Milgram experiment, Asch experiment, and Zimbos prison experiment

After viewing both Milgram’s experiment and the Stanford Prison experiment, I can say that I was disappointed - but not surprised - by the results of each study. Throughout history the rise of one individual’s power has altered the course of entire cultures - Hitler, Stalin, and the Kim Jongs being obvious examples of this. Another story detailing the dangers of such stratified social hierarchy and thirst for power is Lord of the Flies. Though gruesome, this book proves how one person’s quest for ultimate authority can lead to the downfall of the entire group. While subjects in Milgram’s experiment seemed more apprehensive towards carrying out their “duties,” it was disheartening to see most of them buckle under the false sense of authority. I believe the average citizen would tell themselves they weren't capable of going along with such atrocities, but this experiment just goes to prove how toxic unquestioned authority can be. When we perceive an individual to hold supreme power over ourselves, we allow their teachings to grip our moral compass in a stranglehold, preventing us from acting in a civilized, rational manner. This is especially apparent in the Prison Stanford experiment. Even though all members of the study knew it was just that - no more than a sociological experiment - they quickly fell down the slippery slope that is group conformity. This demonstrates the Thomas Theorem extraordinarily well - the prisoners thought they were less than the guards, so they

The Milgram experiment was conducted in 1963 by Stanley Milgram in order to focus on the conflict between obedience to authority and to personal conscience. The experiment consisted of 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, and who’s jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. The roles of this experiment included a learner, teacher, and researcher. The participant was deemed the teacher and was in the same room as the researcher. The learner, who was also a paid actor, was put into the next room and strapped into an electric chair. The teacher administered a test to the learner, and for each question that was incorrect, the learner was to receive an electric shock by the teacher, increasing the level of shock each time. The shock generator ranged from

Ethical guidelines are the frameworks and standards that govern psychologists in conducting a morally justified research to respect the rights of the participants. Since the researchers are responsible for the welfare of the participants, it is vital for them to act in accordance with a specific strict code of ethics and moral principles. One of the common ethical framework used in many psychological studies is IVCARD where ‘I’ stands for Informed Consent, ‘V’ equals Voluntary Participation, ‘C’ is Confidentiality, ‘A’ being Accurate Reporting, ‘R’ is Right To Withdraw and ‘D’ as Do No Harm. Although there are few disadvantages of these strict ethical guidelines, the advantages outweigh them. This is evident from two of the

Philip Zimbardo ended the experiment on the grounds that the behavior of the guards was escalating to a point where it was ethically wrong to treat a person this way, as well as the way the guards broke so many of the initial rules (Zimbardo). The guards misused their power by using it to humiliate and abuse the prisoners. Because of the way this experiment was cut short, data was limited, but this does not mean that what was collected is not useful or helpful. The audio, video, and rating scales of the individuals’ moods were all collected and compiled as the experiment progressed. The data recorded showed that guards and prisoners adjusted easily to their given roles, treating the situation very seriously and realistically. One of the men, Dave Eshelman, who was placed as a guard was interviewed about his time in the prison. In this quote he talks about taking up the role of a guard, and how it affected his mind and the experiment personally:

As dozens of participants seen and experience some of the abuse and its effects and said nothing as Zimbardo stated (Zimbardo, p. 130). If one of his colleagues hadn’t been dropped by and saw what was happening the experiment would have continued and many people would have lost their mind (Zimbardo, p. 131). The experiments consist of 24 participants, the volunteers were randomly delegated to play the role of prisoner or guard in a setting made to take a sense of the psychology of imprisonment. Zimbardo infused dramatic realism in the study. The “prisoners” were given identity numbers, stripped naked and saturated. While the guards had to wear that looks similar to a prison guard. (Zimbardo, p. 129). Ethics committees at universities have put an end to these types of an experiment for the reason of potential danger to participants (Zimbardo, p.

