psy Article: Obey at Any Cost? Essay

1. The researcher in this experiment was psychologist, Stanley Milgram. The study took place at Yale University in the year 1963. The researcher’s hypothesis was that if there is a demanding authoritive figure, then the other person will obey that authoritive figure just because of their position, even if it violates their morality and their ethical beliefs. He based this of his theory that people who would never hurt someone purposely, would if told to do so by a figure of authority.

When Mrs. Brant started with the experiment she had no problem with it at first. After starting to hear the learner's sounds of agony, she turned to the experimenter questioning him if she should continue; the experimenter without hesitation commanded her to do so. A second later she asked him again, then remarking firmly. She discussed with the experimenter about the learner's medical condition. In this particular case the learner has heart problems. The experimenter explained to Mrs. Brant that the shocks may be painful but they are not dangerous and again asked her to continue with the experiment. At that point she was not willing to ask the experimenter to stop anymore; she then wanted to ask the learner himself. She told the experimenter that she would continue only if the learner wished to. The experimenter once again told her she had no choice and that she was obligated to continue. She then refused to go further and the experiment was terminated.

The study was set up as a "blind experiment" to capture if and when a person will stop inflicting pain on another as they are explicitly commanded to continue. The participants of this experiment included two willing individuals: a teacher and a learner. The teacher being the real subject and the learner is merely an actor. Both were told that they would be involved in a study that tests the effects of punishment on

With each wrong answer came an electric shock that the teacher, a random male participant, had to physically cause. The teacher could hear the learner after a while begging to stop. At this point the teachers causing the pain are obviously uncomfortable. Some start by laughing nervously and other just immediately beg to stop the experiment. At this point the experimenter gives a series of orders to push the teacher to continue. As a result, two-thirds of participants carried on shocking the learner to the highest level of four hundred and fifty volts. All the participants involved continued up to three hundred

One of the most controversial studies in the history of psychology is Stanley Milgram’s Obedience experiment, which revealed the power of obedience and the horrendous acts people would commit when faced by an authority figure. Milgram selected male participants to be part of a learning study. He got people to be either the learner or the teacher. It was fixed that they were always the teacher. The teacher would shock the learner if they would get the problem wrong. The results showed that the participants would obey if person giving orders is close by, if person giving orders is perceived as legitimate authority figure, if person giving orders is affiliated with prestigious institution, if victim is in separate room. Milgram’s experiment changed how people viewed what others would do in situations. People could see that the ones doing horrendous acts are not any different than the average person rather they are just people following order. Milgram showed that obedience is a very powerful tool and anyone can be subjected to be under the influence. Another similar experiment is the Stanford Prison experiment, which had college students acting like guards and inmates. The participants took their roles very seriously. The guards started to treat the inmates bad and started to physically abuse them. The experiment was a success in the sense it proved that people will take on these roles and abide by them but, it was alarming to

In her article, “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience”, psychologist Diana Baumrind criticizes Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience to authority, stating that not only were Milgram’s experiments unethical but so was the scientist himself, claiming that he did not take appropriate measures to properly ensure his subject’s wellbeing post-experiment and therefore, experiments such as these should not be repeated. Baumrind does address an important point in her review and that is the responsibility of psychologists to ensure that their subjects are treated fairly and ethically but this is overshadowed by the fact that Baumrind’s argument is one rooted in pathos with little evidence to support her claims while being

On arriving for the experiment they were told that they would play he role of the teacher. They were to read a series of words pairs to an individual on the opposite side of a partition. They were to test the individuals' memory by giving him a word and asking him to select the correct matching word from four alternatives. Each time the learner made an error, they were to give him/her an electric shock at the touch of a lever. The individual was strapped into an electric chair while they watched. The teachers had levers in front of them labelled from 15 to 450 volts and switches labelled from slight shock to danger: severe shock to the final ‘XXX'. They were instructed to move one lever higher on the shock generator each time the learner made an error. There were not of course any shocks.

The experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram have become one of the most controversial and most influential experiments in the world of psychology. In 1963 the Milgram experiments took place at Yale University, and tested subjects on obedience to authority. While reading Stanly Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience” the topic of authority to obedience is discussed by Milgram stating: “Obedience is one of the most basic an element in the structure of social life as one can point to” (691). Submission to authority is not a new concept, but with the Milgram experiments it has been given a new insight to Obedience to authority. Milgram was inspired to conduct the experiments because of the events before and during World War II, and the Nazi’s ability to maintain control of the Jewish people. While the experiments performed were cruel and insensitive, I agree with the conclusions Milgram gained from the experiments because people are taught to obey authority from childhood, and Ordinary people can commit immoral acts and, defiance can result in punishment.

In most cases, when the learner began to scream, the teacher would begin to refuse to continue, which is where the instructor would come in and coerce them into continuing. At first most rejected, but eventually obeyed and continued on a few more voltages. However, in every case, the teacher proclaimed they would not be held responsible for the pain inflicted on the learner, even though he was the one inflicting it. The results of the experiment was that an overwhelming amount of people continued throughout the highest voltage, resulting in an increasing obedience to the instructor.

The “teacher” (who had no clue about the experiment) was given direct orders in which he had to carry out. The “learner “gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose) and for each of these the teacher gave him an electric shock. When the teacher refused to administer a shock the experimenter was to give a series of orders / prods to ensure they continued (Milgram Experiment, Simply Psychology). Some teachers were reluctant and questioned but still went ahead and followed the orders regardless of how uncomfortable they felt, while other teachers had no qualms about the incidents

In many situations, there have been authority figures with mass followings. Often the power the leader holds over their followers can influence them to do negative things. Many people believe that they can be independent enough to resist any pressure put on them by an authoritative figure. If this was true, then why do genocides mark the pages of history books around the world? Stanley Milgram sought to answer this budding question. He used his scientific authority to conduct an experiment which would reveal that most people would succumb to authority and obey their commands. This contradicts what most people would like to believe about themselves and their morals. Although many people believe that they would never harm another human being, even under pressure from an authoritative figure, the Stanley Milgram Experiment proves that this is false. Most people would collapse under the pressure and obey any command given to them.

What the participants didn’t know was Stanley Milgram fixed the drawing, having associates who pretended to be real participants in the study. These fixed participants were always the learners. The learners were then taken into a separate room and had electrodes attached to their arms. The teacher and a researcher, played by an actor, would go to a different room that contained an electric shock generator and a row of 30 switches. The switches were marked from 15 volts (mild shock) to 450 volts (Severe shock). What Milgram was hoping to find out was how far the teachers would go in obeying instructions that involved harming another person. The “learner who was strapped to a chair is asked to learn a list of word pairs, the teacher tests the learner by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its pair from the list of four possible choices. The teacher is also told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each

Before beginning the experiment, each teacher is given a shock of 45 volts to support their belief of the generator. However, the teacher is the actual subject of the experiment and the learner is only an actor who receives no shock at all and is only there for the success of the experiment. The purpose of the experiment is not to test memory, but to see how far a person will go when being ordered to inflict increasing pain to a protesting victim.

With the utterance of “research in obedience,” Stanley Milgram is the epithet in social psychology. 56 years ago, Milgram tested the limits of a person 's ability to commit deeds that would normally be directionally challenging to their moral compass when commanded to act by an authority figure. Just 15 years after the World War II Holocaust, the Milgram experiments was a social psychology response to a topic of “particular relevance” during that time (Milgram, 1963): Were Nazi officers following orders or can they be held accountable as accomplices (as cited by McLeod, 2007)? Milgram tested this theory by “ordering a naïve subject to administer [an] electric shock to a victim.”(Milgram, 1963). The

Many war crimes and horrific historical events involve the forces of obedience especially within groups. These tragic events as time has passed have sparked curiosity in many behavioral scientists. Research through experimentation has occurred and helped explain some of the behaviors witnessed such as in the famous Milgram experiment. Stanley Milgram performed an experiment that revealed some truly baffling facts when it comes to obedience. The