Deviance in the Military
Deviance and the Military
Deviance
This weeks’ writing assignment is to “discuss how members of a military unit could openly bring themselves to commit murder against some individuals and not feel any sense of deviance or criminal wrongdoing for the act. Be sure to include ideas from the work of Stanley Milgram in your answer.”
In the 1960’s, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment at Yale University regarding the relationship between obedience and authority where local residents, were asked to give harmful electric shocks-up to somebody because the conductors of the experiment had “commanded” them to, despite the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve the shocks. The victim was actually an actor who did not receive shocks, but this was not revealed to the subjects until the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants. (stanleymilgram.com)
In this experiment, 37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole experiment. According to Milgram, the subject shifted the responsibility of harming the subjects onto another person and did not blame themselves for the result of inflicting pain on an innocent person. This resembles real-life incidents in which people see themselves as merely cogs in a machine, just "doing their job," allowing them to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions.” (absoluteastronomy.com)
It seems that Milgram makes a good point in his findings, that if a person is asked to do something by an authority figure, they feel that it is an “approved” action. They are given positive sanctions for committing an act that has a possible negative effect. In regards to the military, the soldiers have commanding officers are giving them orders to go into battle to possibly commit murder. Although they are given
Deviance
This weeks’ writing assignment is to “discuss how members of a military unit could openly bring themselves to commit murder against some individuals and not feel any sense of deviance or criminal wrongdoing for the act. Be sure to include ideas from the work of Stanley Milgram in your answer.”
In the 1960’s, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment at Yale University regarding the relationship between obedience and authority where local residents, were asked to give harmful electric shocks-up to somebody because the conductors of the experiment had “commanded” them to, despite the fact that the victim did not do anything to deserve the shocks. The victim was actually an actor who did not receive shocks, but this was not revealed to the subjects until the end of the experiment. But, during the experiment itself, the experience was a powerfully real and gripping one for most participants. (stanleymilgram.com)
In this experiment, 37 out of 40 participants administered the full range of shocks up to 450 volts, the highest obedience rate Milgram found in his whole experiment. According to Milgram, the subject shifted the responsibility of harming the subjects onto another person and did not blame themselves for the result of inflicting pain on an innocent person. This resembles real-life incidents in which people see themselves as merely cogs in a machine, just "doing their job," allowing them to avoid responsibility for the consequences of their actions.” (absoluteastronomy.com)
It seems that Milgram makes a good point in his findings, that if a person is asked to do something by an authority figure, they feel that it is an “approved” action. They are given positive sanctions for committing an act that has a possible negative effect. In regards to the military, the soldiers have commanding officers are giving them orders to go into battle to possibly commit murder. Although they are given