The Milgram Experiment

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A researcher, Stanley Milgram, wondered how far individuals would go in following commands. In 1974 he set up a series of experiments. Describe the research methods used, together with the findings.

In 1974 Stanley Milgram conducted the classic study of obedience to authority. The study looked into how far individuals would be willing to go, and were asked could they deliver increasingly devastating electric shocks to a fellow human being, as they were requested to do so by the professor in charge of the experiment.

The aftermath of the holocaust and the events which lead up to World War 2 left the world stunned with actions of the Nazi German army and their acquired surrounding territories which came out during the Eichman Trials. Eichman, a high ranking official of the Nazi Party, was on trial for war crimes against humanity. The question is, "Could it be that Eichman, and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?

It was Stanley Milgram that was to answer the call and perform a series of experiments on the obedience of authority.

When it came to selecting participants for the study, Milgram considered using Yale graduates, which was a university nearby. However, he felt that students weren't ideal a group as they were all highly intelligent, and had some familiarity with psychological experimentation. Milgram felt it was therefore more appropriate to bring in subjects from a wider scale, and therefore he decided to use the New Haven community of 30,000 people, as this gave him a wide range of individuals who were all from differen...

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...n is always going to be that is a soldier who is instructed to kill another person liable for the murder, or is it the officer who instructed him as the soldier is just following orders. In life everyone follows orders, whether it is at school, work, or in the household people in general are always going to be obedient to authority.

Bibliography

Stanley Milgram, Obedience to authority, 1974

Stephen P. Robbins, Organisational Behaviour 9th Edition 2001

Obedience to Authority: http://irregulartimes.com/obedienceto.html [Accessed 22/03/2005]

The Experiment: http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/psychology/milgram_obedience_experiment.html [Accessed 22/03/2005]

Social Influence: http://www.cultsock.ndirect.co.uk/MUHome/cshtml/index.html [Accessed 21/03/2005]

Milgram Experiment: http://www.new-life.net/milgram.htm [Accessed 21/03/2005]

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