Stanley Milgram’s famous experiment on the nature of obedience during the 1960’s has sparked both controversy and admiration in equal proportion. This report will discuss the methods involved in this, with a particular focus on a variation which resulted in 65 percent of participants complying with to electrocute another person to what they thought was a dangerous level. It will also review ethical issues and criticisms raised as a result, recent research on the topic of obedience as well as the relevancy of the experiment within psychology and society today.
Background:
One of the most renowned psychological studies of the 20th Century, the Milgram experiment delved into the subject of obedience to authority. The Nuremberg War Criminal trials
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They drew fixed lots ascertain who would be the ‘student’ and who would be the ‘teacher’ which always matched the participant as teacher and the researcher as the student. Each experiment also consisted of an “experimenter” who was also an actor and was dressed always dressed in lab coat.
The participants were then shown to a shock generator, which consisted of varying levels of intensity starting at 30 volts and gradually increasing by 15-volts through to 450 volts. The switches were labeled from ‘slight shock’ to ‘moderate shock’ to ‘danger: severe shock’ with the final switches labeled simply ‘XXX’.
The student was then strapped in a chair with the electrodes attached to them, which the participant witnessed, before leaving the room to administer the test in the next door. Often the student would advise the experimenter of a heart problem prior to the test beginning.
Under the supervision of the experimenter, the student had to answer a series of questions. For any incorrect answer they would receive a shock administered by the ‘teacher’ which increased in intensity the more questions answered incorrectly. The participants all believed they were genuinely delivering these shocks to the other person. In reality they were merely pretending to be in pain throughout the duration of the
distinguish between right and wrong conduct. Simply identify what the essay will discuss i.e your experiment etc. Stanley Milgram, a social psychologist, conducted series of experiments on the effect of obedience, researching to what degree people would obey higher authority figures and participate in unethical conduct, regardless of the consequences. relationship between obedience to authority and personal conscience in 1963. Milgram wanted to understand what caused the ordinary German officers/soldiers
Almost five decades later, Stanley Milgrams famous study of obedience to authority is by far one of the most known and talked about psychological experiments of the twentieth century. Milgram’s ground-breaking research showed participants a side of them that not only shocked them but also brought the world of psychology to a standstill. Milgram’s renowned study where he asked several participants to administer voltage shocks to ‘learners’ behind a screen was one of the most famous research studies
Research Article: Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiment. Explain the importance of ethics in research. In the psychological field, ethics are important standards put in place to ensure that all involved participants are properly informed and give their consent. All psychologists are required to abide by the “American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct” (APA, 2017). In research and other psychological studies, the standards are put in place to
The experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram in 1963 focused on the conflict involving obedience to authority and ones personal conscious. Milgrams experiment was to discover whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures during the Nazi killings in WWII. The aim of this experiment was to see how far the participants were willing to go in obeying a demand if it involved harming another person. There were 40 male participants aged 25-50. The participants drew straws to determine their
When people mention the Stanley Milgram experiments, they are really only referring to one in particular. Although one of his most famous studies, the obedience experiments are also one of his most controversial as well. "The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act." –Stanley Milgram, 1974 Nearing the completion of his undergraduate degree at Queens
early stage of their life they are trained to follow orders from an authority figure. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Milgram was trying to show that people are more likely to obey orders when it comes from a higher authority figure even when it involves many immoral acts. The experiment involve a teacher who will give electric shock to a learner when he gives wrong answer
Stanley Milgram’s experiments have become some of the most well know experiments with obedience. In the 1960s Milgram set up an experiment to test obedience in a situation where following directions would cause pain to another person. In the study an actor pretended to be shocked by the participant. The participants were told when to administer these shocks by a person of authority, or in this case a man in a white lab coat. People would administer the shock even if it was set to fatal levels all
Purpose/Objectives of Study A Yale University psychologist named Stanley Milgram started a research experiment that investigated the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience (McLeod, 2007). This study was conducted in response to the Nuremburg Trials in Germany, as German officials had claimed they were just following orders that were given to them by their superiors. Milgram formulated the experiment so that it could answer the question: “Could it be that Eichmann and his
Stanley Milgram was a psychology professor at Yale University, a prestigious school in Connecticut. He was interested in why so many German people in the 1930s and 1940s had followed instructions which involved causing pain or killing innocent human beings. His experiment on obedience to authority figures was a series of social psychology experiments that measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal
Stanley Milgram’s experiment in the 1960’s focused on the obedience of people from a higher authority. Milgram was influenced by the Holocaust, but was interested more in the trial of Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was a German Nazi, whose job was to deport Jews to ghettos and extermination camps during World War II. He was captured in 1960 and charged with facilitating and managing deportation of Jews. His trial was widely publicized in Israel, where he told his story and that the only reason he proceed
Last class we spoke about The Stanley Milgam Experiments, The Stanford Prison Experiments and The Asch Conformity Experiments. We discussed authority and what that does to people in vulnerable or difficult scenarios. This class forced me to question how I’ve been throughout my life during traumatic events and how I’ll act in the future, should these situations arise. In the Milgram experiment there was a 'teacher' assigned and a 'student' assigned. The 'teacher' cannot see their 'student' but
In 1963, Stanley Milgram, a Yale University psychologist, conducted a series of experiments known as the Milgram Experiments. These experiments were used to determine if people are governed by their own free will or a mindless obedience to what they consider to be authority. Milgram believed that the acts that occurred during WWII, mainly the near-genocide committed by the Germans, wasn’t free-will, but a mere following of orders. When this experiments were conducted, you required two subjects, one
to all this question can be answered through Stanley Milgram’s experiment on obedience and other social studies about conforming nature of human. Therefore, the effectiveness of knowing the social psychology of human can explain why world war II came to be. Summary of, Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority :Stanley Milgram’s essay, Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority (1965), is based on the OTA experiments,
In this essay, the ethics of psychological studies carried out in the past will be reviewed. In the current contemporary environment many psychological studies are now seen as being unethical by many psychologists. Both theory and information relating to the psychology studies will be addressed. This essay will also outline the ethical responsibilities of the psychologists carrying out psychological research studies. The two psychological studies that would not be considered ethical today that will
In Stanley Milgram’s essay, “Perils of Disobedience”, an experiment was conducted to test an individual’s obedience from authority when conflicting with morally incorrect orders. Following the conclusion of World War Two, Milgram’s essay was published in Harper’s Magazine, which appeals to a national audience and yields an array of content from different contextual backgrounds. As Milgram reports the results of his experiment, he provides descriptive details of many of the subjects and their behaviors