although this was fixed to ensure the real participant was always the 'teacher '. …show more content…

Regardless of these morally jarring responses, 65% of participants continued to 450 volts, and all participants continued to 300 volts. The results of this study suggest that ordinary people are very likely to obey orders given by authority figures, even to the extreme of killing another person, if they see such authority as legally or morally based. Although this study proved to be massively influential in terms of human behaviour, the way in which it was conducted has been criticised. One of the main criticisms is the environment of the experiment. The study took place in a laboratory setting and this may have been reflecting in participants ' responses. It could be argued that this scenario is highly artificial and unlike real life, therefore the experiment may lack ecological validity. This brings into question whether similar observations would be made should this study be undertaken in the field. In addition, some psychologists have suggested that Milgram 's method lacked 'experimental realism ': participant might have realised the experiment was not real and that the 'learner ' was not being electrocuted. This could lower participants ' reluctance to inflict suffering - they knew no harm could be done - thus, potentially,

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In conclusion, I believe the way Slater presents her evidence is very convincing. She makes it a point to explain all of the controversial points that surround Stanley Milgram and his experiments. While we might not agree on all of her points, we both share the thought that Milgram and his experiments have affected positively despite the issues of its purpose, results, usefulness, and morality shroud the experiments in

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1043 Words | 5 Pages

This Milgram research on respect to authority figures was a series of cultural science experiments conducted by Yale University scientist Stanley Milgram in 1961. They assessed the willingness of survey participants, men from a different variety of jobs with varying degrees of training, to obey the authority figure who taught them to do acts conflicting with their personal conscience. Participants were led to think that they were helping an unrelated research, in which they had to distribute electrical shocks to the individual. These fake electrical shocks gradually increased to grades that could have been deadly had they been true. McLeod's article about the Milgram experiment exposed the fact that a high percentage of ordinary people will

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The Milgram experiment was an experiment that tested an individual's willingness to follow the instructions of an authority figure. Subjects were told to shock a person, who they believed to also be a subject, if they answered a question wrong. The people getting shocked were actors and were not actually receiving electrical shocks. Many of the subjects continued to give high voltage shocks because they were told to. This proves that in high-stress situations people are willingly listen to authority figures despite what the say to do.

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During the 1960’s Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to test how a person reacts to authority. He started these tests in response to World War Two and the reports of the German soldiers who claimed they were “just following orders’ when asked about

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Deception from a moral viewpoint would be something that is seen as wrong, but in a study or experiment for research I think deception is something that is necessary to gain certain knowledge that we wouldn 't be able to gain using regular methods. Usually, the ends justify the means to a deceptive experiments and they usually have good intentions behind them. Many people may be angry after the experiment is over but it is shown that people enjoy an experiment with deception more than an experiment without deception; and people also benefit from them more, educationally. I believe deception is a necessary tool for learning about human behavior and human reaction. Deceptive experiments are experiments that really make you think when the experiment

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Like Psychologist Diana Baumrind did so in her article “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments”. Where she makes it very clear that she disagrees with causing individuals stress and discomfort. In her article, Baumrind states “It is potentially harmful to a subject to commit, on the course of an experiment, acts which he himself considers unworthy, particularly when he has been entrapped into committing such acts by an individual he has reason to trust” which in this case the trustworthy individual would be Stanley Milgram. Baumrind also worried about the dangers of the serious aftereffects that may ensure because of the stress and discomfort Stanley Milgram’s experiment has caused. Even though Stanley Milgram states that “After the interview, procedures were undertaken to assure that the subject would leave the laboratory in a state of well-being.”

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Throughout middle school and my first 2 years in high school, I’ve gotten mainly As in my classes with an occasional B here and there. So in my junior year of high school, when I heard that I can take more than 1 AP course, I immediately wanted to challenge myself. I registered for 4 AP courses along with orchestra, and spanish on top of my extracurriculars. “Are you trying to kill yourself?” is what all my friends asked when I told them about my plan.

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Conformity and group mentality are major aspects of social influence that have governed some of the most notorious events and experiments in history. The Holocaust is a shocking example of group mentality, or groupthink, which states that all members of the group must support the group’s decisions strongly, and all evidence leading to the contrary must be ignored. Social norms are an example of conformity on a smaller scale, such as tipping your waiter or waitress, saying please and thank you, and getting a job and becoming a productive member of society. Our society hinges on an individual’s inherent need to belong and focuses on manipulating that need in order to create compliant members of society by using the ‘majority rules’ concept. This

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The obedience experiments of Stanley Milgram can tell sociologists about the human tendency to obey immoral orders. This explains how atrocities, such as the Holocaust, come about and augment to the extent that they do. Furthermore, the Milgram experiment can be connected to how anti-authoritarianism is viewed as a detriment or sickness in the United States, as well as how people in the United States can actually be more prone to obey illegitimate authority than those who already reside in oppressive, authoritarian countries. Milgram aimed to prove the common belief that the cause of acts of atrocity is not necessarily because those perpetrators are innately unprincipled but that these historical tragedies are more so the result of following

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(Russell 2014) Conclusion: Despite controversy Milgram’s experiment was ground breaking. It remains relevant today and is frequently cited in demonstrating the perils of obedience.

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As a society, people who hard to say “NO” and have to obedience to the authority because of the status, public response and consistence. By persuaded to change one’s attitudes; for example, at home, school and work that people should obey with different one’s requests in every situation. In Gibson and Haritos-Fatouros (1986) research, the procedures used the foot-in-the-door phenomena try to persuade and indoctrinate Greek military police to invade their mind. Based on continuous training, no matter what the order is good or bad the police mind become reasonable since they have a strong, clear and extreme attitudes The police need to listen to the leader and follow their order. Due to Milgram’s Obedience experiments, when people need to obey

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810 Words | 4 Pages

"Obedience is behavior that complies with the explicit demands of the individual in authority." (King, 448) If a store manager tells you to put a shirt on before entering the store, you're more than likely going to comply due to their request due to their authority over the store. You might fear that if you do not comply, you won't be permitted inside or even police being called. That is simple obedience, but what if an authority figure asked you to inflict pain on another person?

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An infamous experiment on obedience to authority by Stanley Milgram’s (1963) has brought a lot of speculations and arguments in both fields of psychology and ethics. Even after decades, the experiment remains controversial to me. It is one of those fascinating studies that has caught my interest. Although it was quite unethical and very deceptive in nature, its findings had brought “disturbing” awareness to us, people. It was disturbing in a sense that most us did not expect to obtain such results but nevertheless, it certainly gave us something to ponder upon.

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The Milgram experiment was conducted to analyze obedience to authority figures. The experiment was conducted on men from varying ages and varying levels of education. The participants were told that they would be teaching other participants to memorize a pair of words. They believed that this was an experiment that was being conducted to measure the effect that punishment has on learning, because of this they were told they had to electric shock the learner every time that they answered a question wrong. The experiment then sought out to measure with what willingness the participants obeyed the authority figure, even when they were instructed to commit actions which they seemed uncomfortable with.

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Name : Muhammed Irshad Madonna ID : 250509 Subject : Medical Ethics Due Date : 8/01/2018 Paper : 1-The Milgram Experiment The Stanley Milgram Experiment is a famous study about obedience in psychology which has been carried out by a Psychologist at the Yale University named, Stanley Milgram. He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. In July 1961 the experiment was started for researching that how long a person can harm another person by obeying an instructor.

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