The Perils Of Obedience Asch Analysis

Dilemmas of obedience is a widespread topic that has been studied by Solomon Asch and Stanly Milgram. Asch studied the probability of a person to conform to a group and Milgram investigated one’s ability to resist authority. Although there’s variations in the way each experiment was conducted, there’s many similarities that relate to the treatment of each subject. Results of these studies support the reasoning behind the different ways that people act. Events in the past can also correlate with the way people act in modern times. Today, college is problematic for students due to the effects of group pressure and authority which creates flaws in our educational system. Solomon Asch discusses his experiment in the article, “Opinions and Social …show more content…
His main purpose was to, “test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist” (Milgram 1). The subjects were misled when they were told this was the effect of pain on memory. Their role in this experiment was to be a “teacher” who administers the shock. Also, there’s a “learner” who is strapped into an electric chair and is purposely told to give the wrong answers. Each time a question is answered incorrectly, the shock level increases. An experimenter is placed in the laboratory that stands as the figure of authority. Their job is to tell the teacher to keep going and to finish the experiment. There’s thirty switches that range from slight shock, to danger. Two levels of shock after danger are labeled XXX. It was predicted that each examinee would disobey the experimenter. Unexpectedly, 25 of the 40 subjects followed each command until the study was finished. Many subjects voiced their concern that they are hurting the learner. Fred Prozi states, “I can’t stand it I’m not going to kill that man in there” (Milgram 3). Even though the teacher isn’t okay with potentially hurting the learner, they still obeying to authority. When the teachers had the choice of how much shock was administered, only two went above 75 volts. One of the subjects who went above 75 volts laughed and said it was due to, “sheer reaction …show more content…
For example, many of my friends in my science class wanted to skip one of the labs. This is because there’s a paper that would be assigned during the Thanksgiving break. Although it was tempting, I still went to the class. My best friend conformed to the group and didn’t go. I was one of the few who didn’t succumb to group pressure. I knew that it would be wrong and unfair to the professor if I didn’t attend. This can relate to Solomon Asch’s experiment. Often, the subjects in that study conformed to the group. Maltreatment of students is also seen in colleges today. Sometimes, teachers expect too much from their students not realizing they have other responsibilities. For instance, one of my professors heavily weighs our chances of being exempt from the final. In order to be eligible to not take it, we have to take many quizzes and write many papers every week for the duration of the semester. The professor lost all the quiz grades that the students worked very hard on. He continues to give a large work-load week after week even though the students have other work to do from other classes. The class impacts me negatively because sometimes I don’t have enough time to devote myself to other classes which is very stressful when time managing. During time that would be spent with friends, I have to work on other classes which barely leaves any time to myself. This could relate to Milgram’s experiment