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Milgram's Experiment Essay

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Ethics are a big deal to our society today. Its what guides are experiments and are a defining line for experimenters in todays day and age. Back then in the late 1900’s was much different. Experiments could push that idea of ethical much farther then they could today. In Milgram,s study of obedience, raises a question of not just ethical but moral as well. Milgram’s procedures for his experiment was easy, The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose) and for each of these the teacher gave him …show more content…

Zimbardo’s procedures are as followed, participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment. There were 2 reserves and one dropped out, finally leaving 10 prisoners and 11 guards. The guards worked in sets of 3 (being replaced after an 8 hour shift), and the prisoners were housed 3 to a room. There was also a solitary confinement cell for prisoners who 'misbehaved '. The prison simulation was kept as “real life” as possible. Prisoners were treated like every other criminal, being arrested at their own homes, without warning, and taken to the local police station. They were fingerprinted, photographed and ‘booked’. Then they were blindfolded and driven to the psychology department of Stanford University, where Zimbardo had had the basement set out as a real life prison, (McLeod, 2008). Right there is the biggest ethical issued raised in the whole experiment. I do not believe that this particular is necessary nor ethical. I do believe however, the experiment was vital in finding a key element in how people in society assume roles. Both experiments did however bring results that were astonishing to the department of psychology and was well used for future experiments. I believe that based off of older experiments and as time progressed, more and more ethical guidelines were put in place to protect such

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