For those who are not familiar with this series of experiments, they were social psychology experiments which measured the willingness of a participant to follow or obey an authority figure who would instruct them to perform duties or acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. There is a video on youtube that can you can watch about the experiment if you'd rather watch that than read about it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6GxIuljT3w (this was not the original experiment)
In particular there were three participants in the experiment. The experimenter, the learner (who was the victim), and the teacher (the actual participant). The teacher was unaware about the actual setup, while the "learner" is a confederate (in on the experiment) of the experimenter. The experimenter was portrayed as a scientist of sorts in charge of the experiment.
The subject was given the title teacher, and the confederate, learner. The participants drew lots to 'determine' their roles. Unknown to them, both slips said "teacher," and the actor claimed to have the slip that read "learner," thus guaranteeing that the participant would always be the "teacher." At this point, the "teacher" and "learner" were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other. In one version of the experiment, the confederate was sure to mention to the participant that he had a heart condition.
The "teacher" was given an electric shock from the electro-shock generator as a sample of the shock that the "learner" would supposedly receive during the experiment. The "teacher" was then given a list of word pairs which he was to teach the learner. The teacher began by reading the list of word pairs to the learner. The teacher would then read the first word of each pair and read four possible answers. The learner would press a button to indicate his response. If the answer was incorrect, the teacher would administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. If correct, the teacher would read the next word pair.
The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. After the confederate was separated from the subject, the confederate set up a tape recorder integrated with the electro-shock generator, which played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level. After a number of voltage level increases, the actor started to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would cease.
At this point, many people indicated their desire to stop the experiment and check on the learner. Some test subjects paused at 135 volts and began to question the purpose of the experiment. Most continued after being assured that they would not be held responsible. A few subjects began to laugh nervously or exhibit other signs of extreme stress once they heard the screams of pain coming from the learner.
If at any time the subject indicated his desire to halt the experiment, he was given a succession of verbal prods by the experimenter, in this order:
1.Please continue. 2.The experiment requires that you continue. 3.It is absolutely essential that you continue. 4.You have no other choice, you must go on.
If the subject still wished to stop after all four successive verbal prods, the experiment was halted. Otherwise, it was halted after the subject had given the maximum 450-volt shock three times in succession. This experiment could be seen to raise some ethical issues as Stanley Milgram deceived his study's subjects, and put them under more pressure than many believe was necessary.
So (I know that was a lot to take in) what I want to know is was it wrong for Milgrim to put these subjects in this particular position by deceiving them and what would you do if placed in that situation of the teacher?
This has always fascinated me. I think the Milgrim experiment was a way of discovering the motives behind the Nazis, so I wouldn't call it wrong. Nobody actually got hurt, and it certainly added a lot to psychological discussion. I think Stanley Milgrim had to put his subjects under all that pressure or otherwise it wouldn't be experimenting with the human mind. He *recreated* the pressure the Nazis were probably feeling.
What Milgram's study indicated was that situational factors are important than dispositional factors when it comes to obedience.
So (I know that was a lot to take in) what I want to know is was it wrong for Milgrim to put these subjects in this particular position by deceiving them and what would you do if placed in that situation of the teacher?
This is undoubtedly one of themost insightful studies in the area of social influence, and that is in a large part thanks to the deception, without which the study would have lacked internal validity. If the participants had known the purpose of the experiment, the results would have been useless because of demand characteristics, so yes I think he was justified in deceiving his participants.
The area in which I think he may have gone too far was witholding the right to withdraw. Because the experimented was intsructed to use prods to pressure the participants to keep going, this gave them a perceived lack of choice, and although it made the study more internally valid, it pushed it with regards to ethics.
What would I do in this situation? I'd like to think I was one of the 33% who stopped before 300 Volts, but given what the study indicates, I would not at all be surprised if I went to the full 450V.
I agree with that statement. Many felt that the experimenter resembled a nazi is some ways. I feel that it was a crucial factor in gaining unbiased data. However by today's standards it would be considered unethical to put somebody through that type treatment that many people would stop delivering schocks for fear of retribution. However tat was a part of the experiment. To see what people would do when they knew that responsibilty did not rest on their shoulders.
One participant suffered from a seizure due to the stress. Others had suffered severe psychological damage for years afterwards as they thought they had killed someone.
After seeing that movie, I have come to realize that, many of the people assume that following orders is the right thing to do. There is always the rare occasion of the person who actually indulges on the horrible things he does (One of the participants actually suggested increasing the number of voltage knobs). As they were informed they were not "causing long term damage" the assumption from the screams can be made that it is causing severe short term damage. I know I can assume that I would have been apart of the 50% who continued the experiment, because that is how I was raised. To not question orders from professionals.
I don't think anyone can positively say what they would do if they found themselves in that position. Human behavior can be extremely erratic and uncouth or at times very predicable.
I don't think anyone can positively say what they would do if they found themselves in that position. Human behavior can be extremely erratic and uncouth or at times very predicable.
Human behavior can be assumed based on the everyday behavior of a person, which is why I assumed if I were in this position I would have done the same.
Human behavior can be assumed based on the everyday behavior of a person, which is why I assumed if I were in this position I would have done the same.
most people might do the same but maybe one person that everyday listens to authority on this day could macguyver some contraption out of everyday office supplies and try to rescue the other guy
