¶ … horrors of war have been discussed by researchers and historians for decades. Ever since the first and second world wars, people have wondered how others could commit the acts they did for as long as they did. The Nazis for example, did atrocious things to the Jewish people and continued to do so until the end of World War II. The selected study, the Milgram Experiment or the Milgram Obedience Study, demonstrates how people could commit such heinous acts merely on the basis of obeying an authority figure. That is to say, roughly 65% of people are prone to obeying orders from an authority figure regardless of what personality traits they have and perform any act asked of them. The Milgram Experiment examined why people obeyed authority figures. It was a series of social psychology experiments involving painfully shocking participants for getting wrong answers. The study was conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram. While participants administering the shocks believed they were testing someone, in reality, the study focused on them, showing whether or not these demands placed on them would be followed or not. The range of participants were diverse and came from a variety of occupations and had varying levels of education. Although a few of the participants did not obey because they found shocking a human being for more than 150 volts was inhumane, 65% of them did indeed...
Although some stuttered, sweated, bit their lips, and protested, they did the last part of the study demonstrating that people can perform what would be considered evil acts if under the role of subordinate. The study reveals people are predisposed to a certain level of obedience and will obey anyone they perceive as an authoritative figure. Not all the participants obeyed, but considering the situations people are placed in, for example Nazis in Germany, perhaps more than 65% would have committed these kinds of acts, merely to avoid punishment themselves and/or more willingness to obey a higher authority figure.
However, it has some very valid aspects that make it a good research tool. First, it is up to the minute. The Milgram Experiment page was last edited on March 17, only a little more than a week ago, and often the most immediate current events are already on the site when the researcher goes to look for them. Thus, it is much more up-to-date than any comparable print
My Lai Massacre The Milgram Experiment, Philip Zimbardo, and Understanding the My Lai Massacre In the twentieth century the United States military was engaged in numerous wars and the U.S. government depicted these wars as forces of good, freedom, and morality (Americans) fighting against forces of evil, tyranny, and barbarism (America's enemies). The realities of American military behavior in these wars, however, did not always justify such a simplistic characterization. American troops
Stanley Milgram on Obedience Legitimacy and Proximity: Social Influences that Determines and Generates Obedience in Stanley Milgram's Obedience Study (Behavioral Study of Obedience, 1963) For many years, psychology, as one of the main branches of social science, has tried to discern and understand human behavior and its relation to the society through empirical observation and experimentation. Social scientists, under the philosophy, methods, and principles of psychology, tried to understand human mind, particularly
Ethical Responsibility There are several ethical responsibilities that psychologists need to consider when conducting a research with adult human participants. The first is to follow APA (American Psychological Association) ethics standards for rights of the participants (Zechmeister, n.d., p. 53). Second, the researchers must conduct a risk-benefit analysis before carrying out the study. Third, the researchers must take informed consent of the participant, which is the critical ethical responsibility in
He also feels as though authority is contextual in that it is something people learn to respect and wield differently in different environments and social realities (Burger, 2009). This is to say that the Milgram studies were snapshots of a very specific culture and time period, as Blass suggests, and that they may not represent the ultimate knowledge of the concepts of obedience and authority as many researchers and
Conformity and Obedience BEYOND CONSCIOUS AWARENESS Influences of Conformity and Obedience The Concepts of Conformity and Obedience Compared Obedience is a form of social influence in which a person of authority makes a direct command to someone to perform something (McLeod, 2007). It involves changing one's behavior according to the commands of authority (Brehm, Kassin & Fein, 1999 as qtd in Southerly, 2012). Conformity is another form of social influence brought about by social
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