Behavioral Study Of Obedience
Amaejuma Ajagbawa
Psy 1010 LD14
Dr. Janice Wright
Abstract
Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted a series of obedience experiments during the 1960s that demonstrated surprising results. These experiments offer a powerful and disturbing look into the power of authority and obedience. Milgram started his experiments in 1961, shortly after the trial of the World War II criminal Adolph Eichmann had begun. Eichmann’s defense that he was simply following instructions when he ordered the deaths of millions of Jews roused Milgram’s interest. In his 1974 book Obedience to Authority, Milgram posed the question, "Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?” Milgram recruited people for his experiment who were from different walks of life. Participants were lied to and told that they will be examined for the effects of punishment on their learning ability. A token sum of money was offered to them for their involvement. Participants also had the opportunity to play the role of a student or a teacher; despite the fact all the respondents eventually became the teacher. The learner was a performer operating as a cohort of the person carrying out the experiment.
Keywords: Stanley Milgram, teacher, experimenter, student, obedience, psychology, shock generator etc.
Behavioral Study Of Obedience.
The Milgram’s experiment on Obedience to authority figure was a series of experiment in social psychology conducted by Stanley Milgram, a Yale University social psychologist at Yale University starting in 1961. The experiment measured how the willingness of study participants obey to authority figure; how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person just because an experimental scientist ordered him to which instructed them to perform acts that conflicted...