Unit 2 Post
- Was the Milgram Experiment ethical? In research practice today Milgram’s experiment is considered unethical because it deceived the subjects and produced psychological stress. I personally believe it wasn’t unethical. For what Milgram was trying to accomplish he couldn’t have outright told the truth because then the “teacher” would have already known what was going on and that the real test was focused on him not the “learner” and the “teacher’s” true actions would have been affected by Hawthorne Effect. I think Milgram also prevented long term psychological problems on the subjects by bringing the “learner” back out and explaining everything and allowing there to be closure.
- Was Zimbardo’s experiment ethical? No. The complete lack of guidance and control is amazing. The “guards” were pretty much able to do whatever they wanted. As the video provided in the module showed, one of the “guards” wanted to see how far he could go. The “prisoners” had no one reassuring them that it was just an experiment. It was like they had really been arrested, even going to the extent of solitary confinement, and just abandoned. That would definitely leave lasting psychological problems and thankfully only lasted six days, which is still terrible.
- Nothing that comes out of unethical research is worth damage to other human beings. I will say that I found a part of Milgram’s experiment interesting. The participant in the video provided in the module that kept on going even after the “learner” stopped making noise. The “teacher” or participant said that he kept going because of the instructor telling him to. This is what Milgram was trying to find out about Nazi’s at concentration camps whose defense was that they were just following orders. Now, was the participant just covering up his own actions or was he just following orders?
- If I was a professional sociologist I would be interested in researching how to reverse indoctrination. I was reading a little into it the other day about trying to rehabilitate those indoctrinated and influenced by terrorism and found it pretty interesting. There are many people indoctrinated by all sorts of ideas that they allow to take over their minds. It ranges from small to big groups of people being affected and I would like to look more into how to reverse this.