Obedience To Authority Milgram
Obedience to Authority: A Brief Summary of Milgram’s Research and Current Research’s Position on Milgram’s Findings
Introduction
Throughout history people have followed directives given by other people, such as ‘do this’, ‘follow these rules’, ‘listen to me’, and ‘do as I say’. In fact, governments have rules, laws and norms of their society so that people will obey the laws and behave in a civilized manner. How is it then that individual’s will go against and contest their own values and morals and conform to the directives given by an authority figure, even to the degree of causing harm and/or death to an individual? Stanley Milgram devoted the majority of his latter research on investigating this question (Burger, 2009, Cherry, 2013, McLeod, 2007; Milgram, 1974). The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize Milgram’s seminal research on obedience to authority and describe Milgram’s methodology, research and interpretations of his findings. Additionally this paper will discuss the current research available regarding conformity to authority, specifically focusing on whether or not …show more content…
How far do you think that most participants were willing to go? When Milgram posed the question “How far do you think that most participant were willing to go?” to a group of Yale University students, the students predicted that less than 3 out of 100 participants would deliver the maximum shock. In actuality, 65% of the participants in Milgram’s study continued to the highest level of administering a shock of 450 volts. Milgram did conduct 18 variation of his study, in which he altered the situation (independent variable) to determine how it affected obedience (dependent variable).Furthermore, all the participants continued to the level of delivering a shock of 300 volts (Cherry, 2013; McLeod, 2007; Milgram, 1974; Scott et al.,
Introduction
Throughout history people have followed directives given by other people, such as ‘do this’, ‘follow these rules’, ‘listen to me’, and ‘do as I say’. In fact, governments have rules, laws and norms of their society so that people will obey the laws and behave in a civilized manner. How is it then that individual’s will go against and contest their own values and morals and conform to the directives given by an authority figure, even to the degree of causing harm and/or death to an individual? Stanley Milgram devoted the majority of his latter research on investigating this question (Burger, 2009, Cherry, 2013, McLeod, 2007; Milgram, 1974). The purpose of this paper is to briefly summarize Milgram’s seminal research on obedience to authority and describe Milgram’s methodology, research and interpretations of his findings. Additionally this paper will discuss the current research available regarding conformity to authority, specifically focusing on whether or not …show more content…
How far do you think that most participants were willing to go? When Milgram posed the question “How far do you think that most participant were willing to go?” to a group of Yale University students, the students predicted that less than 3 out of 100 participants would deliver the maximum shock. In actuality, 65% of the participants in Milgram’s study continued to the highest level of administering a shock of 450 volts. Milgram did conduct 18 variation of his study, in which he altered the situation (independent variable) to determine how it affected obedience (dependent variable).Furthermore, all the participants continued to the level of delivering a shock of 300 volts (Cherry, 2013; McLeod, 2007; Milgram, 1974; Scott et al.,