The experiment offers a description of the procedures for the overall studies in terms of the destructive obedience within the laboratory. On the other hand, this is fully consistent with the ordering of administration of the increasingly severe punishment to victims in line with a learning experiment. In this case, punishment is issued through shock generators having close to 30 graded switches that range from Slight Shock all the way to Danger (Severe Shock). The victims are confederate of E. in this case; the primary dependent variable includes the maximum shock the subject has willingness to administer prior refusing to continue any further (Milgram, 1963). The procedure which was created in such extreme levels in terms of the nervous tension within the Ss includes profuse sweating, stuttering, and trembling. These were typical expressions for the emotional disturbance.
The research methods were used focused on 40 males of ages between 20 and 50 and were drawn from New Haven as well as other surrounding communities. The subjects were also solicited through newspaper advertisements and mail (direct) solicitation. The responsive people in appealing to the same also believed that they were in a position of participating in studies of memory and also learn at Yale University (Milgram, 1963). The typical subjects used included salesmen, postal clerks, engineers, high school teachers, and laborers.
The findings of the experiment were derived from making a thorough consideration of the manner in which persons predict others’ performance when under instructions to administer critical shocks to each other. Based on the methodology used, fourteen Yale seniors, all of whom were psychology majors, were availed with detailed descriptions of the situation of the experiment. They were also requested to carefully reflect on it for the purposes of predicting the behavior of close to 100 hypothetical subjects. Specifically, they were required to plot a distribution curve of obedience for “100 Americans from diverse occupations with ages ranging in across 20 to 50 years placed within the experimental situation. Eventually, there was considerable appreciation among the respondents for the hypothetical subjects’ expected behavior (Milgram, 1963). The respondents also predicted that only insignificant minorities would be in a position of going through to the ending shock series. The outcomes estimates spread from 0 to 3%. This means that the most “pessimistic” elements of the class made predictions of the fact that in a population of close to 100 persons, 3 would eventually continue through to potent shock available based on the shock generator (450 volts). In addition, the class mean further related to 1.2% posing the question informally to colleagues for the experiment and the most overall feeling was that a number of the subjects would go past the designation of Very Strong Shock.
One of the lessons learnt from their findings, the Subjects Accept Situation subjects developed a conviction of the reality in terms of the situation experimentally irrespective of the few exceptions. For this, there was an inclusion of the administration shocks to other persons where the most potent shocks were overly painful. Based on the post-experimental interviews that subjects were inquired of how painful the last few shocks administered to them to the learner were, the subjects were commanded to indicate their responses on printed 14-point scales ranging from “Extremely painful” to “Not at all painful”. In turn, the modal responses were close to 14 (Extremely painful) with a 13.42 mean (Milgram, 1963). Signs of Extreme Tension for most subjects indicated signs of nervousness during the experimental situation which was especially based on the administration of the more powerful shocks.
For the large numbers of cases, the overall degree for the tension that also reached extremes was based on the fact that they were rarely perceived to be in socio-psychological laboratory studies. On the other hand, subjects appeared to sweat, tremble, bite their lips, stutter, groan, while digging their fingernails into flesh. These aspects formed characteristic over exceptional responses within the experiments. A critical sign of tension for this was based on the fact that the regular occurrence for the nervous laughing fits. Indeed, fourteen of the entire 40 subjects illustrated definite signs of developing nervous laughter and smiling. For this reason, the laughter entirely seemed to be out of place and mostly bizarre. The full-blown and uncontrollable seizures became thorough observations for 3 subjects (Milgram, 1963). On one event, it appears that there are extensive seizures which are violently convulsive for the necessity of calling for a stop to the experiment.
The experiment relates to the psychology 1010 course based on the fact that the career at hand is that of teaching and the other person is the learner, is a special contributor of a chance consequence (as determined by drawing lots). The subject ran similar risks as those of other men in being assigned learner roles. The fact that the assignment of positions within this experiment was achieved through fair means, the learner is however deprived of a basis of complaint due to this count. Moreover, this experiment occurs within closed settings, and therefore does not provide any opportunity for such subjects to remotely remove the ambiguities through discussing them with others.
References
Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378.
