The article investigates the mixed messages sent from the White House in America for the hunt of those in the al-Qaeda. The analysis below studies three issues, with evidence and possible suggestions.

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Tim Carr

Psychology Coursework

The article investigates the mixed messages sent from the White House in America for the hunt of those in the al-Qaeda.  The analysis below studies three issues, with evidence and possible suggestions.

Issue One

The first issue is that of blind obedience.  This means that people automatically perform tasks, regardless of whether they’re correct or not.  “The suicide bomb that killed 12 people…terrorist attack” strengthens this issue – it shows how terrorists are prepared to take their own life so that they can affect others.  The other angle of the similar idea is that of scapegoating, and how President Bush is using his leadership. Evidence supporting that blind obedience occurs in society comes from Milgram.

Evidence One

Milgram’s study aimed to see how obedient people would be.  The idea was that people would not do as the experimenter said and “electrocute” people.  However, the findings showed that 40 people went up to giving a 300-volt shock to the “learner”, which surprised researchers.  The astonishing link is that President Bush is using a similar tactic - his position of authority - to get the politics out of the “embarrassment for the Administration…” by announcing Mr Padilla’s arrest.  This shows how obedience from authority figures still exists today in society, as it did when the experimenter in Milgram’s study “prodded” people to continue to perform a bizarre task.

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Suggestion One

A possible suggestion to address the issue comes from Milgram’s study.  It shows how the public should perhaps question authority figures when it comes to performing bizarre tasks.  However, the study alone is assumptive in that the task had an incentive of money, and participants were told that it was “for the good of psychology”.  Being asked to perform such a task in public may have a different affect.  A possibility may be to find those with an obedient trait at birth, should it be a biological aspect, and somehow fix the problem.  However, obedience is more ...

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