Stanley Milgram's Experiment On Obedience To Authority
Stanley Milgram
Author’s Name
Institution’s Name
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist of the 20th century, born in the city of New York. He has made many contributions in sociology by writing and publishing many articles, but few of them for which Stanley is known for are ‘Obedience to Authority’, ‘Familiar Stranger’, and ’Small World Experiment’.
Stanley Milgram was working as a psychologist at Yale University when he conducted his famous experiment on Obedience to Authority. In this experiment he engrossed on the conflict between individual conscience and obedience to authority of higher personnel’s. This experiment on Obedience to Authority began in the year 1961, that is a year after …show more content…
Adolf Eichmann trial held in Jerusalem (McLeod, 2007).
Stanley created an electric shock generator which was marked with thirty switches ranging from fifteen to 450 volts.
In this experiment there was a subject and a learner who were completely strangers to each other. As per the instructions, the subject was asked to teach the learner few pair of words. On making a mistake the subject has to punish the learner with an electric shock and for each mistake 15 volts higher than the last shock to be given. But in this experiment the learner actually didn’t receive any shock but it was pre-tapped audio which was played every time when the shock button was pressed. And the same tape said ‘continue’, ‘go on’ then the subject has to continue asking questions and give shock for every mistake. During this experiment of Milgram, few of the subjects displayed signs of tension and intense seizures. In this experiment 25 subjects out of forty continued giving shock till the end that is 450 volts and other subjects continued till 300 volts. The conclusion of this experiment was that around 3% people stopped giving shock and the remaining 65% continued giving shock which reflected the characteristic behavior of humans to do as they have been told from their higher authority (Explorable.com (Feb 6, …show more content…
2008)).
Stanley Milgram also conducted various experiments like to determine the degree of separation between two people. This experiment of Degree of Separation meant to show how many individuals are required to create a link between two people who are completely strangers to each other. For this experiment Milgram randomly selected a stranger in Boston, and then he asked someone to forward the package of official documents to the person in Boston. The entire process of forwarding the package to the stranger involved six individuals. Stanley named this experiment as ‘Small World Phenomenon’ (Kleinfeld, 2002).
But out of all the publications Milgram’s experiment ‘Obedience to authority’ became most popular, and Milgram has been awarded the Annual psychology award by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Stanley’s Obedience to Authority has become a classic example in psychology, which exhibits the adverse effects of obedience. His obedience experiment suggested that the situational factors have stronger influence than behavior elements in determining obedience of an individual. The Milgram’s experiment of “Obedience to Authority” was implemented by various organizations to study the behavior of their employees. One such implementation was done by the New South Wales (Australia) Police department and performed a study. The study was conducted in the early stages of the recruits’ training and it resulted in a significant degree of uncertainty among the participants between the three jurisdictions when placed in different situations. (Wooden, & Nixon,
2014). References:
1. Explorable.com (Feb 6, 2008). Milgram Experiment - Obedience to Authority. Retrieved Jul 20, 2014 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment
2. Kleinfeld, J. (2002, Mar). Six degrees of separation: Urban myth? Psychology Today, 35, 74.
3. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Milgram Experiment. Psychology academic articles for students.
4. Wooden, K., & Nixon, J. (2014). THE INCORPORATION OF OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY INTO NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE FORCE RECRUIT TRAINING. Salus Journal, 2(1), 43
Author’s Name
Institution’s Name
Stanley Milgram
Stanley Milgram was a social psychologist of the 20th century, born in the city of New York. He has made many contributions in sociology by writing and publishing many articles, but few of them for which Stanley is known for are ‘Obedience to Authority’, ‘Familiar Stranger’, and ’Small World Experiment’.
Stanley Milgram was working as a psychologist at Yale University when he conducted his famous experiment on Obedience to Authority. In this experiment he engrossed on the conflict between individual conscience and obedience to authority of higher personnel’s. This experiment on Obedience to Authority began in the year 1961, that is a year after …show more content…
Adolf Eichmann trial held in Jerusalem (McLeod, 2007).
Stanley created an electric shock generator which was marked with thirty switches ranging from fifteen to 450 volts.
In this experiment there was a subject and a learner who were completely strangers to each other. As per the instructions, the subject was asked to teach the learner few pair of words. On making a mistake the subject has to punish the learner with an electric shock and for each mistake 15 volts higher than the last shock to be given. But in this experiment the learner actually didn’t receive any shock but it was pre-tapped audio which was played every time when the shock button was pressed. And the same tape said ‘continue’, ‘go on’ then the subject has to continue asking questions and give shock for every mistake. During this experiment of Milgram, few of the subjects displayed signs of tension and intense seizures. In this experiment 25 subjects out of forty continued giving shock till the end that is 450 volts and other subjects continued till 300 volts. The conclusion of this experiment was that around 3% people stopped giving shock and the remaining 65% continued giving shock which reflected the characteristic behavior of humans to do as they have been told from their higher authority (Explorable.com (Feb 6, …show more content…
2008)).
Stanley Milgram also conducted various experiments like to determine the degree of separation between two people. This experiment of Degree of Separation meant to show how many individuals are required to create a link between two people who are completely strangers to each other. For this experiment Milgram randomly selected a stranger in Boston, and then he asked someone to forward the package of official documents to the person in Boston. The entire process of forwarding the package to the stranger involved six individuals. Stanley named this experiment as ‘Small World Phenomenon’ (Kleinfeld, 2002).
But out of all the publications Milgram’s experiment ‘Obedience to authority’ became most popular, and Milgram has been awarded the Annual psychology award by AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science).
Stanley’s Obedience to Authority has become a classic example in psychology, which exhibits the adverse effects of obedience. His obedience experiment suggested that the situational factors have stronger influence than behavior elements in determining obedience of an individual. The Milgram’s experiment of “Obedience to Authority” was implemented by various organizations to study the behavior of their employees. One such implementation was done by the New South Wales (Australia) Police department and performed a study. The study was conducted in the early stages of the recruits’ training and it resulted in a significant degree of uncertainty among the participants between the three jurisdictions when placed in different situations. (Wooden, & Nixon,
2014). References:
1. Explorable.com (Feb 6, 2008). Milgram Experiment - Obedience to Authority. Retrieved Jul 20, 2014 from Explorable.com: https://explorable.com/stanley-milgram-experiment
2. Kleinfeld, J. (2002, Mar). Six degrees of separation: Urban myth? Psychology Today, 35, 74.
3. McLeod, S. A. (2007). Milgram Experiment. Psychology academic articles for students.
4. Wooden, K., & Nixon, J. (2014). THE INCORPORATION OF OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY INTO NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE FORCE RECRUIT TRAINING. Salus Journal, 2(1), 43