The Skinner Box: The Milgram Experiment

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The Skinner box as well as the Milgram experiment have been questioned many times whether or not their practices have been unethical to humans. As today they would have been denied permission to experiment on humans the way they did. Skinner’s research scared many as he believed that everyone need to be “conditioned” to make a perfect society. He only experimented on birds and rodents in the lab. As he put them in what is now called a “Skinner box” to train them to do certain tasks for rewards. He did however use the practices in the lab on his daughter during the first few years of her life. As his daughter recalls “I was very happy, too, though I must report at this stage that I remember nothing of those first two and a half years. I am …show more content…

As schools give out rewards for positive behavior and work places give bonuses for those who put out good work. Today this research is used for autistic kids as a way of teaching them. If Skinner had been denied this experiment many autistic kids would not have the education they have now. So no matter how harsh his ideas were his research has helped progress the way we learn today. Milgram’s data showed that we forget our morals when it comes to obeying an authority figure. Meaning if the government wanted to control us many would follow just because it was an authority figure. His research showed that “an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to subdue a 50-year old man and force on him painful electric shocks against his protests.”(Wayne 3) Proving that people would blindly follow anyone if they are seen with power. If we had not known this data we may as well could have ended up like the Nazis. Now that we know this many oppose authority figures today and question their …show more content…

Having the power to control that and use it for whatever purposes may be is a bit frightening. Such research should only be used for those who have diseases and need help to control themselves. That is the only reason I can see for mind control. Skinner says that humans don’t really think but I don’t think that’s true. I believe that each individual chooses what they want to believe t not because of the environment around them but because we have the ability to. That is something that should not controlled or messed with even in the name of

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