Preview

Evaluate Milgram's Experiment

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
580 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Evaluate Milgram's Experiment
Milgram's experiment in 1960 by social psychologist Dr. Stanely Milgram's (1963, 1965) was a controversial experiment. He researched the effect of authority on obedience. I don't think the scientific community overreacted to this experiment because it is unethical to reduce subjects to "twitching shuttering wrecks". Though the human mind is amazing strong we still do not know its breaking point. For interviewers to carry out the kind of experiment they did, they have to be willing to face the consequences of the experiment which could be a permanent damaged mental state. I do believe we need to do experiments like this as the outcome was very eye opening but it has to be better regulated and the background and methods of experimentation clearly …show more content…
The group with six actors and one real subject was shown a card with one line and asked to match that line to another card with three separate lines. The results shows that 25% of people always said the correct answer but the rest of the group varied the right response due to the what the rest of the group did. Symbolic interaction is the way we use different symbols in our lives to view the world and communicate with each other. Functional analysis is the idea that society is a complete unit made up of interrelated parts that work together. Conflict theory stresses that society is composed of groups that compete with one another for scarce resources. The Asch and Milgram experiments show that all three of the above theories have some truth to it. We can see how Symbolic Interaction influenced the majority of people to listen to the authority figure telling the teacher to do something unethical when the teacher himself is an authority figure. This probably stemmed from a symbol of an authority figure like an overbearing father in the subjects life that caused the teacher to give in to the authority figure in the Milgram experiment. Functional analysis shows most people want to work together instead of going against the group and this explains the result of the Asch experiment. Finally conflict theory shows that some people will go against the group to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Milgram experiment demonstrated that people have been socially conditioned to follow instructions by an authoritarian figure. The participants in the Milgram experiment are pressured and almost verbally forced into continuing to deliver shocks to other participants for giving false answers. They had falsely been told the experiment was to determine the influence of punishment on memory. The results showed that 65% of the participants delivering the shocks delivered a fatal amount of voltage even knowing the destruction of it. It is hard for people to disobey because they have been socially conditioned to follow orders.…

    • 1077 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before Milgram could publish his first book about his obedience experiment it found its way onto many medias from the New York Times, Life, ABC television, and the British Press. As the experiment became more celebrated one question continued to come up ‘had Milgram mistreated his subjects?’ Some psychologists, including Alan Elms and Bruno Bettelheim, think so after some of Milgrams subjects talked about having heart attacks and others talked about joining group therapy after the experiment. Since those reports came about the experiment has been attacked by psychologists and many others. “In Milgrams defiance,” says Parker, “Milgram would always highlight the results of post-experimental studies which never showed any traumatic…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In 1963, Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted a series of social psychology experiments to study the conditions under which the people are obedient to authorities and personal conscience. The purpose of his experiment was to determine whether or not people were particularly obedient to the higher authority who instructed them to perform various acts even if they violate their own morals and ethics. It was one of the most famous studies of obedience in psychology as it has inspired other researchers to explore what makes people question authority and more importantly, what leads them to follow orders. There were several replications of his experiment and the results were identical to those reported by Milgram about how…

    • 1558 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Stanley Milgram experiment takes normal everyday people and gives them orders to do horrible…

    • 343 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Milgram and Zimbardo’s experiments advanced society’s understanding of obedience significantly. Milgram’s results helped provide insight regarding what happened with the Nazis and the Jews. Furthermore, these experiments also helped defined how scientists conduct experiments with human participants such as having a formal process for reviewing experimental design prior its implementation. They also helped create standardized informed consent process and debriefing procedures as well as a cost–benefit analysis of experiments with protected participants. The Zimbardo’s experiment further enhanced our understanding of obedience and provided valuable insights on society’s norms for prison guards and…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stanley Milgram’s experiment was conducted to justify the acts of Nazi killings during the World War II. Milgram’s general findings after the experiments: Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figures even to the extent of hurting or killing other people. He claims that people can act inhumanely with limited feelings and compassion under blind obedience to authority. On his experiment, most of the participants continued to inflict the punishment all the way to the highest level when assured that they are not held responsible. Some participants went on and follow the commanded actions even if they seemed in conflict and against their conscience.…

    • 225 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    While the test subject is in complete control over when the experiment can be stopped based on their own level of morals, it would not be considered proper to put the test subject in an environment like this that could be perceived as “hostile” without their complete knowledge of their part in the experiment. It would be impossible to inform the test subjects about the extremely stressful experiment they would be taking place in without informing them on exactly what they would be doing, and in this experiment, the discretion of the test was important to get clear and true results. Another immoral part of Milgram’s experiment was the severe psychological stress imposed on the applicants. Numerous participants stated that they felt extremely uncomfortable about what they were expected to do, although a sizable amount of the members in the primary trials subsequently pronounced that they felt vastly pleased to have been chosen to take part in the experiment. Another immoral aspect of the experiment was the fact that the test subject was not expressly given the right to withdrawal from the experiment, and were continuously given orders to continue the experiment. Milgram claimed that in this experiment strict orders were essential to…

