Obedience Essay

Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority: Then and Now Austin Groshens PSYC C101 December 3, 2017 Cerro Coso Community College Stanley Milgram’s Obedience to Authority: Then and Now Stanley Milgram’s 1963 experiment on obedience tested an individual’s wiliness to follow the instructions of authority figures. Milgram wanted to determine if people would harm others, even giving them a shock at the level as to cause death, on the orders of another. The results showed people, when commanded by an authority figure, would carry out the order. This paper will exam the original experiment, history that led to the experiment, and the controversy that arose following the experiment. It will also examine if given the same situation today, would the same results be obtained. In 1961, as an assistant Yale psychologist, Stanley Milgram developed and conducted a groundbreaking study on obedience. His premise was to discover to what level a person would follow orders when the end result would produce harm on another. Milgram wanted to know how the common German soldier and officers, who participated in the horrors of the Holocaust, could use a “they just followed orders” excuse as their…

In 1963, a psychologist at Yale, Stanley Milgram, performed a study on the obedience of humans. The purpose of the study was to research “how easily ordinary people can be influenced into committing atrocities” (McLeod). The main research question was “for how long will someone continue to give shocks to another person if they are told to do so, even if they thought they could be seriously hurt” (“Milgram Experiment”). To study this, “40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from…

Stanley Milgram examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense often was based on "obedience" - that they were just following orders from their superiors. I. Participants: May 1962 the experiment is conducted in an elegant interaction laboratory at Yale university, the participants are 40 white males who are between the ages of 20 and 50 who were from the New Haven area II. Apparatus and materials: Stanley…

The movie, A Few Good Men, is a portrayal of a military courtroom where Privet Dawson and Downey are on trial for killing a colleague, Private Santiago. Milgram wrote "The Perils of Obedience ", which describes his experiment where there is a teacher and leaner. The teacher, the actual subject, shocks the learner for every wrong answer. The volts of electricity start at 15 increasing to 450. Kelman and Hamilton wrote "My Lai Massacre" which recounts the trial and thoughts of Lieutenant Calley,…

again if I could, and I will continue to keep going to them every weekend that I can. If I could change anything, it would be to have found Cindy sooner. Although there are cases like Thor and that woman that break my heart, there are cases like Venus and that couple to warm my heart. I absolutely love getting to see these animals going through Obedience 1 and 2, and I am so excited for Intermediate classes to begin after Thanksgiving. Getting to see the dedication these people put into their…

Following the horrific events of the German Holocaust, psychologists and psychiatrists have been attempting to answer questions on obedience. At the heart of the debate is why some humans naturally are obedient to authority, and why others have a tendency to be disobedient. Among the many people researching this topic are Erich Fromm and Theodore Dalrymple. Fromm’s work suggests that Freudian ideology shapes tendencies of obedience. Dalrymple claims that experiences in childhood outline impulses…

Dictionary.com obedience is to comply “with an order, request or law or submission to another’s authority.” Obedience is a component in social behavior and everyday life. However, there are different forms of obedience such as blind obedience. This is where an individual follows direction without any question or moral perspective without knowing they are causing harm. Such form of obedience can be hostile and perilous to the people involved. This can be seen in the atrocious deaths of the Okinwa…

From the Americans in the My Lai massacre to the Nazis in the Holocaust, soldiers have followed orders no matter how immoral. Obedience to authority is necessary for the stability and protection of people. While obedience is necessary in society, it is absolutely essential in the military. The United States military is based on the principle that lives will be lost if soldiers choose which orders to obey or which to ignore. Although obedience is required, it comes with great responsibility for…

The Prison System and Obedience What has been excluded in prison is your preferred choice and what is supported is obedience. In Individual and Mass Behavior in Extreme Situations by Bruno Bettelheim he talks about imprisonment during the Holocaust and adjustments that the prisoners had to go through in the concentration camps. The author states “The prisoners had reached the final stage of adjustment to the camp situation when he had changed his personality so as to accept as his own the values…

which to view the issues of the defense of obedience to authority when following instructions from superiors. Stanley Milgram, author of “The Perils of Obedience,” and Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton, authors of “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of Obedience,” would likely argue that numerous factors other than intentional sadistic urges could cause a person to unnecessarily inflict violence on another human being. Both articles use psychological methods to examine the reasons a…