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17184 |
SST / PSY 251
Studies in Obedience: THE MAN AND THE EXPERIMENT THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD
( |
Stuart
Levine |
M 3:00pm-6:00pm |
LIBRARY 302 |
SA D+J |
SSCI DIFF |
Cross-listed: Human Rights; Social Studies It has now been more than fifty years since the original work
of Stanley Milgram demonstrated the remarkable and very widely unpredicted and
unexpected finding that large numbers of individuals in multiple samples of
American men and women studied were willing to "punish" another
person when ordered to do so by an experimenter; this in the stated but false
context of a psychology experiment on learning and memory. The prominence of the initial work and the
continued salience of such study and accumulated findings in the domain of
social psychology cannot be over-stated.
And it very much has not reached the stage of dormancy as the
publication of studies, literature reviews and conferences on the topic of
obedience to authority continue to appear in unabated fashion. It is even the case that as recently as six
years ago a replication of the original study, with slight modifications, and with concordant
results was published (J. Burger, January 2009). Further revealing of prominence is that fact
that a relatively new full-length movie version of the original study (a
biopic) appeared this year. In addition,
a diligent search of current psychology or cross-disciplinary archives uncovers
further studies that provide evidence that obedience and indeed destructive
obedience is very much prevalent in our society and in many others as well and
in a myriad of contexts. The domain of
the "Milgram study” is especially worthy of continuing interest. This because of the vastness of both
criticism and praise of the original work but also because of historical and
significant events in the intervening years between 1960s and stretching to our
current time. The continuing study of
obedience is vital for the betterment of institutions, even in a democratic
society. Social scientists should and
must find a way to safely and ethically investigate the conditions that promote
destructive obedience and thereby begin to learn the rudiments of how such can
be minimized. This is a college
seminar. It is not limited to psychology
or social studies or for that matter majors in any particular discipline. The two criteria for membership are a
willingness to read with care and then with conviction share with others the
results of such reading and study. Over
the course of the semester a sizable portion of the work contained in the body
of the obedience literature is reviewed.
Admission by permission of the instructor. Class size:
10