Obedience to authority is the basis for modern society. Without obedience to laws, parents and other authority figures, modern society would be unable to function. No human social organization can function without some degree of obedience to authority, as the alternative would be anarchy leading to total chaos. However, there are of course different levels of obedience ranging from a group of people following their leader, such as on a sports team, to extreme religious cults. Almost everyone will agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups (and their obedience by other groups) is desirable for the proper functioning of a society. However, the problem arises when the obedience to authority is taken to extremes. Unfortunately, history has shown that this happens time and again, usually with undesirable results. Being observed over the past few decades, the perils of blind obedience and its apparent role in destructive courses of action adhered to by people at the behest of authority figures has been acknowledged as in the case of Holocaust genocide and torture patterns in Abu Gharib. This destructive obedience acceded to, encompasses conformity as well as groupthink, which have been regarded as injurious for the societal dynamics. Moreover, the study of blind obedience and its manner of operation has become an important aspect of analysis because nowadays instead of encouraging individual growth, the blind obedience to authority figures can lead to an unhealthy social interrelation, be it educational milieu (schools and colleges), workplace environment or any other social circles for that matter.
As mentioned earlier, blind obedience plays a considerable role in the destructive courses of action, which is...
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So far it is agreed that the destructive events and courses of action mentioned above have been an attribute of blind obedience, wherein one even goes against the accepted social and moral beliefs, which can be extremely unhealthy and result in an abnormal development of social framework. However, the rut of obeying the authority blindly can be defied by way of manipulation of situational factors, in order to stimulate people to act in a positive way. The menace of conformity or groupthink and blind obedience can be overcome by anyone by resisting such social pressures on an individual level. In addition to that, the development of a sense of personal responsibility, morality and pressure necessary for disobeying must be inculcated in order to avoid destructive courses of action ignited by blind obedience (Bocchiaro & Zamperini, n.d.).
As depicted in A Few Good Men, authors Fromm, Dalrymple, and Szegedy-Maszak provide evidence as to why blind obedience influences individuals’ motives, such as fear and trust, to examine how unjust authority pollutes a person’s ability to
...’s obedience level is affected by the location and surroundings of the experiment; they also hold a mutual understanding on the question of ethics. Yet, there is a larger question. Could these points indicate that humans are not fully in control of their actions?
If a person of authority ordered you inflict a 15 to 400 volt electrical shock on another innocent human being, would you follow your direct orders? That is the question that Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University tested in the 1960’s. Most people would answer “no,” to imposing pain on innocent human beings but Milgram wanted to go further with his study. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum holds a shortened edition of Stanley Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience,” where he displays an eye-opening experiment that tests the true obedience of people under authority figures. He observes that most people go against their natural instinct to never harm innocent humans and obey the extreme and dangerous instructions of authority figures. Milgram is well aware of his audience and organization throughout his article, uses quotes directly from his experiment and connects his research with a real world example to make his article as effective as possible.
Obedience has always been a trait present in every aspect of society. Parents have practiced enforcing discipline in their homes where children learn obedience from age one. Instructors have found it difficult to teach a lesson unless their students submit to their authority. Even after the adolescent years, law enforcement officers and governmental officials have expected citizens to uphold the law and abide by the standards set in society. Few will understand, however, that although these requirements for obedience provide positive results for development, there are also dangers to enforcing this important trait. Obedience to authority can be either profitable or perilous depending on who the individual in command is. In the film, The Crucible,
Comparative Analysis Obedience to authority and willingness to obey an authority against one’s morals has been a topic of debate for decades. Stanley Milgrim, a Yale psychologist, conducted a study in which his subjects were commanded by a person in authority to initiate lethal shocks to a learner; his experiment is discussed in detail in the article “The Perils of Obedience” (Milgrim 77). Milgrim’s studies are said to be the most “influential and controversial studies of modern psychology” (Levine). While the leaner did not actually receive fatal shocks, an actor pretended to be in extreme pain, and 60 percent of the subjects were fully obedient, despite evidence displaying they believed what they were doing was harming another human being (Milgrim 80). Likewise, Dr. Zimbardo, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, conducted an experiment, explained in his article “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” in which ten guards were required to keep the prisoners from escape and under control.