In Stanley Milgram’s experiment, “The Perils of Obedience,” one person signed up to aid in a study of learning and memory; this person was the “teacher.” This person did not know the other person accompanying him in the study is an actor. This person was a “teacher” in the study, and the actor was the “learner;” there was another actor, the “experimenter,” who was the authority

In the summer of 1971 at Stanford University psychologist Phillip Zimbardo conducted a behavioral experiment meant to simulate a prison. This experiment was supposed to study the behaviors both guards and prisoners go through by using student volunteers to play the parts. This experiment, conducted in the basement of a Stanford University building, began to take on a life of its own and has since gone down in infamy. This paper will look into the person responsible for this experiment, how it was conducted and the outcome of the infamous study.

where they had a man under cover and asked him questions. If he got the answer wrong he was

Chapter 2- Obscura Obscura talks about Stanley Milgram and his experiments on obedience to authority. The purpose of this experiment was to study how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person. He was interested in how ordinary people could be easily influenced into committing atrocities, like the Germans in World War II. Milligram selected subjects for his experiments through newspaper advertising for male participants to take part in his study. At the beginning of the experiment the subjects were introduce to another participant, who was actually a part of Milgram’s team.

10 of them were selected to play the role of prisoners and 11 were selected as guards and the remaining two were placed on standby. The participants who played the role of prisons were treated like real criminals and was arrested at their homes, then taken to the police station to be fingerprinted, have their mugshots taken and after they were escorted to the mocked prison which was located in the basement of the psychology department of Stanford University. Upon arrive at the facility the prisoners clothes and personal belonging were taken away from them, then deloused and they were given uniform that resemble a smock and they were referred to as numbers as opposed to their names. They had no underwear but were provided with caps to cover their hair and had a chain around their ankles. The guards wore khaki uniforms and black sunglasses to avoid eye contact with the prisoners, the guards were left in charge of the prison and were instructed to enforce law and order by any means necessary bar physical punishment.

In 1961 The NSF, National Science Foundation, approved his proposal for his experiment. In the same year Milgram met his future wife Alexandra Menkin, who was both a social worker and a dancer. After being approved Milgram started his experiment in May of 1962, which was called the Milgram Experiment or the Milgram Obedience Experiment. The background of this experiment was inspired by the Jewish men, women and children who were victimized during the Holocaust. His overall question was would people do harm to others if they were told by someone of higher power or intellect to do it. The experiment included 40 male participants as the teachers. The experiment was set up in which there would be a teacher, normally the participant, and a learner, which was shown to be somebody but really was someone working with Milgram. Both participants were told that they were doing research to prove recent psychologist theories that a person learns things correctly when they are punished for making a mistake. Both the teacher and the learner are given a list of terms and words to associate with the terms. The teacher

The Stanley Milgram Experiment This experiment by Stanley Milgram was about obedience. He wanted to express the conflict between obedience and authority. He put an ad in the newspaper for male participants to take part in a study for learning at Yale. The experiment was that the participant was paired with another person and they drew straws to find out who would be the “teacher” and who would be the “learner”, but it was fixed so that the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was someone that Milgram worked with, who was only pretending to be a real participant.

Stanley Milgram conducted one of the most controversial psychological experiments of all time: the Milgram Experiment. Milgram was born in a New York hospital to parents that immigrated from Germany. The Holocaust sparked his interest for most of his young life because as he stated, he should have been born into a “German-speaking Jewish community” and “died in a gas chamber.” Milgram soon realized that the only way the “inhumane policies” of the Holocaust could occur, was if a large amount of people “obeyed orders” (Romm, 2015). This influenced the hypothesis of the experiment. How much pain would someone be willing to inflict on another just because an authority figure urged them to do so? The experiment involved a teacher who would ask questions to a concealed learner and a shock system. If the learner answered incorrectly, he would receive a shock. Milgram conducted the experiment many times over the course of 2 years, but the most well-known trial included 65% of participants who were willing to continue until they reached the fatal shock of 450 volts (Romm, 2015). The results of his experiment were so shocking that many people called Milgram’s experiment “unethical.”

The Milgram experiment is probably one of the most well-known experiments of the psy-sciences. (De Vos, J. (2009). Stanley Milgram was a psychologist from Yale University. He conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram wanted to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures as this was a common explanation for the Nazi killings in World War II. Milgram selected people for his experiment by newspaper advertising. He looked for male participants to take part in a study of learning at Yale University.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was designed to allow 24 participants (college students) to be arrested in a mock police state scenario without any charges being brought against them. The participants were hooded and put into a prison cellblock with other mock prisoners. The purpose of the experiment was to see how non-criminals would be affected by the prison culture and the oversight of prison guards. Philip G. Zimbardo (2004)