Essay on Authority and Obedience - 2310 Words

Authority and Obedience Thesis: We consciously or unconsciously obey authority in all walks of life on a daily basis. Obedience is when there is legitimate power, there is pressure to comply. Compliance with that which is required by authority; subjection to rightful restraint or control. Authority being the legal or rightful power; a right to command or enforce obedience on another. This essay shall discuss, explore and evaluate the explanations as to why people obey authority. After the Nazis justified genocide by saying that they were simply following orders, a psychologist named Stanley Milgram (1963) decided to carry out a study to try to answer the question of how far individuals†¦show more content†¦He introduced a further participant, who was in fact an accomplice actor. The participants drew lots to determine who would be the learner and who would be the teacher. Brantt drew the teacher role, and the actor, the learner role. Brantt was unaware that the roles had been fixed. The lesson was to learn a verbal task and the teacher administered a shock each time the learner got the answer wrong. The shock was increased by one increment every time a wrong answer was given. The learner was strapped to a chair which was connected to a very imposing looking shock generator which ranged between 15 volts and 450 volts. On the generator the words labeled the shock gage from slight shock to DANGER: SEVERE SHOCK. In fact, although it appeared to, the generator did not emit any electrical shock at all. The actor was instructed to cry out at 150 volts and intensify the level of verbal reaction as the volts increased. At 300 volts he was instructed to pound on the wall, later ceasing to reply or make any further noise. No response to a question was seen to be a wrong answer, therefore the teacher would be told to carry on shocking. The study was to be watched by the experimenter (the figure of authority who would order the teacher to continue to the end). Brantt responded as Milgram had predicted. She was calm and cool.Show MoreRelatedObedience to Authority1250 Words   |  5 PagesObedience to Authority No human social organization can function without some degree of obedience to authority, as the alternative would be anarchy leading to total chaos. Hence we find some sort of a hierarchy in both the most underdeveloped and the most civilized societies where certain individuals exercise authority over others. Almost everyone will agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups (and their obedience by other groups) is desirable for the proper functioningRead MoreObedience to Authority1260 Words   |  6 PagesObedience to Authority No human social organization can function without some degree of obedience to authority, as the alternative would be anarchy leading to total chaos. Hence we find some sort of a hierarchy in both the most underdeveloped and the most civilized societies where certain individuals exercise authority over others. Almost everyone will agree that some degree of authority in certain individuals or groups (and their obedience by other groups) is desirable for the properRead MoreObedience to Authority Essays836 Words   |  4 Pageshuman being’s life; along with this, is the expectation of obedience to that authority. Through this obedience, many great things have been accomplished, as well as many instances of cruel and immoral acts. Defiance of the established authority, though, has also lead to great things, such as the creation and founding of the United States of America. In his writing, Obedience to Authority, Stanley Milgram examines the obedience to authority without question ing or taking responsibility and the problemsRead MoreObedience to Authority Essay1816 Words   |  8 PagesAuthority cannot exist without obedience. 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Obedience is when society influences where/ when an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual, who is usually the authority figure. It is assumed that without such an order the person would not have acted in this way. In order to obey authority, the obeying person has to acceptRead MoreAnnotated Bibliography On Obedience And Authority Essay1358 Words   |  6 Pagesof â€Å"Obedience to Authority,† Milgram aptly points out that â€Å"some system of authority is a requirement of all communal living†(Milgram 1). This is a universal human truth. Authority is something that humanity, from the beginning of time, has consistently relied upon. Milgram argues that â€Å"obedience is the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose† and that it is the â€Å"dispositional cement that binds men to systems of authority† (Milgram 1). I argue that obedience is asRead MoreAnnotated Bibliography On Obedience And Authority Essay1149 Words   |  5 Pages Part I: Research paper topic and outline Obedience to Authority Abbygale Javier [IT 150G, 14111; On-line; Elizabeth Rasnick; September 29, 2016] I. Introduction A. Motivation of this research There are little facts about the role of obedience up until now. Psychologists have been debating on factors that constitute obedience within an individual. For example, certain theories suggest that people do horrible actions only if they are ordered to do so. Research has shown that most people obey allRead MorePhysiological Evaluation : Obedience And Authority Essay1055 Words   |  5 PagesPhysiological Evaluation: Obedience to Authority In 1963, physiologist Stanley Milgram brought to light the idea of Obedience to Authority. He was stimulated by the trial and execution of Adolf Eichmann, a Nazi war criminal who was put to death for the crimes he committed under Hitler’s authority (McLeod , Obedience to Authority, 2007). The objective of his research was centered on the question: â€Å"Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could