It was found that the reasons for obedience are not only psychological but sociological as well. Milgram provides the idea of division of labor. As long as the product comes from an assembly line, there is no one person to blame.
Obedience is when you do something you have been asked or ordered to do by someone in authority. As little kids we are taught to follow the rules of authority, weather it is a positive or negative effect. Stanley Milgram, the author of “The perils of Obedience” writes his experiment about how people follow the direction of an authority figure, and how it could be a threat. On the other hand Diana Baumrind article “Review of Stanley Milgram’s experiments on obedience,” is about how Milgram’s experiment was inhumane and how it is not valid. While both authors address how people obey an authority figure, Milgram focuses more on how his experiment was successful while Baumrind seems more concerned more with how Milgram’s experiment was flawed and
Introduction Individuals often yield to conformity when they are forced to discard their individual freedom in order to benefit the larger group. Despite the fact that it is important to obey the authority, obeying the authority can sometimes be hazardous, especially when morals and autonomous thought are suppressed to an extent that the other person is harmed. Obedience usually involves doing what a rule or a person tells you to, but negative consequences can result from displaying obedience to authority; for example, the people who obeyed the orders of Adolph Hitler ended up killing innocent people during the Holocaust. In the same way, Stanley Milgram noted in his article ‘Perils of Obedience’ of how individuals obeyed authority and neglected their conscience, reflecting how this can be destructive in real life experiences. On the contrary, Diana Baumrind pointed out in her article ‘Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience’ that the experiments were not valid, hence useless.
Obedience and disobedience play a huge role in our lives as humans. We begin with disobedience. With that, though, we develop the ability to choose to obey or disobey. In doing this, we obey the highest calling that we must: human nature. No matter how we modernize as a society, the primal instincts and decisions that rise up in every human being are very much the same as they have always been.
Men have brutish ways of thinking and behaving but it is important for man to suppress those instincts and to behave in accordance of society. It is known but not understood how effective laws and the authority play a role in keeping order and peace. Man is at battle with himself in terms of civilization versus barbarianism. Mankind has those urges and temptations to give into their inner beast but it is the control and suppression of those feelings and thoughts that help separate the man from beast. When man can control himself and help to further himself and others in his community in accordance to the laws set in ...
“I was just following orders.” That line was infamously muttered as Stanley Milgram witnessed the Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals (Cuomo et al., 2007), after which he began to experiment to answer the question: “just how likely are human beings to blindly follow the orders, just or unjust, given by a legitimate figure of established authority?” In his studies, he provided a way to study obedience to authority by operationalizing obedience. According to Dr. Schreier (September 13, 2016), to operationalize is to label and describe variables of interest, giving a concrete meaning to a variable that would otherwise be quite ambiguous. There can easily be many interpretations of the term “obedience,” but in his study, Milgram simply
Authority cannot exist without obedience. Society is built on this small, but important concept. Without authority and its required obedience, there would only be anarchy and chaos. But how much is too much, or too little? There is a fine line between following blindly and irrational refusal to obey those in a meaningful position of authority. Obedience to authority is a real and powerful force that should be understood and respected in order to handle each situation in the best possible manner.
While sitting in church on Sunday going through the same motions of every Sunday, my son leans over to ask, “Why do we have to stand up for this prayer?” My response “because we are supposed to”.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural study of obedience. Journal of abnormal and social Psychology. 67 (4), p371-8.
To come to understand why people act with deviant behavior, we must comprehend how society brings about the acceptance of basic norms. The “techniques and strategies for preventing deviant human behavior in a society” are called social control (Schaefer, 2009). As we respect and acknowledge these social norms we expect others to do so as well. Therefore, according to our behavior sanctions are carried out whether they are positive or negative. Conformity, which refers to “going along with peers, people of our own status who have no special right to direct our behavior” (Schaefer, 2009), is one way social control occurs in a group level which influence the way we act. On the other hand, obedience is the compliance with a higher authority, resulting in social control at a societal level. The sanctions used to promote these factors can be informal and formal social control. Informal social control can be very casual in enforcing social norms by using body language or other forms of discipline, however formal social control is carried out by authorized agents when desired behavior is not obtained by informal sancti...