Milgram Conformity Experiment Analysis

Society and government require people to be obedient towards authority, but is it always the best thing to do? During the aftermath of World War II many of the major leaders of the Nazi regime were put on trial for crimes against humanity (History.com). These trials were known as the Nuremburg war trials, were most of the convicted proclaimed that they were “just following orders” (McLeod 584). Being an accomplice to a crime is also against the law. In the Nuremburg trials, those accused were not breaking the law that their government had created, they were actually following it.

This essay is occupied with analyzing whether the agentic state theory developed by Professor Stanley Milgram is a valid explanation for the behaviour of participants in obedience experiments. It starts with defining and describing the abovementioned theory and continues with providing academic research evidence, in order to illustrate the arguments for and against the statement presented above. The essay ends by providing the key conclusions drawn from the analysis, while also attempting to give an answer to whether Milgram’s agentic state theory could indeed be characterized as valid in explaining the behaviour of participants in obedience experiments. The agentic state theory is one of the two main theories that Milgram has developed (the other is the theory of conformism), in order to explain the behaviour of its participants in its obedience

In 1961, Stanley Milgram (1963) carried out one of the most famous experiments in social psychology. He wanted to examine the conflict between a person’s obedience to authority and their personal conscience. This experiment was conducted one year after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Eichmann, along with most of those accused at the Nuremberg War Criminal trials, often based their defense on ”obedience”. The justification for their atrocious actions was that they were simply following orders from their superiors.

Sonderkommandos who by Primo Levi standards were in a league with the SS officers, were the ones to put a stop to the horrors of Treblinka II, it made me question Levi’s testimony and question if his judgment was clouded by his opinion instead of facts. One thing that I know for sure is that Sonderkommandos may be viewed by many as perpetrators, but no one can question that they were heroes for having destroyed Treblinka II and stopping the killings of Jews by thousands. It’s essential to grasp the concept and understand the importance of The Shoah not only by a survivor or someone who was directly affected by The Shoah, but to learn about it by a second party. The reason it’s important to learn it from a second party is that they bring an outside look that is not affected by emotions or

The study group had wanted to see if peoples ' attitudes changed if they were exposed to external stimuli encouraging the reinforcement for change. They wanted to do so in a controlled laboratory environment. 3. “Experimental social psychology offered the possibility that the questions of traditional rhetoric might be solved within the framework of controlled experiments” (p.190).

The experiment was conducted with the assistance of 40 volunteers who were between 20-50 years of age. They were rounded up by an advertisment on the newspaper promoting male volunteers to take part in a study at Yale University. The were paid $4.50 each for their cooperation with the experiment (Milgram, 1963). The procedure was that the volunteer was assigned with someone else and they had to draw

Milgram’s baseline experiment was to study whether people would comply with an authority figure during a brutal experiment or if they would utilize their own morals to make the experiment stop. This study was influenced by the Holocaust and Nazi war crimes. For his experiment he had taught an accomplice to pretend to receive electric shocks. The experimental subject/administrator was placed in front of some sort of dial and they were told would give them incrementing levels of shock to the actor. The administrator would then ask a series of questions and if he answered incorrectly the actor would then receive an electric shock.

Marshall Aid contributed to the deteriorating relations between the two super powers after 1945. The USSR questioned American motives to provide aid to European countries and declared it as expansionist. In Truman’s address to the joint session of Congress 1947 he stated that he “believe(d) that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting” he then follows on to say “The peoples of a number of countries of the world have recently had totalitarian regimes forced upon them… the coercion and intimidation, in violation of the Yalta agreement in Poland, Rumania and Bulgaria” . Mentioning the new soviet satellite states was directly attacking the Soviet Union and Stalin. In this speech Truman is trying to sell the Truman Doctrine to Congress emphasising the need to adopt a policy of containment, in order to address a significant issue at the time – the fear of communism.

Introduction: Many people have been in situations where they have been sad or depressed, today we can say that depression is an illness or disorder that affects an individuals ' mind and body. Moments of depression can be a normal coping mechanism during life struggles, a normal response to loss, or a damaged self-esteem. When feelings of intense sadness including feelings of helpless, hopeless and worthiness last for a substantial amount of days, it can keep one from functioning normally. Depression may be something more than sadness. It can very well be clinical depression which is a treatable medical condition.

In this essay I will argue implicit bias can in fact force people to adopt some sort of skepticism. To defend my argument I will provide definitions of both skepticism and implicit bias. Next I will provide an example of how skepticism can be formed from implicit bias. I will support the example by using evidence from A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice by Herbert Simon.

It also included a drug test and required me to fill out dozens of forms. After the long background process, I had finally started my first day working with the SDCDA on April 15th. I work every Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 7:00 am to 2:00

The experiments began in July of 1961 at Yale University. Milgram put an ad in the paper for male participants to help with an educational study. The participants that had been selected were paid just for showing up. The experiment involved three people: the scientist (actor), the learner (actor), and the teacher (participant). The learner and teacher would randomly draw to find out who would receive which role, but it was fixed so the participant would receive the teacher every time (McLeod, 2007).

Allowing such a provision would allow the government to have too much power, and contradicts the purpose of the First

According to Michael Wilbon of ESPN said that the NCAA signed a contract with CBS Sports that spans from 2011-2024 and costed the NCAA $10.8 billion. That contract will pay the NCAA about $830 million dollars per year. So the profit for NCAA is at least $1 billion dollars in a span of 3 weeks of basketball. So where does this money go obviously it goes somewhat to the players but it mainly goes to the university, I think athletes should directly get that money so they can pay for stuff that they need during their time at college. According to Joe Nocera of the New York Times, if college athletes were paid there might be a less likely chance of scandals like the one at Miami University.

Obedience is tested by how long the subject will continue to “shock the victim”. The point of this study is to determine if Americans are obedient even if they know the act is wrong. 2. What is/are the research questions and/or hypothesis/hypotheses? How obedient would subjects be to researchers when it comes to shocking a victim?