Stanley Milgram Obedience Experiment

An often misleading psychological ideology that is centered around the system in which individuals acquire knowledge is the myth that individuals have an inclination to one of the three types of learning styles; kinesthetic, auditory, and visual, that facilitates the learning process. In all actuality, however; according to scientific studies there is no clear distinction between the amount of information retained and the “presumed” learning style of the individual. In fact, one must adapt to a specific learning style that fits the current situation or material being learned. In addition, not all learning environments can be successfully processed with just the application of one learning style, rather a combination of two or more. Personally, …show more content…
However, this is discussed as one of the top ten psychology myths in the TedTalk, in which he elaborates on the fallibility of Milgram’s claim. Initially, Milgram attributed his findings to the notion that society gives credibility to authority figures, following their instructions blindly. However, this can’t be deemed credible since the alleged “white coats” were grey in actuality, casting away the illusion of a genuine authority figure. The experiment held no real validity since the participants were predisposed throughout the research experiment about the lasting effects of the electric shocks, they were informed time and time again that they were not fatal nor did they have any long lasting …show more content…
I agree that the necessary measures were not taken to prove the research experiment by Milgram valid. There is evidence of researcher bias, thus; compromising the internal validity of the results. In a real-world context, my personal belief is that the authority figure is not the main aspect of the concept of obedience, instead the roles we take on as individuals in our environment shape our outlook on our behavior. The authority figure will demand and the subordinate will inevitably obey (Milgram,1963). This can be connected to the Stanford Prison experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. The myth that Zimbardo originally believed was that generally people are either “good apples” or “bad apples.” Through the Stanford Prison experiment, however; Zimbardo came to the realization that it is not the character of the individual but the environment itself that causes conformity to certain roles; there are no good or bad apples, instead it is the barrel that is either good or bad (Zimbardo,