Prejudice

Obedience

Kala Wyatt

PSY285

September 20, 2013

Catherine Jenkins

Obedience

The video Original Milgram Experiment is a very interesting video, in which Milgram shows what people would do in certain situations that they would not do in other situations, “What is there in human nature that allows an individual to act without no restraints whatsoever; so that he can act inhumanly, harshly, severely, and in no way limited by feeling of compassion or conscious.” In the video he has a shock system in which people are tested by social scientists and given shocks in which they are given for answering a question incorrectly. I believe that it was an unethical experiment and was disturbing at the lengths he went to, to test his hypothesis.

Obedience is something we face every day – we obey the rules at work, the rules to driving, the laws of our nation and local society – it comes in commands, instructions, directions, and orders. Obedience is a form of social influence when an individual acts in response to a direct order from another individual who is usually an authoritive figure. However, obedience is something that follows when you are told to do something, whereas conformity happens through social pressure. People usually do things because they are told to by an authority figure has asked them to do so. For example, if my boss came in and said, “Kala, please write a termination letter for Bob but I want you to put something in there that gives a good reason as to why I should fire him.” However, Bob has done nothing wrong and is just a little slow at understanding due to a mental illness – I would follow what my boss (authority figure) has told me (obedience) to do because he is my boss and I simply have to keep my job although I would feel that it was wrong because it goes against my morals of judging someone instead of helping them. Milgram showed that most times we will obey the individual we deem as authority to us no matter if it goes...