Milgram Study findings and importance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Milgram Study findings and importance - Essay Example Milgram experiment involved three main characters, namely the experimenter (E), the subject or the teacher (T) and the learner (L). The experimenter (authority) and the recipient or the learner plays some secret roles, not to be known by the subject. The subject is made to believe that for every wrong answer the recipient is subjected to some electric shock, however, in reality; the learner was never subjected to such punishments. The learner who should be an actor plays some pre-corded sound to convince the subject that he/ she actually receives the electric shock. The teacher and learner are put in two separate rooms where they do not see each other, but can communicate to each other. The teacher is provided with some words to teach the learner. The teacher was made to read the initial pair of words then enables the learner to predict the possible match, the teacher also reads for possible answers; then the learner gave his/ her feedback by pressing a certain button to select the correct answer. The teacher would then execute some electric shock to the learner, for every wrong feedback, the shock increased by about 15 volts as the test progressed. However, could the learner give the correct answer, the subject moved to the next question (Walton, 2009). The learner could complain about the heart condition to convince the subject that he/she is receiving an actual electric shock. Furthermore, he banged the wall as a response to the shock stimuli. A subject was expected to stop the test after subjecting about 140 volts to the learner. It was at t his juncture that the subject would actually inquire what the experiment was about. Some subjects offered to continue with the test only after assurance that they would not be held accountable for all the damages on the learner, some laughed it off while some were stressed or depressed on learning that the learner is actually hurt. At some point, the subject wished to stop out of moral belief that the learner was in actual pain, but the experimenter or the authority would order him/her to continue. However, the experiment was stopped should the subject make four or five successive attempts to stop or after subjecting 450 volts of electric shock to the learner, on three successive operations. The experimenter would always assure the subject that the learner would not suffer any permanent tissues damage; hence he was to continue until the learner learnt all the words. To ascertain the result of the experiment, Milgram selected about 100 senior psychology students to determine the response among the 100 subjects or hypothetical teachers. It was found that only three su bjects out of the hundred would continue with the experiment, until the maximum voltage of 450volts was executed to the learner (Moore, 2004). Milgram also selected about forty psychiatrists who ascertained that majority of subjects would quit the test after subjecting the learner to a ten successive shock executions. They also found out that after reaching 300 volts, most subjects would stop the test once requested by the learners, and only three out of the hundred subjects would continue with the test even after the learner stopped responding to the questions, out of the pain from electric shock. It was clear the very few subjects were willing to execute full voltage to the learner, out of moral beliefs. Furthermore, at some point majority of subjects inquired the implication of the experiment, and were willing to give back the amount they were paid. This was out of pity or remorse to the inflicted learners. Subjects demonstrated some degree of stress and depression during the exp erimental session. The majority was sweating, groaning, biting their lips