A Consideration of the Ends Justifying the Means of...

A Consideration of the Ends Justifying the Means of Milgram’s Research Into Obedience Stanley Milgram carried out a series of studies in 1963 and 1973 related to obedience to authority. These studies have been viewed as controversial ever since, mainly because of the ethical issues they raise. Although he was able to obtain conclusive results and discover that under certain situational influences anybody might obey orders that went against their conscience; the way in which he carried out his studies was arguably unethical and contributed to the BPS Ethical Principles. What are the implications of this study? * That at that time, people were very willing to follow the commands of†¦show more content†¦* The IV was the presence of the authority figure and the DV was the obedience rate. The experimenters used a deception to get subjects to act in a natural way. How did social and political issues affect the study at the time? Milgrams work was inspired by his interest in the behaviour of war criminals at war crimes trials after the WWII. Many of the defendants had argued that they had simply been following orders. Milgram was interested in seeing if this obedience was a German trait, but he never got to Germany because the results of his preliminary research in the USA were so unexpected. ===================================================================== Informed Consent ================ Milgram’s participants were not offered the choice of informed consent, they were told the experiment was being conducted for a different reason, that the hypothesis was to see if people learn better if they are punished when in fact it was to observe obedience in relation to authority. However, it was necessary for Milgram to use this â€Å"single blind† method to make the experiment valid, had the participants been aware of the hypothesis they mayShow MoreRelatedEthical Issues in Social Psychological Research6240 Words   |  25 PagesRunning head: ETHICS IN RESEARCH Ethical Issues in Social Psychological Research Social psychological research has been conducted in response to many social concerns. Over the years the focus of research has changed greatly depending on the needs of society. However the main purpose has remained constant, which is to contribute to understanding individual thoughts, feelings, and behaviour in light of a broader social context. Social psychological research is done with both humans and animalsRead MoreDeveloping 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: IntegraRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 PagesManufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey