Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study

“The Perils of Obedience” was written by Stanley Milgram in 1974. In the essay he describes his experiments on obedience to authority. I feel as though this is a great psychology essay and will be used in psychology 101 classes for generations to come. The essay describes how people are willing to do almost anything that they are told no matter how immoral the action is or how much pain it may cause.

I am now going to talk about what factors would make obedience more likely. First it all started with a man named Milgram. Milgram wanted to see how far people would go and what they would do. He conducted an electric shock experiment.

From the beginning, society teaches us to respect and obey all rules given to us by authoritative figures. Through the schooling process, teachers reinforce this idea by giving students orders and expecting them to listen without question. We 've learned that disobedience connotes with “being bad” when this is not necessarily the case. Many adults today still carry these teaching into their adulthood. It is no wonder why leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin easily manipulated the minds of masses for their own personal and political agenda. Still, many questions still remain prevalent as to how an individual reaches his or her decision on obedience in a distressing environment. Inspired by Nazi trials, Stanley Milgram, an American psychologist, questions the social norm in “Perils of Obedience” (1964), where he conducted a study to test how far the average American was willing to for under the pressures of an authority figure. Milgram 's study showed that under the orders of an authoritative figure, 64% of average Americans had the capability of projecting voluntary harm on another person. Nonetheless, Diana Baumrind, an American developmental psychologist, argues in “Some Thoughts on Ethics of Research: After Reading Stanley Milgram’s Behavioral Study of Obedience” (1964), that the experiment conducted by Milgram was unethical, leaving the subjects distressed and emotionally vulnerable. Baumrind states that the subjects were inclined to follow orders due to the

The manners in which people tend to respond to and obey authority were explored by Milgram; in order to study the effects of authority on the levels of obedience observed wherein subjects were instructed to direct an electroshock with varying degrees, only to find the majority of subjects continued to obey the authority even at high levels of voltage shocks. From his tests, Milgram extracted some factors that could increase or decrease the levels of obedience observed. Some of which include, the physical proximity of the authority to the participant, the proximity of the victim from the participant and whether the co-participants are willing to obey.

Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, tested destructive obedience by conducting a very famous experiment. Forty males between the ages of twenty and fifty were asked to participate in a study of memory and learning. The participated in the experiment were divded into two groups, the teachers and the learner, the role of the teachers were to administer electric shocks to the learners. The participants of the experiment were not awear of the really reasons the study is being done. Also the teachers unaware that the learner wasn’t getting shocked, a recored scream played each time the teacher pressed the botten for the learner to get shocked. The teachers in the experiment were watched to see how many times they would shock the

cars. Without this obedience there would be no order or consistency on the road leading to many problems. Another type of appropriate obedience would be in war, soldiers must obey their authority figures creating structure. This structure allows armies to work as one in order to accomplish whatever necessary. If this structure did not exist, soldiers would act freely which would lead to them being killed and other life threatening problems. However, there are instances when obedience can be inappropriate. Blind obedience is one example of this inappropriate obedience that occurs when individuals obey without contemplating their actions. Blindly obeying orders from an authority figure can lead to disturbing behaviour, which was illustrated in

Why did Milgram decide to study this topic? What was the motivating factor/event that inspired Milgram to research obedience?

Milgram’s Obedience Experiment has influenced and inspired many experiments in the decades following the original study done in 1962. Moral psychologists, social psychologists, and sociologists have considered how different characteristics affect how the individual responds to authority: Does a group setting make a difference? Are certain personality traits an indicator of rebellion? Will the type of authority influence the willingness of a participant to obey? These questions have been explored through various studies. However, many experimenters are trying to uncover the circumstances under which a participant will perform immoral

Obedience plays a vital role in everyday life; it is an expectation for people to obey authority, obedience is entrenched in most cultures and it is a part of the society. People exercise their authority through issuing orders or command to people in less authority. For example, in the homes; parents expect obedience from their children, in schools; students are expected to obey their teachers, same is expected in religions, workplace. In the work place a boss will command an employee to carry out an order or face being dismissed, the boss is utilizing his/her position to force the employee to act against his/her wish.

In social psychology, these psychologists have an obligation to use their research skills to advance our knowledge of human behaviour, for the ultimate aim of human betterment. Milgram’s study into obedience involved participants becoming a

In this essay I am going to write on how obedience can affect individuals on how they would normally behave and integrate in society. The meaning of Obedience is a form of social influence where an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually an authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. (McLeod, 2007)

According to the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology, obedience is a form of influence in which a person yields to instructions or orders from a person of authority. There have been many studies completed on what causes obedience and the dynamics. The most famous of these experiments could possibly be the Milgram Obedience Experiments.This may be one of the most controversial papers due to lack of ethics and the results from this study. In this paper, we will go over the basis of the study and its completed results.

Stanley Milgram wanted to test subject’s readiness to obey authority without question, no matter what inhumane acts the authority commands. The subjects in the study were gathered by a newspaper advertisement that requested volunteers for an experiment to study the effect of punishment on learning, if chosen they would be compensated $4.50 for their participation. Forty males between the ages of 25 and 50 were selected with varying occupations and education levels. The experiment was conducted in the interaction laboratory at Yale University. The role of the experimenter was played by a 31 year old high school biology teacher who wore a gray technician’s coat and was aware of the true objective of the study. One naïve subject and one victim, an accomplice, performed in each experiment. The cover story, the effect of punishment on learning, was used to justify the administration of electric shock by the naïve subject. The naïve subjects were told that the experiment was going to test the effect different people have on each other as teachers and learners, and what effect punishment will have on learning in the controlled situation. The experimenter had the participants draw slips out of a hat to decide if they were going to be designated as a teacher or as a learner. This drawing was engineered so that a naïve subject was always the teacher and an accomplice was always the learner. Immediately after the drawing, the teacher and

You have to make choices whether to follow the rules of not. To be obedient means to comply with an order, request, or submission to another’s authority. This authority has the power to make an individual obey in ways that go against their personal and moral values. Because of this the authority can make individuals commit terrible acts without question. An example of this can be the abhorrent and inhumane acts carried out by German soldiers in WWII. All the German troops’ orders were from one single individual, Adolf Hitler. Why is it that man is so prone to obey and why is it hard for him to contravene? The reason for man’s obedience is a mixture of social influences, authority figures, and their own self conscience.

Growing up as the youngest child of three, my parents always gave me much leeway. They never really disciplined me in ways my friend’s parents have disciplined my friend. They taught me right from wrong through a reward system. If I obeyed, they rewarded me in the form of toys. If I disobeyed, they scolded me. After many cycles of repetition, many children, including myself, realize that we are expected to be obedient in society. Not only is it a learned trait, but it also an inherent trait in certain circumstances. As I grew up, I learned that obedience helps us fit into society. Obedience convinces people to feel as if they are a part of an institution larger than themselves. This larger institution protects them from harm. Even though obedience has been helpful in numerous situations for many people, too much obedience has more drawbacks than benefits. An abundance of obedience can lend itself to becoming blind obedience, thus, stopping humans from thinking for themselves and just blindly obeying any order. Historically, blind obedience has been the root of numerous atrocities and serves as a reminder that obedience can lead to humanity’s downfall. Themes of obedience are studied in many articles and experiments. Two prominent examples, Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist, and Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst, both wrote about their beliefs as to why humans are so prone to obey. The nature of human obedience derives its potency from consistent habituating, protection, and