    • 1583 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the case of Milgram's experiment, if he would have informed his participants that they were being tested on how far they would go when they were ordered to do so, even if it was against their conscience, the participants would never have gone as far as they did and the research would have been fundamentally flawed. There is no accurate way to test human nature if the participants change their behavior based on what is expected of them. "The tendency of people to portray themselves in a more favorable light than their thoughts or actions, is called socially desirable responding (Lalwani)." Socially desirable responding is one of the problems with the use of surveys, and the problem carries over to behavioral studies. If the "teachers" from Milgram's experiment had been told the real purpose of the study, they most likely would have applied far less shock, if they shocked at all because that is what is socially acceptable. No one really knows how far they will go under order until they are faced with…

    • 426 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Milgram (1963) himself, however, recognises a plethora of caveats – demonstrating a scientific awareness of his experiment’s scientific limitations such the location of the experiment was cited as a possible influence as Yale University is and was considered to be prestigious, thus reinforcing the reliability and plausibility of the experimenter himself. This was demonstrated by a follow up study which replicated the procedure in a rundown location, in which the obedience rate dropped to 47.5% (McLeod,…

    • 1215 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout our nation's history, we have taken part in many unethical means of gaining information or knowledge. Some of the more famous cases include, The Milgram Obedience and Authority experiment, The Stanford Prison experiment, and of course the Abu Ghraib scandal involving our own U.S. soldiers. While two of these instances were not intended to cause physical harm, they were all branded unethical due to the extent of not only the physical abuses that took place, but the painful psychological impact it left on those involved.…

    • 1492 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Perils Of Obedience

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Philip Zimbardo and Stanley Milgram conducted controversial experiments that had to deal with obedience. Zimbardo conducted an experiment in a mock prison that showed the roles of the guards and prisoners. Milgram conducted an experiment that tested how much pain a teacher would inflict on someone else at the command of an experimenter. The experiments that they conducted have been called wrong and unethical. Although the experiments vary from each other, they both changed the way the world looks at obedience and Authority.…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sociology

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Compare and contrast conflict theory with structural functionalism. Pay special attention to the way that each theory treats the origin of social change. When it comes to the origin of social change the conflict theory and structural functionalism differ in many ways. Structural Functionalism stresses that society as whole, including the individuals, families, educational system, politics, and the economy come together to create a functioning society. But, if any one part of these social institutions experiences dysfunction then the whole society pays a price as if it were a domino effect. For example, if families fail to discipline their children, schools, churches and the courts must take up the slack. In the end, whether it is a positive or negative change, the society as a whole must adjust in response to a transformation in a social institution. Conflict theory does not see society as a whole coming together well for one purpose. The conflict theory proposes that conflict and tension are the basic facts of life and are what make up social change and ultimately society as a whole, but it puts more emphasis on class conflict (bourgeoisie vs. proletariat). Together, both of these theories are from a macro analysis perspective.…

    • 560 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Milgram Experiment

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Many people believe human beings should not be used as test subjects in experiments. The use of human beings for experiments or research can have lasting negative effects on that individual such as emotional and psychological damage. The Milgram experiment even though it was a hoax had a lasting effects on many of it’s participants in both positive and negative ways and is a example of why humans should not be used as test subjects.…

    • 1122 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    So yes, I believe that this experiment can cause a lot of psychological harm. The stress that the participants endured was great enough to cause psychological harm. They had signs of tension which were trembling, sweating, stuttering, nervous laughs, biting lips, digging fingernails into their palm, etc. People could have had very uncontrollable seizures. Stopping at a reasonable point to not put people through the agony like what happened back in Milgram’s actual experiment, was a great idea to do. Some people are willing to give dangerous shocks to obey the law, not knowing the problems that can take place afterwards. In Milgram’s official experiment, once the “teachers” seen that their learners were okay, their stress levels decreased dramatically. Milgram followed up with the participants after a period of time to make certain that there was no harm…

    • 665 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Milgram Study

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The ethical violations found in the original experiment (1962) included participants (teacher) giving other participants (learner) dangerous electrical shocks at a very high voltage increasing all the way up to 450 volts. The experimenter (authority) informed both the teacher and the learner participants that although the volts may be painful, they are not dangerous. Even though the “teacher” could hear the “learner” yell and scream as they got shocked each time, the “teacher” continued with the experiment because the experimenter (authority) told them they had no choice but to continue with the experiment. The point of this experiment is basically to see how far people will go and follow directions given by authority even when they believe they are doing sometime wrong.…

    • 532 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays