Running head: Evil Acts of Power Evil Acts of Power: An analysis of situational power John Doe Social Psychology 70705 Dr. Rafferti Abstract Human beings are capable of performing acts of wonder such as creating symphonies‚ running miles in minutes‚ and sailing around the world. Humans are also capable of performing atrocities such as creating weapons of mass destruction‚ committing murders‚ and torture. A simplistic view of evil is that some people are just “bad apples” and that their
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"The Education of a Torturer" is an account of experiments that has similar results to that of Milgram’s obedience experimentsthat were performed in 1963. Though both experiments vary drastically‚ both have one grim outcome‚ that is that‚ "it is ordinary people‚ not psychopaths‚ who become the Eichmanns of history." The Stanford experiment was performed by psychologists Craig Haney‚ W. Curtis Banks‚ and Philip Zimbardo. Their goal was to find out if ordinary people could become abusive if given
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those values were not strong and can easily be affected by external factor which led to an “different” behavior. These factor can be culture‚ social norms‚ ethics of a society‚ religious inclination‚ coercion‚ and human influence by authority. The milgram experiment showed that our behaviors can be drastically impacted by higher-level authority factor. Several test subjects were given the authority to shock a subject when answering a question incorrectly‚ under the supervision of a “professional doctor”
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Obedience to Authority: its Meaning‚ Uses‚ and Side Effects Obedience to authority is an aspect present in all societies throughout known history. For the entirety of this paper‚ obedience to authority will refer to any act a member of society performs that he or she was told to do by a position of higher authority. This paper will focus on the idea that members of society will follow commands that may go against their moral beliefs on the sole account that the commands come from a place of higher
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Stanley Milgram is a famous psychologist who focused his studies on authority and peoples reaction and obedience to it. His famous experiment and it’s results were groundbreaking in psychology‚ surprising both psychologists and regular people alike. First I will discuss the reason for Milgrims study of obedience to authority. Then I will explain the experiment‚ its formulation‚ and its results. Finally I will cover the influence of the experiment on psychology and society. Stanley Milgrim was
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"The Perils of Obedience" was written by Stanley Milgram in 1974. In the essay he describes his experiments on obedience to authority. I feel as though this is a great psychology essay and will be used in psychology 101 classes for generations to come. The essay describes how people are willing to do almost anything that they are told no matter how immoral the action is or how much pain it may cause. This essay even though it was written in 1974 is still used today because of its historical
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they are not directly responsible for an issue. According to self-justification strategies‚ we will find a way or an excuse to convince ourselves that it’s not our faults or something nicer in positive situation to make us feel better. Zimbardo uses Milgram experiments as an example that evil start with a small 15 volt and increases at 15V intervals up to 450V. Because of self-justification‚ when increasing the volt of electricity‚ the participants won’t feel shame and guilt for their immoral behavior
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degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries. (http://whatis.techtarget.com./definition/0‚ sid9_gci932596_top1‚ 00.html). Milgram (1967) an American sociologist conducted a small world experiment to test the hypothesis of six degree separation. This experiment examined the members of the large social networks of people in the United States. That would be connected to each other
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The Art of Torture According to a 2006 survey conducted by BBC News‚ 58% of Americans say that any form of torture upon a fellow man for any reason is wrong (“One-third” 1)‚ which is ironic because horror films‚ such as Saw and Hostel‚ where victims are brutally murdered and ripped to shreds for the audience’s pure entertainment pleasure topped the box offices with their releases in 2004 and 2005. By looking at sociopolitical platforms and moral messages behind the ‘torture porn’ subgenre‚
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famous experiment that is widely propagated in the education of social psychology‚ demonstrating the importance of the power of social situations on people’s behaviour regarding conformity‚ obedience and aggression. Zimbardo‚ vastly influenced by Milgram and his studies of obedience‚ which significantly
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