“It may be that we are puppets-puppets controlled by the strings of society. But at least we are puppets with perception, with awareness. And perhaps our awareness is the first step to our liberation.” Stanley Milgram made ground breaking discoveries in the field of psychology with his many experiments on obedience and people’s ability to have an effect on the actions of others. From one of his experiments was derived “The Six Degrees of Separation,” which is still studied today in psychology classes (Biography). He would come to be known as, “the man who shocked the world,” with a single experiment.
Stanley Milgram was born in New York City in 1933 (Miller 1997). He was the son of Jewish immigrants, Adele and Samuel Milgram, and he had an older sister, Marjorie, as well as a younger brother, Joel (Raver). Milgram graduated in 1950 from James Monroe High School in just three years by taking heavier class loads than other students (Raver), and then went on to receive his bachelor’s degree from Queens College in 1954. After finishing his degree at Queens, Stanley decided to further his education and receive his Ph.D. from Harvard while studying under the guidance of Gordon Allport (Miller). He wrote his dissertation on the cross-cultural comparisons of conformity in both France and Norway from 1957-1959. He used a technique that had been developed by Solomon Asch, who he was later assigned to, to work as his research assistant. During this time, be familiarized himself with Asch’s experiments on conformity and his interest quickly grew. Stanley Milgram received his Ph.D. in psychology from Harvard University in June of 1960. That very fall, he continued on to become an assistant professor at the Ivy League school, Yale University. ...
... middle of paper ...
...ared about getting results from his studies, he also cared about the treatment of his participants.
Works Cited
"Biographies of Stanley Milgram Psychologists." Biography-center Indexes 19803 Biographies ! Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
"Psychology History." Welcome to Muskingum University. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
"Stanley Milgram." FSU Faculty/Staff Personal Page Web Server Index. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
"Stanley Milgram Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
"Stanley Milgram." Web. 08 Feb. 2011. .
Baumrind, Diana. “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience”. Writing & Reading for ACP Composition. Ed. Thomas E. Leahey and Christine R. Farris. New York: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2009. 224-229. Print.
Upon analyzing his experiment, Stanley Milgram, a Yale psychologist, concludes that people will drive to great lengths to obey orders given by a higher authority. The experiment, which included ordinary people delivering “shocks” to an unknown subject, has raised many questions in the psychological world. Diana Baumrind, a psychologist at the University of California and one of Milgram’s colleagues, attacks Milgram’s ethics after he completes his experiment in her review. She deems Milgram as being unethical towards the subjects he uses for testing and claims that his experiment is irrelevant to obedience. In contrast, Ian Parker, a writer for New Yorker and Human Sciences, asserts Milgram’s experiments hold validity in the psychological world. While Baumrind focuses on Milgram’s ethics, Parker concentrates more on the reactions, both immediate and long-term, to his experiments.
In 1963, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment that was one of the most controversial of his time, and of ours. “The subjects—or ‘teachers’—were instructed to administer [electroshocks] to a human ‘learner,’ with the shocks becoming progressively more powerful and painful” (Collins, para. 1, Book Overview). The subjects watched as the “learner” was strapped into a chair. When the experimenter asked if either of the two had a question, the “learner” mentioned he had a heart problem. The “teacher” heard this, as well, and still continued to go through with the experiment. told that they were to read a series of paired words, and “learners”
In Lauren Slater’s book Opening Skinner’s Box, the second chapter “Obscura” discusses Stanley Milgram, one of the most influential social psychologists. Milgram created an experiment which would show just how far one would go when obeying instructions from an authoritative figure, even if it meant harming another person while doing so. The purpose of this experiment was to find justifications for what the Nazi’s did during the Holocaust. However, the experiment showed much more than the sociological reasoning behind the acts of genocide. It showed just how much we humans are capable of.
Experimental psychology typically favours the idea that the individual acts as a self- contained unit. To use a study as an illustration, Milgram’s famous experiment regarding authority uses the experimental method. (Milgram, 1963 cited in Gibson, 2015) – participants were asked to press a buzzer of increasing voltage, and, the experimenter would respond to questions using a list of predetermined prompts to reduce their influence on participant behaviour. This was deemed enough to assume that the participant acted in complete autonomy, and results were therefore, for the most part,
Dalrymple starts his essay by stating that some people view opposition to authority to be principled and also romantic (254). The social worker Dalrymple mentions on the airplane with him is a prime example that certain people can be naturally against authority, but she quickly grants authority to the pilot to fly the plane (255). Dalrymple also mentions his studies under a physician and that Dalrymple would listen to her because she had far greater expanse of knowledge than him (256). Ian Parker writes his essay explaining the failed logic with Stanley Milgram’s experiment and expounds on other aspects of the experiment. One of his points is the situation’s location which he describes as inescapable (238). Another focus of Parker’s article is how Milgram’s experiment affected his career; the experiment played a role in Milgram’s inability to acquire full support from Harvard professors to earn tenure (234).
...g factors such as fear of consequences for not obeying, human nature’s willingness to conform, perceived stature of authority and geographical locations. I also believe that due to most individual’s upbringings they will trust and obey anyone in an authoritative position even at the expense of their own moral judgment. I strongly believe that Stanley Milgram’s experiments were a turning point for the field of social psychology and they remind us that “ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process”. Despite these findings it is important to point out it is human nature to be empathetic, kind and good to our fellow human beings. The shock experiments reveal not blind obedience but rather contradictory ethical inclinations that lie deep inside human beings.
He believes the scientific advancements from Milgram’s experiment outweigh the temporary emotional harm to the volunteers of Milgram’s experiment. Also Herrnstein points out that Milgram’s experiment was created to show how easily humans are deceived and manipulated even when they do not realize the pain they are causing. We live in a society and culture where disobedience is more popular than obedience; however, he believed the experiment was very important and more experiments should be done like it, to gain more useful information. The experiment simply would not have been successful if they subjects knew what was actually going to happen, Herrnstein claims. He believes the subject had to be manipulated for the experiment to be successful. “A small temporary loss of a few peoples privacy seems a bearable price for a large reduction in
pp. 371-377, 2008. Benjamin Jr., Ludy T. & Simpson, Jeffrey A. The Power of the Situation: The Impact of Milgram’s Obedience Studies on Personality and Social Psychology. From an American Psychologist.
In this chapter, the author Lauren Slater describes Stanley Milgram and his experiment about obedience to authority.
The most basic concept in social psychology is conformity. Conformity is the idea that behaviour or a belief is changed in order to follow, or conform, to what is considered the “norm.” One of the oldest experiments to support this notion was conducted in 1935 by Muzafer Sherif (Song, Ma, Wu, Li, 2012 p. 1366). There are two different types of
It is amazing to look back and realize that this experiment was done to determine how the Nazis could all have so much hate towards the Jewish people. The lack of compassion towards humans shown by the Nazi Germans during the holocaust inspired Milgram to conduct this experiment. He was curious on how any sane human being could want to participate in genocide of an entire group of people. It’s incredible to know that something like the Nazi war could bring about such valuable information to psychology. For years Milgram’s theory has been one of the primary points of social psychology. Because of the results revealed after Milgram’s creative design, psychologists use this information today to describe certain behaviors in people. I believe it is fair to say that Stanley Milgram has had one of the largest impacts in the history of social psychology.
Kunkel, John H. Encounters with Great Psychologists: Twelve Dramatic Portraits. Toronto: Wall & Thompson, 1989
Spencer, Herbert. The principles of psychology. Authorized ed. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1855.
Kimble, G. A., Wertheimer, M., and White, C. L. (1991) Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology, Volume I. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.