Microblogs for Obedience to Authority

Chapter 1: The Dilemma of Obedience

Summary
This chapter discusses the term obedience and the system of authority, where obedience is defined as the psychological mechanism that links individual action to political purpose. The shock experiment is described, along with factors that bind people to authority.

Discussion
This chapter provided a good introduction to the topic, although the description of the shock experiment was already known to me due to Opening Skinner's Box. I like that the term obedience was defined.

Chapter 2: Method of Inquiry

Summary
This chapter discusses the methods of the shock experiment. To achieve simplicity for studying obedience, he describes the need to have a situation where one person orders another person to perform an action and to note when obedience occurs or doesn't occur. The method of obtaining participants was described, including the need to not use undergraduates due to the possibility of leaking information. Milgram discussed how he found subjects and decided on the location of the experiment, along with the actual procedure and evaluation methods.

Discussion
I find it interesting that Milgrim so carefully thought out each aspect of this experiment, including each part of the procedure, the personalities of those playing along in the experiment, and how to let the participant know what had actually happened. I especially like that undergrads weren't used just for their convenience, but that others were sought out due to the experiment's needs.

Chapter 3: Expected Behavior

Summary
This chapter discusses the need for a prior hypothesis in order to have a baseline of what people expect the results of the experiment to be. An audience was told of the experiment, then asked to make predictions about the results and to describe how both they, and others, would act in such a situation. They explained that most people would not continue shocking very far, since their reactions were from sources of empathy and justice, as opposed to insight into the situation itself.

Discussion
I thought it was very interesting that they thought to receive feedback on what others thought the results would be, instead of just using the researchers' opinions for the baseline hypothesis. I believe that this would lead to much more reliable predictions, or at least a better impression of what society believes would occur in such a situation.

Chapter 4: Closeness of the Victim

Summary
This chapter discusses variations of the closeness of the victim, and how that affected results of the experiment. This included voice feedback, proximity, and touch-proximity. As the victim was brought closer, obedience decreased. Still, the results differed from those that were expected, including the level of tension created by the experiment.

Discussion
I think it's rather strange that the experimenters had not predicted a high level of tension that would result from this experiment. They were tricking people into thinking they were shocking someone to death by order of someone with a higher authority, of course there would be tension!

Chapter 5: Individuals Confront Authority

Summary
This chapter focuses on the individuals who took part in the study, since each person's experience was unique to them. Because of this, the researchers relied heavily on participants' own comments and assertions about the experiment to determine behavior. Specific individuals and there reactions were discussed.

Discussion
I found it rather disturbing that one of the participants started laughing uncontrollably as he followed orders and shocked the victim. But in general, I liked getting to read about the way different people experienced the experiment. It made it more personal and more about the reactions than just reading general, numerical results.

Chapter 6: Further Variations and Controls

Summary
This chapter discusses further variations that were used for experiments, including moving the location of the experiment, giving a heart condition to the victim, changing personnel, altering the closeness of the authority, observing women as subjects, limiting contact of the victim, and allowing the subject to choose the level of shock.

Discussion
I most liked that they attempted so many variations to find what affects obedience. The fact that so several of them yield little or insignificant changed in results was interesting. In particular, I found it interesting that the proximity of the authority figure seemed to alter the results the most.

Chapter 7: Individuals Confront Authority II

Summary
This chapter discusses the experiences and results of individuals for the second set of experiments. Most of the individuals were women, and the results were once again very different and pertained to personal thoughts and experiences related to the experiment.

Discussion
I liked getting to read about individual experiences. It's interesting that every person has their own justification about why they did what they did, and that most of them seem to make sense.

Chapter 8: Role Permutations

Summary
This chapter discusses how position, status and action affect the experiment and lead to different results. More experiment variations were discussed, these involving changes in the roles of the people taking part in the experiment. These included the learner demanding to be shocked, an ordinary person giving orders, the subject as a bystander, the authority as a victim, contradictory authorities, and one authority as a victim with another leading the experiment.

Discussion
I found the level of acting and manipulating necessary to achieve some of these experiments rather astounding, and I wonder if there were any slipups and how they affected the outcome. I also found it interesting that the authority seemed to be the dominating factor in behavior, and that with multiple authorities, the subject would listen to the one that seemed to have the most power.
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Chapter 9: Group Effects

Summary
This chapter discusses how placing subjects in groups affected obedience. More experiments occurred with this variation, including having two peers rebel against the authority and different shock levels and having a peer administer the shocks. Generally, subjects tended to follow the actions done by their peers.

Discussion
I thought this result was to be expected. Peer pressure is a strong force, so if the subject was among other "subjects", they would be more likely to follow the peers' actions since they would suggest the appropriate action to take for that particular social situation. This really reminded me of Chapter 4 in Opening Skinner's Box about the "Kitty" murder case.

Chapter 12: Strain and Disobedience

Summary
This chapter explores how strain links to obedience, including the factors within the experiment that generate strain, such as the cries of pain from victims and the act of administering said pain. Milgram explains how such strain could be reduced or resolved through disobedience, avoidance, denial, subterfuge, physical conversion, dissent. Ultimately, disobedience completely resolves the strain created by the experiment.

Discussion
I thought this was an interesting chapter. I wouldn't think disobedience could completely remove strain, so I thought it was interesting that the author believed it would. In a way, it seems like disobedience within the experiment is similar to catharsis; subjects feel strain and guilt from administering shocks to learners, and by halting the experiment, they can absolve themselves.

Chapter 13: An Alternative Theory: Is Aggression Key?

Summary
This chapter explores the possibility of aggression as the cause of obedience instead of authority figures. The idea is that that people would take advantage of the situation to cause harm without breaking social norms they are contributing to science. Milgram concludes that this is not case citing evidence from the experiments, including the fact that when given the choice of shocking strength, most people would use the lower levels.

Discussion
I feel Milgram disproved the theory regarding aggression as the cause of obedience pretty well. Milgram presented many instances from the experiments where violence did not seem to be the cause of action, and they all seemed to be plausible.

Chapter 14: Problems of Method

Summary
This chapter discusses criticisms that the public had with the experiment. These included claims that the subjects were atypical who weren't aware they were administering actual shocks, and most importantly, that it is not possible to generalize from the lab to the real world. Milgram presents rebuttals for each of these claims, using experimental evidence from both his experiment and others. Finally, he compares the findings of his experiment to Nazi Germany.

Discussion
Milgram did well in presenting sound counter evidence to the public criticisms. I did share or consider some of the criticisms while reading this book and the related chapter in Opening Skinner's Box.