HUM 101 The Milgram Experiment 1962 Video Discussion
Order ID 53563633773 Type Essay Writer Level Masters Style APA Sources/References 4 Perfect Number of Pages to Order 5-10 Pages Description/Paper Instructions
HUM 101 The Milgram Experiment 1962 Video Discussion
The milligram experiment : Preview YouTube video The Milgram Experiment 1962 Full Documentary The Milgram Experiment 1962 Full Documentary
Synopsis: Beginning in July 1961, Yale social psychologist Stanley Milgram ran a series of experiments in which he tested individuals’ obedience to authority. The experiments began three months after the trial of German Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann began in Israel. Milgram was interested in finding an explanation for the genocide of millions of Jewish and other people in Europe during the early to mid 1940s. Specifically, Milgram wanted to find out how participants would respond to instructions from authority figures to hurt a person who was innocent or had done nothing to the participants. More to the point, Milgram and his team set out to examine how much or if individuals would put aside their own moral and ethical reservations about hurting an innocent human being in favor of obeying authority. The study’s participants represented a variety of occupations and educational levels. Participants were told that they were participating in an experiment about learning and the effects of punishment on learning. Participants were instructed to administer an electric shock whenever the “learner,” (a member of Milgram’s team) provided an incorrect answer to a question. Each shock used more voltage than the last one and ultimately would have resulted in the “learner’s” death had the shocks been real. Milgram’s study revealed that many of the participants would obey all instructions, even if they had moral and ethical qualms and articulated those reservations. In 1963, Milgram detailed his research in an article in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology. In 1974, Milgram’s book Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View was published. Interestingly, the Milgram experiment has been repeated many times around the world with consistent results: most people obey even if they express moral and ethical reservations.
Assignment Instructions: Click on the above link or copy it into your browser. Choose one of the following questions below. Be sure that your response is at least two (2) pages long and turned in as an attachment. Use the “Attach Files” option and not the “Text” box for this assignment. When you are finished, attach your Word document in the area provided. Please do not use the “Text Submission”/”Write Submission” area to turn in this assignment.
Paper Formatting Instructions: When you type your response in a Word document, please make sure that your document has one-inch (1″) margins on the top, bottom, and sides. Be sure that you type your first and last name in the upper left-hand corner. Under your name, place the due date (November 3, 2021). Under the due date, type the course number (HUM 110-71). Under the course number, type Professor Stephenson. Underneath my name, include the title of the paper (i.e. the question you are answering). Each of these lines should be single-spaced. Be sure that each page is numbered. Choose one of the following for your two-page response paper:
1) What does Milgram learn about the moral reasoning of those who comply with orders they know are wrong? In other words, what moral and or ethical rationalizations or excuses do these people provide, if any, to Milgram’s questions regarding their decisions to comply? Be detailed and specific.
2) According to Milgram, “…[W]henever elements that function autonomously are brought into a system of hierarchal coordination, changes are required in the internal structure of the elements. These changes constitute the system requirements, and they invariably entail some suppression of local control in the interest of system coherence. System coherence is attained when all parts of the system are functioning in harmony and not at cross-purposes” (“Why Obedience?–An Analysis,” p. 129). What would be the result if individuals in a system (organization) did not act agentically and, rather, acted autonomously when acting within that system, if Milgram’s theory is correct? Be detailed and specific.
3) How do some of the experiment’s (unwitting) participants react when they realize that they were the subjects of Milgram’s obedience study? How do they rationalize the decisions they made to torture other human beings even when they believed that what they were being asked to do and what they were doing were wrong?
4) How might the power and authority of the people running the experiment contribute to Milgram’s finding that 60 percent of participants delivered electric shocks to a man who screamed in pain and begged them to stop? Be detailed and specific.
5) According to Neher and Sandin’s “Ethics in Interpersonal Communication: Relationship and Character,” We can prevent becoming manipulators of others with whom we have an interpersonal relationship by always self-disclosing our interests, biases, and wishes. This disclosure allows the other to make the decision to engage us around those issues, or not. We can trust that the other person will be equally self-disclosing, thus giving us those same choices, but we cannot control the unethical practices of the manipulators of that trust” (p. 149). One of the major criticisms of Milgram’s experiments was his decision to conceal the true focus of his study to participants. Those critical of Milgram’s study claim he manipulated participants, which is widely considered unethical. Does Milgram manipulate the subjects in the study? Why or why not? What is Milgram’s moral reasoning for doing so if he did, in fact, manipulate his subjects? Be detailed and specific.