Understanding Obedience: Milgram's Psychological Experiment

The question Stanley Milgram’s experiment seeks to address is an understanding obedience as a psychological mechanism for carrying out acts considered unethical. Milgram’s inspiration behind the experiment was the Holocaust. Certainly, Milgram sought to observe how far an obedient subject would go to hurt another human being. However, based on design no human being would be actually hurt. Furthermore, the study was designed to “systematically vary the factors believed to alter the degree of obedience” (Milgram, p 372).

The experiment was designed around two subjects whom did not know each other. One subject was a control, and the other was experimented on. The naïve subject was to administer simulated electric shock to the other, should the

Obedience and or following orders in the face of authority are almost “second nature”. Personally, I follow orders I do not like all the time; however, as long as they are lawful then I must carry those orders out to the best of my ability. Society sets the divide between law and chaos; therefore, those guards at the concentration camps shifted blame because they were “ordered”.

According to Chapter One on Introduction and Research Methods, Milgram’s experiment is featured in the ethics section of the text. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, Psychologist are required to treat their subjects with dignity and respect and are not allowed to expose subjects to physical or emotional harm (Hockenbury, p 34).

The experiment clearly caused high levels of tension with the subjects that could be deemed emotionally harmful or abusive. However, a better understanding of obedience was discovered. Therefore, in terms of cost-benefit, society is more learned with regards to authority and obedience and further genocides and acts of violence committed by the state can be