Obedience is a form of social influence in which the person, changing their behavior, follows a set of instructions or tasks given by a figure of authority.
There are two particular studies done in respect to obedience — Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures and Stanford prison experiment.
Starting with Milgram’s experiment, it was created to study the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. As this experiment was spurred on after World War II with regards to how the officers could simply overlook life itself, and go about killing millions of innocent lives, I would be very intrigued by the outcome on how some could justify/think so little of their actions just because they were told to torture and/or kill.
It was an …show more content…
However, in today’s society, his experiment would not be able to come in to play as from the American Psychological Association (APA), Milgram’s experiment would have violated the 5th principle which is: Tap into ethics resources — Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence.
This was to ensure that whomever the scientists work with would receive no harm. However, many of the participants went through a psychological trauma, thinking that they might have killed the learner in the process of this study. Modern ethics also asserts that participants of any experiments must not be deceived and be made aware of any consequences.
At the end of the experiment, Milgram was criticized for it due to the extreme emotional stress inflicted on the participants. On the other hand, I would deem the experiment a success as it showed how some would casually administered shock all the way to 450V just because they were told
There are two particular studies done in respect to obedience — Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures and Stanford prison experiment.
Starting with Milgram’s experiment, it was created to study the willingness of participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts conflicting with their personal conscience. As this experiment was spurred on after World War II with regards to how the officers could simply overlook life itself, and go about killing millions of innocent lives, I would be very intrigued by the outcome on how some could justify/think so little of their actions just because they were told to torture and/or kill.
It was an …show more content…
However, in today’s society, his experiment would not be able to come in to play as from the American Psychological Association (APA), Milgram’s experiment would have violated the 5th principle which is: Tap into ethics resources — Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence.
This was to ensure that whomever the scientists work with would receive no harm. However, many of the participants went through a psychological trauma, thinking that they might have killed the learner in the process of this study. Modern ethics also asserts that participants of any experiments must not be deceived and be made aware of any consequences.
At the end of the experiment, Milgram was criticized for it due to the extreme emotional stress inflicted on the participants. On the other hand, I would deem the experiment a success as it showed how some would casually administered shock all the way to 450V just because they were told