Gabriel Trinity
Professor Ryan Keith
PSY2012.0T1: Gen Psyc
12 September 2014
In the summer of 1961, an associate professor of psychology named Stanley Milgrim began a research project at Yale University to investigate and quantify the willingness of average individuals to follow orders from an authoritative figure that were at odds with the participants expected moral values. These series of experiments, started in July of that year, came three months into the trial of Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann for his part in organizing the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". The ability and capacity of mankinds capability to inflict pain and harm on fellow human beings was being scrutinized by the world and it is this capacity that …show more content…
Each experiment involved three individuals: The “Experimenter” (the authority figure who was administering the test), the “Learner” (an actor pretending to be a volunteer), and the “Teacher” (the actual volunteer whose responses were the subject of the study). The “teacher” would watch as the “learner” was strapped into a chair and wired with electrodes. The “experimenter” would then give the “teacher” a mild electric shock to demonstrate what the “learner” was supposedly about to experience. The “teacher” (the volunteer), was then put in front of the controls of an electroshock generator and given a list of word pairs that he was supposed to read to the “learner”. The “teacher” then gave the “learner” the first word in each pair and then gave four possible answers. An incorrect answer would be followed by an electric shock from the generator and the voltage increased by 15 volts. In reality there was no electric shock other than the one administered to the “teacher” as a demonstration and the increasingly pained responses from the “learner” were all scripted. After the voltage had been increased a certain about the actor playing the “learner” would begin to complain, bang on the wall and ask for the experiment to stop while referencing heart troubles. If the “teacher” had qualms about continuing, he would be
Professor Ryan Keith
PSY2012.0T1: Gen Psyc
12 September 2014
In the summer of 1961, an associate professor of psychology named Stanley Milgrim began a research project at Yale University to investigate and quantify the willingness of average individuals to follow orders from an authoritative figure that were at odds with the participants expected moral values. These series of experiments, started in July of that year, came three months into the trial of Nazi SS-Obersturmbannführer Adolf Eichmann for his part in organizing the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question". The ability and capacity of mankinds capability to inflict pain and harm on fellow human beings was being scrutinized by the world and it is this capacity that …show more content…
Each experiment involved three individuals: The “Experimenter” (the authority figure who was administering the test), the “Learner” (an actor pretending to be a volunteer), and the “Teacher” (the actual volunteer whose responses were the subject of the study). The “teacher” would watch as the “learner” was strapped into a chair and wired with electrodes. The “experimenter” would then give the “teacher” a mild electric shock to demonstrate what the “learner” was supposedly about to experience. The “teacher” (the volunteer), was then put in front of the controls of an electroshock generator and given a list of word pairs that he was supposed to read to the “learner”. The “teacher” then gave the “learner” the first word in each pair and then gave four possible answers. An incorrect answer would be followed by an electric shock from the generator and the voltage increased by 15 volts. In reality there was no electric shock other than the one administered to the “teacher” as a demonstration and the increasingly pained responses from the “learner” were all scripted. After the voltage had been increased a certain about the actor playing the “learner” would begin to complain, bang on the wall and ask for the experiment to stop while referencing heart troubles. If the “teacher” had qualms about continuing, he would be