Stanley Milgram's Experiments on Obedience

A detailed Summary of Stanley Milgram's Experiments on Obedience


Obedience is a basic part in the structure of society, and its destructiveness has been questioned throughout time. Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to test the destructiveness of obedience; however, Diana Baumrind discredits Milgram and criticizes his experiments in her article "Review of Stanley Milgram's Experiments on Obedience."

Baumrind's commentary discusses how Milgram's experiments could not make a difference in society claiming that the subjects experienced emotional harm and the procedures were carried out in an environment which could have influenced the results. Milgram's experiments were an attempt to discover the control authority has over society.

Milgram wanted to test the level of obedience in society by seeing how much pain a person would inflict on another because they were given orders. The experiment was conducted at Yale University inside a laboratory. The tests consisted of a teacher who is the subject, a learner who is an actor, and an experimenter who gives the orders. The teacher gives the learner shocks, increasing the voltage with each wrong answer, while the experimenter

watches. The learner protested the shocks by screaming and yelling. Throughout the experiments, many of the sub


towards authority. Baumrind reveals that even though the destructiveness of obedience has always been questioned, experiments such as Milgram's would never find the answer.

destructive deeds because they were following orders. By obeying orders and participating in the experiment, the subjects experienced emotional harm.

jects argued with the authority figure due to the harm they were inflicting on the learner, but did not stop the tests fearing that they would seem disrespectful. Some of the subjects were happy with the experiment thinking they were a step which could lead

Baumrind's article justifies her claims that the subjects endured emotional harm and the setting caused the subjects to be submissive. These points make Milgram's experiments seem unconvincing. Society was not accurately represented; therefore, there was no overall impact on

could have been more effective. Even with this weakness, the lack of influence the experiment had on society was accurately represented.

to scientific knowledge. Those that were upset with the experiment thought that due to the learners protests nothing was accomplished. A survey was taken before the experiment to see how far people thought the subjects would go. Many p

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Approximate Word count = 837
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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