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The controversy of milgram experiment
The aims of the milgram experiment
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EVALUATION The Milgram Experiment was biased and had many factors and variations that affected the outcome of his data. His experiment dealt with only male participants and so the data is not really able to represent how female participants would react. The American population is not able to be represented as well because his participants were self-selected. His participants came from a newspaper advertisement, so those who were wealthy and educated had the chance to participate, where those who were not wealthy and could not read, were not able to participate (Saltzman, 2000). Variations that were carried out that affected obedience were uniform, change of location, two teacher condition, touch proximity condition, social support condition
In Lauren Slater’s book Opening Skinner’s Box, the second chapter “Obscura” discusses Stanley Milgram, one of the most influential social psychologists. Milgram created an experiment which would show just how far one would go when obeying instructions from an authoritative figure, even if it meant harming another person while doing so. The purpose of this experiment was to find justifications for what the Nazi’s did during the Holocaust. However, the experiment showed much more than the sociological reasoning behind the acts of genocide. It showed just how much we humans are capable of.
He believes the scientific advancements from Milgram’s experiment outweigh the temporary emotional harm to the volunteers of Milgram’s experiment. Also Herrnstein points out that Milgram’s experiment was created to show how easily humans are deceived and manipulated even when they do not realize the pain they are causing. We live in a society and culture where disobedience is more popular than obedience; however, he believed the experiment was very important and more experiments should be done like it, to gain more useful information. The experiment simply would not have been successful if they subjects knew what was actually going to happen, Herrnstein claims. He believes the subject had to be manipulated for the experiment to be successful. “A small temporary loss of a few peoples privacy seems a bearable price for a large reduction in
At first Milgram believed that the idea of obedience under Hitler during the Third Reich was appalling. He was not satisfied believing that all humans were like this. Instead, he sought to prove that the obedience was in the German gene pool, not the human one. To test this, Milgram staged an artificial laboratory "dungeon" in which ordinary citizens, whom he hired at $4.50 for the experiment, would come down and be required to deliver an electric shock of increasing intensity to another individual for failing to answer a preset list of questions. Meyer describes the object of the experiment "is to find the shock level at which you disobey the experimenter and refuse to pull the switch" (Meyer 241). Here, the author is paving the way into your mind by introducing the idea of reluctance and doubt within the reader. By this point in the essay, one is probably thinking to themselves, "Not me. I wouldn't pull the switch even once." In actuality, the results of the experiment contradict this forerunning belief.
In her excerpt, Baumrind discusses the potential dangers of the aftereffects on the participants of the experiment. On many occasions she suggests that these people are subjects of a cruel and unethical experiment, and suffer from harm to their self-image and emotional disruption (227). She also calls Milgram’s experiment a “game” (Baumrind 225); this illustrates her negative outtake on the experiment which is seen throughout the article. On the contrary, Parker discusses the aftereffects on Milgram himself. He expresses how the experiment, although it shows light to what extent of obedience a person may travel, ruined Milgram’s reputation. Parker also cites many notable authors and psychologists and their reactions to Milgram’s experiment. Despite their differences, Baumrind and Parker are able to find common ground on a few issues concerning the Milgr...
The reason being was that the researcher used subjects from the ages of 20 through 50 instead of being biased and basing it off of one particular age. Milgram had a diverse of men that were either skilled or unskilled workers, white-collar ages or business-men, and professional men. In addition to the representative sample being randomized, its contribution was from newspaper ads that were posted and the direct-mail solicitation with money being offered. It allowed the men who were interested in this study to participate.
A former Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram, administered an experiment to test the obedience of "ordinary" people as explained in his article, "The Perils of Obedience". An unexpected outcome came from this experiment by watching the teacher administer shocks to the learner for not remembering sets of words. By executing greater shocks for every wrong answer created tremendous stress and a low comfort levels within the "teacher", the one being observed unknowingly, uncomfortable and feel the need to stop. However, with Milgram having the experimenter insisting that they must continue for the experiments purpose, many continued to shock the learner with much higher voltages.The participants were unaware of many objects of the experiment until
In “ Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments On Obedience” by Diana Baumrind, and in “Obedience” by Ian Parker, the writers claim that Milgram’s Obedience is ethically wrong and work of evil because of the potential harm that the subjects of the experiment had. While Baumrind’s article focused only on the Subjects of the experiment, Parker’s article talked about both immediate and long term response to experiment along with the reaction of both the general public and Milgram’s colleagues, he also talks about the effect of the experiment on Milgram himself. Both articles discuss has similar points, they also uses Milgram’s words against him and while Baumrind attacks Milgram, Parker shows the reader that experiment
...e maximum shock level dropped significantly. The more official the experimenter looked, the more people would reach the maximum shock level. Stanley Milgram’s findings were groundbreaking. He found that humans will comply and obey ones orders than previously thought. His experiment has become one of the more well known and influential social psychology experiments completed.
The Milgram experiment of the 1960s was designed to ascertain why so many Germans decided to support the Nazi cause. It sought to determine if people would be willing to contradict their conscience if they were commanded to do so by someone in authority. This was done with a psychologist commanding a teacher to administer an electric shock to a student each time a question was answered incorrectly. The results of the Milgram experiment help to explain why so many men in Nazi Germany were recruited to support the Nazi cause and serve as a warning against the use of “enhanced interrogation” techniques by the United States government.
In finding that people are not naturally aggressive. Milgram now alters the experiment to find out why do people act the way they do. He compiled the experiment to answer, why do people obey authority, even when the actions are against their own morals.
She reasons that, therefore, a laboratory is not an appropriate place to conduct an experiment of this theme. Though Baumrind’s assertion holds some truth, whether the subject obeyed or not was not the focus of Milgram’s experiment. He wanted to see to what extent the subjects obeyed. Just because the subjects were in a setting where obedience is appropriate does not mean the extent to which they were obedient is irrelevant to human nature. For example, if a teacher tells a student to harm a classmate, the level of obedience that student displays is still pertinent to society as a whole. Just because the student is in a setting where obedience is more appropriate does not mean that the degree to which that student is obedient is unimportant. In fact, it is completely relevant because Milgram’s experiment demonstrated that too much obedience can be detrimental for humans as a species. For example, despite murdering millions of people, Adolf Eichmann was mentally unscathed because, in his mind, he was just being obedient. This shows that humans as a species are more than capable of committing deplorable acts under the umbrella of obeying authority. Even though Milgram’s methods were immoral, society now realizes that too much obedience is not beneficial, but actually
Vol. 64 (1), pp. 12-18, 2009. Milgram, Stanley. A. Issues in the Study of Obedience: A Reply to Baumrind.
The Milgram Experiment A lesson in depravity, peer pressure, and the power of authority The aftermath of the Holocaust and the events leading up to World War II, the world was stunned with the happenings in Nazi German and their acquired surrounding territories that came out during the Eichmann Trials. Eichmann, a high ranking official of the Nazi Party, was on trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The questions is, "Could it be that Eichmann, and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?" Stanley Milgram answered the call to this problem by performing a series of studies on the Obedience to Authority.
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioural study of obedience. Journal of abnormal and social Psychology. 67 (4), p371-8.
McAllister, L. W., Stachowiak, J. G., Baer, D. M., & Conderman, L. (1969). The application of operant conditioning techniques in a secondary school classroom1. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2(4), 277-285. doi:10.1901/jaba.1969.2-277