Milgram's Obedience Experiment: A Personal Episodic Memory

Milgram's experiment is about how people have blind obedience to authority it also called a shock experiment. His Experiment was created to explain some of the concentration camp horrors of the World War 2, where Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Slavs and other enemies of the state were slaughtered by Nazis. In the holocaust, jews people were tortured because Hitler told their people to torture Jewish people, so people were following this world blindly without knowing why they are doing that. Many people claim that they were just following the orders, and could not hold to be responsible for their action.

Psychologist, Stanley Milgram, wanted to know if people would cause harm on other humans simply because they were ordered to do so (he was inspired by Nazi soldiers, who corrected their actions in World War II by saying they were just following orders).

The experimenter betrayed the participants who were made to believe that they were imposing pain on the learners and were put on stress. Some teachers even believed that they have hurt or killed the learner causing a lot of stress. Milgram also lied about the experiments, informing his participants that the purpose of the experiment was to study about the effects of punishment on learning; however the real purpose of the experiment was to measure the obedience. Even though the participants were not informed after the experiment was over, opponents believed that it was not enough because it did not stop the psychological damage that have affected the

Why do people follow orders or directions given by authority figures? People tend to obey orders from people they recognize as a higher authority pose a threat to their safety.This can occur in many places and situations like families, work, and even school. This was put to test when Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment in 1963. The author notes, “Milgram was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person,” (Mcleod 1). This experiment consisted of a teacher, learner, and experimenter. Participants were 40 males aging between 20 and 50 whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional. These regular men were assigned to either an electric chair or the controller of the chair.

In Lord of the Flies, the boys act out of fear and cruelty instead of showing heroism and nobility, thus displaying the weakness of the human heart when faced with extreme circumstances. All the fear the boys have is because they are alone on an island without any civilization. Along with the loneliness, the speculation of a terrifying beast leads to Jack – the oldest choir boy – becoming a savage. He does what he wants despite establishing rules and a leader at the start and turning the rest of the boys savage as well. His true savagery comes out when they kill Simon – a younger choir boy. They are all caught up in the dancing and the meat and when Simon comes with news about the beast, they do not even realize it is him. The fear of the

Milgram (1963) used deception in his studies on obedience, which has been repeatedly criticised. The participants in the experiments actually believed they had administered painful electric shocks to another human being, and were visibly distressed throughout the experiment. Although they were not forced to stay and complete the experiment, they were consistently encouraged to keep going despite their obvious discomfort.

In an experiment described in Stanley Milgram’s article ,“The Perils of Obedience” most of the subjects as described as teachers, tend to follow orders from the experimenter even when they knew the victim (student) were being hurt by the electric shocks. The experiment in detail is to test how much pain someone can give to another just because he was ordered to. The experiment was divided between two people, a student and a teacher. They were to read a pair of words, then remember the second word afterwards. If the answer was incorrect then they were to be punished by the electric shock. In this case, the teacher is the main focus and the learner is the actor, who is just supposed to act in the experiment and he doesn’t get the shock at all. There were lots of switches that were designated from low to strong voltage. The teacher was supposed to shock the learner and when he did, he grunts at 75 volts, and he complains loudly at 150 volt. So as the voltage increased, he gets very emotional. Not experimented but another point to be analyzed is in Asch’s experiment. In an experiment, a group of students were instructed to answer incorrectly to the questions to see if the subject answers following the groups answer. This experiment not only tests the person’s decision making, but also the idea of following orders from others. For example, Asch states, “…members of the group were instructed by the experimenter

Stanley Milgram experiment is concerning peoples’ willingness to conform to an authority figure. The question Milgram was trying to answer was would a subject kill with electrical shock, due to an authority figure instructing them too. One individual was the learner being hooked up to electrodes, however, not literally. The teacher would be the lab rat thinking he was administering a shock for each fallacious response, and with each erroneous reply the shock would intensify. The astonishing fact was all participants would continue to 300 volts, which would precipitate extreme torment. Furthermore, two-thirds would proceed on to shock the learner with 450 volts, which would result in death, hypothetically.

Asch’s experiments researched conformity and compliance, when one changes their behaviors to align with the beliefs of a group. Milgram’s studies observed conditions that fostered obedience and contribute to the development of the agentic state theory, one’s tendency to rationalize that responsibilities and blame lie on the authority figure.

Stanley Milgram wants to know how people would go in obeying an instruction. For his experiment he stand a procedure it is different from others. His experiment taken at human beings. 40 males aged between 20 and 50 were selected for the experiment, These 40 males were professionals who is unskilled. There is a teacher and learner in his experiment. The learner was strapped to a chair with electrodes. After he has to learn pairs which was given for him to study, the teacher tests him to learn and tests him by naming a word and asking the learner to remember its partner from a list of the

You are responsible for setting up a replication of Milgram’s experiment on obedience. What would you change and why?

I remember when my sister and I went to Miami this summer. I can remember the exact time and date we went there for her birthday. This information is recalled in my semantic memory. We also went with some friends, and we had a great time. When we were in the airport, we were waiting to board the plane, and in the meantime I decided to make a phone call. My sister was sitting in front of me, and she stood up to go to the restroom for a moment. In fact, I was very distracted looking at the phone that I did not even noticed she was gone for a second. This happened because my inattentional blindness was active.

Do we, as humans, respond to authority figures when given a command to do something that we know is wrong or do we listen to our conscious and react on our morals and beliefs? I think this is what the Milgram Studies/Experiment sought to find out. According to the book on page 365, in 1963 Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram wondered how many people would resist immoral requests made by authority figures. From my understanding, this psychologist performed experiments to study the obedience of people. These studies were called the Milgram studies on obedience (Rathus, 2013). After reading the book, I understand that the study had 40 subjects who had different careers and backgrounds such as teachers and high school dropouts. I thought that was different because I assumed the people would all be someone who is already in an authoritative position so it would come easy for them to obey commands given to them. According to the book, they were given a reasonable fee for their time to participate in the study. The experiment was explained to the subjects as the effects

Milgram’s experiment on obedience and power is arguably one of the most important experiments conducted in social psychology. However, the original experiment can only be conducted by breaking the principle of nonmaleficence. As such, without the ability to replicate the experiment without violating nonmaleficence its findings are limited to the situation of the original experiment. However, through the work of Prof. Burger (2009) and Prof. Dolinski (2017), Milgram’s experiment has been replicated in the modern century and without violating nonmaleficence. Thus, if these experiments accurately replicate Milgram’s findings, Milgram’s own findings can be applied to the full breadth of social psychology.

The other is procedural memory. It is usually the natural response to the surroundings, such as how to ride a bicycle or play the instrument. This type of long term memory can be remembered without consciously think about it.