FREE ESSAY ON STUDIES OF OBEDIENCE

STUDIES OF OBEDIENCE

Studies of Obedience
Jason Stewart
November 30, 2000
Milgram's study of obedience looked at the question of if and to what degree people will
follow authority over their own morales or preference. Yale students were asked to
hypothesize what might be the outcome of this kind of experiment, given the specifics of
the methods and procedures. Their response was that a total of 3% at the very most would
inflict pain to "victims" of the experiment at a certain level of pain (named "Very
Strong Shock"). The way the procedure was set up was that some would be chosen to be
teachers and others learners. This was rigged so that already designated learners would
respond to the treatment (electric shocks for incorrect answers to word association
questions) in a predetermined way. The study was on the teachers and if they could
continue with the experiment to the end knowing that they were inflicting pain on the
victim. Certain measures were taken to make this seem real to the teachers and,
therefore, get the psychological results of such an experiment. The results were far from
the predictions made my the Yale students. Twenty-six of the 40 participants "obeyed"
(well over 50% when the predicted amount was 3%)or went the entire procedure of
inflicting all levels of pain for incorrect answers to word association questions. The
other 14 ended the experiment along the way at their discretion. These participants were
labeled "defiant". 
In some of the discussion in this article, it was mentioned that obedience to authority
similar to this experiment is what explains the concentration camps of WW2 and that time.
This implies that the soldiers and gentiles of Europe did murder and torture Jews (and
others) more out of obedience than for a specific purpose. And now that Milgram has been
successful in showing the influence of authority on people despite their knowing better
or good judgment, it seems that he has implied that obedience is a power of influence on
the psychology of people and their behavior. Although Milgram's method of completing such
a study is probably unethical to most, I consider it to be the least stressful and
dangerous way to extract such information from participants. No real harm was done to the
victims. The only harm done is the mental stress of the teachers which should be
considered. However, having said that, I certainly would be angry if this was ever done
to me. There is no truly ethical way to research obedience accurately, however, I would
give my approval. But then again, I would not partake of the experiment myself.
Bibliography
American Psychologist, 1964, 19, pp. 848-852.