A Brief Summary of Milgrams Seminal Research on Obedience...

Social psychology, as a discipline, has given relatively little attention to the problem of evil in society, and those discussions in this field that do exist typically regard evil actions as only varieties of aggression without any characteristics that distinguish them from other forms of intentional mistreatment of others (Berkowitz, 1999). Because of the fields situationistic perspective emphasizing the individuals susceptibility to the power of the immediate situation, social psychologists generally view the fairly high levels of obedience to authority displayed in Milgrams classic experiment as the paradigmatic example of evil behavior (Berkowitz, 1999). Reading about the work of Ross and Nisbett, 1991 (as cited in Berkowitz,†¦show more content†¦According to Zimbardo and Gerrig, 1999, p. 793 (as cited in Mastroianni, 2002, p. 159) explained â€Å"what made thousands of Nazis willing to follow Hitler’s orders and send millions of Jews to the gas chambers? Milgram’s research showed that the blind obedience of Nazis during World War II was the outcome of situational forces that could engulf anyone.† The aims and objectives of this paper is to provide a brief summary of Milgrams seminal research on obedience to authority, and describing Milgrams methodology as well as his results and his interpretation of those results. Additionally, we will be discussing what current research has found regarding conforming to authority. One of the biggest questions we will be asking in this paper, will the moderately of individuals most tend to conform to authority? Lastly, we will be explaining and discussing what current research supports or refutes Milgrams findings and then provide an overall conclusion about the origins of conforming to authority and how Milgram’s research has contributed to the field of social psychology. Summary of Milgram’s Research to Obedience to Authority Stanley Milgram, a well-known social psychologist within the 1960’s focused his studies on social influence and obedience to authority. The impact of his research and experiments made such a profound discovery findingShow MoreRelatedDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesManager: Kelly Warsak Senior Operations Supervisor: Arnold Vila Operations Specialist: Ilene Kahn Senior Art Director: Janet Slowik Interior Design: Suzanne Duda and Michael Fruhbeis Permissions Project Manager: Shannon Barbe Manager, Cover Visual Research Permissions: Karen Sanatar Manager Central Design: Jayne Conte Cover Art: Getty Images, Inc. Cover Design: Suzanne Duda Lead Media Project Manager: Denise Vaughn Full-Service Project Management: Sharon Anderson/BookMasters, Inc. Composition: Integra