Behavioral Study of Obedience

Behavioral study of obedience

Summary

This article represents a detailed account of the research carried out by Stanley Miligram at Yale University . The study was set to investigate the negative / destructive side of obedience . It involved more than 40 grown-up American volunteers representing diverse professions that ranged from laborers to great scholars . They were briefed on the research main objectives and selected to either play the role of experimenter , subject (teacher ) or victim (learner . The experiment carried out in Yale 's laboratory required a naive subject to administer electric shock

' gradually as a form of punishment to a victim each time the victim answered wrongly to a question . The shock generator was graded in intervals of 15 volts with thirty such grades . Each time the victim answered wrongly the subject was under instructions from the experimenter to press a button that connected to the graduated shock generator system that increased the voltage by a margin of 15 volts . The purpose of the study as explained by Milgram was to investigate how human beings respond to authority (power . Though naturally it is difficult for immorally upright person to administer electric shock to another innocent person , it was interesting when milligram 's subjects went on to administer fatal shocks to the victims . This confirms that human beings are powerless and are likely to succumb to authority by obeying its s even if they are against the fundamental moral standards

Answers to reflection question about the study

The Milgram experiment consisted of three...