Psychology and Obedience the Milgram Thesis

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Since they were conducted, the American Psychological Association (APA) has established rules and strict guidelines for ethical experimentation that would not allow the kind of deception used at that time. In both experiments, the subjects experienced numerous after-effects including depression, anxiety, and tremendous guilt and they received psychological counselling afterwards.

In the case of the Zimbardo experiment, it is understandable why the prisoners would have suffered from the experience, but it is less obvious why the prison guards and the subjects in the Milgram experiment would. The Milgram subjects in particular did not actually cause any harm to anybody because the setup and the shocks were completely faked. Still, the realization of what they were capable of doing shocked them and caused them tremendous shame, guilt, and anxiety. The members of the Zimbardo experiment have held periodic reunions with Dr. Zimbardo over the years and he filmed a documentary detailing their experiences during and long after the famous experiment. Much more recently, Dr. Zimbardo investigated the abuses of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib Detention Center in Iraq and concluded that some of the very same principles he illustrated almost forty years ago were responsible.

Obedience in Different Situations:

In modern society, there are many instances where the individual is expected to obey authority figures like police and other government authorities.

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Most people learn to obey authority figures at home in their family relationships when they are children. In many ways, this type of obedience training is beneficial to society, but it can also be dangerous. Relatively recent news reports detailed the abuse of high school age female employees at a fast food restaurant. An individual placed telephone calls to the office of the business and claimed to be a law enforcement officer investigating crimes committed by the female employees. He convinced total strangers to follow his instructions that began with spanking, then stripping, and finally sexually assaulting the female in the office.

The most difficult situations are those where someone with legitimate authority gives orders that are immoral and/or against the law. In some cases, the right thing to do is to follow one's conscience and ignore orders that are obviously unjustified. In cases where police or military personnel receive unlawful orders, they are authorized to disobey unlawful orders, but that can be very difficult to do because of institutional culture and also because of the consequences if their judgment was wrong and the orders were authorized after all......

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