Obedience to Authority
Stanley Milgram
Summary:
Chapter 9: Group Effects. Milgriam differentiates between conformity and obedience. Conformity comes from peers, the person is not proud or does not easily admit they have conform to a situation. Obedience comes from authority, hierarchical authority, the person will easily admit they committed an act because they were being obedient and following orders. Milgram describes the variations in experiments 17 and 18 (group experiments), as well as its results.
Chapter 10: Why Obedience? - An Analysis. In this chapter Milgram discuses reasons why obedience happens.How hierarchical models can explain and affect obedience, as wells as the variability involved. At the end of this chapter Milgram introduced the agnetic shift, when a person shifts from autonomy to following other individual's wishes.
Chapter 11: The Process of Obedience: Milgram discusses more in depth the agnetic state, trying to explain the antecedent conditions, consequences and binding factors surrounding it. Some of the antecedent conditions include mention are family, institutional setting (school), rewards. He also goes in detail about the binding factors, which keeps the individual in the agnetic state.
Chapter 12: Strain and Disobedience. In this chapter, Milgram explains the effect of strains and strain-resolving mechanisms have on whether the subject obeys or disobeys. When the biding factors are greater than the net value of restrain, subjects obey; when less, they disobey. He goes on by defining strain, sources of strain and techniques that attempt to resolve it.
Chapter 13: An Alternative Theory: Is Aggression the Key?: Milgram makes note of the alternative theory of why subjects were capable of shocking the learner. The theory was aggression; the teacher wanting to hurt the the learner. Milgram explains how this was studied in a similar experiment, but he assures that this is not the cause, but the relationship to obedience teachers had.
Chapter 14: Problems of Method: In this chapter, Milgram answers to three questions that were raised as critics of the experiment. In his answers he refutes any opposing view points, and restates his. The critics question whether the subjects of the experiment correctly represented society at large, whether they did not believe shocks were real since the beginning, and if it is possible to generalize the results to real life experiences.
Chapter 14: Problems of Method: In this chapter, Milgram answers to three questions that were raised as critics of the experiment. In his answers he refutes any opposing view points, and restates his. The critics question whether the subjects of the experiment correctly represented society at large, whether they did not believe shocks were real since the beginning, and if it is possible to generalize the results to real life experiences.
Discussion:
Milgram makes an important distinction between conformity and obedience. I think many people, including myself, would believe that if someone is instructing you to do something you don't want to, and try to resist but are not capable of of breaking off, then this person is conforming to the authority's wishes. However, Milgram describes this situation to one of obedience, and not conformity.
There is a very complex explanation on how obedience is carried out, and it is really interesting to realize how so many factors are involved in the this process. How he defined the agnetic shift and state. Even though, Milgram was vague with his definitions of strain and buffers (in my opinion), he was still able to explain and demonstrate their effect over obedience.
Even though aggression maybe one of the first things people think about when learning about this experiment, Milgram was able to prove with one of his experiments this is not such a case. However, I believe that in an extended situation such as Nazi Germany, individuals inflicting pain in other people may become aggressive the longer they stay in this situation.
I really liked the last chapter. Even though I thought this chapter was going to be a summary, it was more like a rebuttal chapter where Milgram is able to prove wrong opposite views and critics about his experiments. However, it would have been good if he had considered the effects the experiment had on the subjects. One of the first things one thinks about when learning about the experiment is cruelty and how subjects may think of themselves after they have participated in the experiment.
Milgram makes an important distinction between conformity and obedience. I think many people, including myself, would believe that if someone is instructing you to do something you don't want to, and try to resist but are not capable of of breaking off, then this person is conforming to the authority's wishes. However, Milgram describes this situation to one of obedience, and not conformity.
There is a very complex explanation on how obedience is carried out, and it is really interesting to realize how so many factors are involved in the this process. How he defined the agnetic shift and state. Even though, Milgram was vague with his definitions of strain and buffers (in my opinion), he was still able to explain and demonstrate their effect over obedience.
Even though aggression maybe one of the first things people think about when learning about this experiment, Milgram was able to prove with one of his experiments this is not such a case. However, I believe that in an extended situation such as Nazi Germany, individuals inflicting pain in other people may become aggressive the longer they stay in this situation.
I really liked the last chapter. Even though I thought this chapter was going to be a summary, it was more like a rebuttal chapter where Milgram is able to prove wrong opposite views and critics about his experiments. However, it would have been good if he had considered the effects the experiment had on the subjects. One of the first things one thinks about when learning about the experiment is cruelty and how subjects may think of themselves after they have participated in the experiment.
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