Social Psychology - Obedience to Authority

Introduction

In this essay I will be talking about obedience to authority, ‘doing what you are told to do’.  In particular, a study that was carried out in 1963, by the Psychologist, Stanley Milgram at Yale University.

Milgrams' interest in obedience stemmed from a fascination with the Holocaust and how ordinary people submitted to those they saw as being in control, by freely carrying out their orders and taking part in the atrocities.

Aim

The aim of this essay is to discuss the findings of and offer a conclusion to Milgrams’ study of obedience and to give one criticism of this study.

Method

A controlled laboratory experiment was carried out.

Milgram advertised for male volunteers to participate in a study of memory and learning. When the volunteers arrived at the University laboratory they were met by the researcher, who was dressed in a white lab coat, he said that they were participating in a memory project to study how people learn.  

They were told that one person was to act as the teacher and the other the learner and they were to draw lots to see who took on each role.  This selection process was in fact rigged so that the true volunteers became the teachers and that members of Milgrams’ team became the learners.   The teacher then saw the learner being strapped to an ‘electric chair’ and was taken to an adjoining room so that the learner was out of view but could still be heard.

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The teacher was then sat in front of the fake shock machine, which was calibrated in 15 volt increments going from 15 to 450 volts.  The increments were grouped in 4’s and had written words above them going from ‘Slight shock’ to the final switches that were labelled ‘Danger XXX’. The Researcher remained in the same room as the Teacher.

The learner had to repeat pairs of words that he was supposed to have remembered.  If an incorrect answer was given, an electric shock was administered by the teacher.  With each wrong answer the teacher was instructed to move up ...

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