Blind Obedience and the Stanley Milgram Experiment

Aim: How do we analyze the role of obedience in the Stanley Milgram Experiments?

Quick Write: When is it right and when is it wrong to obey authority figures in your life such as parents, teachers and/or police officers? Put your thoughts into a well-organized paragraph.

Important Background Information

What was the Holocaust?

The Holocaust was the systematic, government-sponsored murder of approximately six million Jews by Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in Germany.

What were the Nuremberg Trials?
The Nuremberg trials were a series of trials held between 1945 and 1949 in which the Allied Army prosecuted various people associated with Nazi Germany for the crimes they committed in the Holocaust.

Who was Adolf Eichmann?
Eichmann was a Nazi Lieutenant and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust. He escaped to Argentina but was caught and taken to Israel, where he was put to trial and found guilty of 15 criminal charges. He was found guilty and was hanged in 1962.

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Read the following article, using the four columns template to take notes. The question: Why do people obey authority figures?

Obedience to Authority: An Experiment by Stanley Milgram

Obedience: Person obeys a direct order from an authority figure to perform an action; assume that person would not act this way without an order

What is the Milgram Experiment
(Adapted from http://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html)
 by Saul McLeod, 2007

One of the most famous studies of obedience in psychology was carried out by Stanley Milgram (1963). Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University, conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.

He examined justifications for acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Criminal trials. Their defense often was based on “obedience” – that they were just following orders of their superiors.

The experiments began in July 1961, a year after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram devised the experiment to answer the question “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?” (Milgram, 1974).

Milgram (1963) wanted to investigate whether Germans were particularly obedient to authority figures as this was a common explanation for the Nazi killings in World War II.

Milgram selected participants for his experiment by advertising for male participants to take part in a study of learning at Yale University.  The procedure was that the participant was paired with another person and they drew lots to find out who would be the ‘learner’ and who would be the ‘teacher’.  The draw was fixed so that the participant was always the teacher, and the learner was one of Milgram’s confederates (pretending to be a real participant).

The learner (a confederate called Mr. Wallace) was taken into a room and had electrodes attached to his arms, and the teacher and researcher went into a room next door that contained an electric shock generator and a row of switches marked from 15 volts (Slight Shock) to 375 volts (Danger: Severe Shock) to 450 volts (XXX).

Aim: Milgram (1963) was interested in researching how far people would go in obeying an instruction if it involved harming another person.  Stanley Milgram was interested in how easily ordinary people could be influenced into committing atrocities for example, Germans in WWII.

Procedure: Volunteers were recruited for a lab experiment investigating “learning”. Participants were 40 males, aged between 20 and 50, whose jobs ranged from unskilled to professional.  At the beginning of the experiment they were introduced to another participant, who was actually a confederate of the experimenter (Milgram). They drew straws to determine their roles – leaner or teacher – although this was fixed and the confederate always ended up being the learner. There was also an “experimenter” dressed in a white lab coat, played by an actor (not Milgram).

The “learner” (Mr. Wallace) was strapped to a chair in another room with electrodes. After he has learned a list of word pairs given him to learn, the “teacher” tests him by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its partner/pair from a list of four possible choices.

The “learner” being strapped to the chair

The electric shock generator the “teacher” would use

The setup: teacher and student are in different rooms

The teacher is told to administer an electric shock every time the learner makes a mistake, increasing the level of shock each time. There were 30 switches on the shock generator marked from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 (danger – severe shock).

The learner gave mainly wrong answers (on purpose) and for each of these the teacher gave him an electric shock. When the teacher refused to administer a shock and turned to the experimenter for guidance, he was given the standard instruction /order (consisting of 4 prods):

Prod 1: please continue.
Prod 2: the experiment requires you to continue.
Prod 3: It is absolutely essential that you continue.
Prod 4: you have no other choice but to continue. 

Victim Feedback: The vocal response of the victim was taped and

coordinated to a particular voltage level on the shock generator. The victim indicated no discomfort until the 75 volt shock was administered, at which time the victim gives a grunt. From 150 volts on, he insisted that he be let out. After 330 volts he was not heard from at all. At 300 volts the victim shouted in desperation that he would no longer provide answers to the memory test. After 330 volts, the victim was not heard from again. He was completely silent, even after the shocks were given. At this point the teacher would usually turn to the experimenter for guidance. The experimenter would instruct the teacher to treat the absence of a response as a wrong answer, and to shock the learner according to the usual schedule. He advised the teacher to allow 5 to 10 seconds before considering no response as a wrong answer, and to increase the shock level one step each time the learner failed to respond correctly.

Results: 65% (two-thirds) of participants (i.e. teachers) continued to the highest level of 450 volts. All the participants continued to 300 volts.

Milgram did more than one experiment – he carried out 18 variations of his study.  All he did was alter the situation (IV) to see how this affected obedience (DV).

Conclusion: Ordinary people are likely to follow orders given by an authority figure, even to the extent of killing an innocent human being.  Obedience to authority is ingrained in us all from the way we are brought up. Obey parents, teachers, anyone in authority etc.

*Watch real footage from the experiment: 

Milgram Obedience Study     

Today's Writing Workshop: At the end of class, please choose one of the questions on the note-taking sheet and answer it in a well-organized paragraph on your blog. In order to get full credit, please post all of your work on your blog, including the quick write, the note-taking template, and your paragraph, too.

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.

***What's Due

• Selfie poster 
• Letter to me 
• First post 
• Essential Questions worksheet 
• Identity post 
• Asch Experiment

****Always check Engrade for your up-to-the-minute progress in this class.****

Introducing Conformity and the Asch Experiment

Aim: How do we understand and analyze the results of the Asch Experiment? 

Quick Write: Write about a time when you did something because other people were doing it.  Or write about a time when you made the decision not to follow others. If you can’t think of a time when this happened, write about why you think certain people follow others and certain people don’t.

Warm-up: Watch this groundbreaking Apple commercial from 1984. What are most of the people doing? What happens and why? What message do you think the commercial was trying to convey about Apple computers?

1984 Apple's Macintosh Commercial

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of the human mind and behavior. Research seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior.

What is Social Psychology? 

Social psychology is about understanding individual behavior in a social context (around other people). It looks at how our thoughts, actions, behaviors, attitudes, and feelings are influenced by the real or imagined presence of others.

While the field of social psychology is large, we will be focusing our study for this class on a couple of its main aspects: conformity and obedience.

What is Conformity?

Conformity is the act of doing what everyone else around you is doing. To conform is to “follow the crowd.” Obedience is the act of obeying or following a rule/law. To obey is to follow orders.

Solomon Asch Experiment

As in science, psychologists and social psychologists design experiments to test their theories and hypotheses about individual and group behavior. If you wanted to test the extent to which people conform to a group, how would you design an experiment?

Which of the lines on the right matches the line on the left?

Did you pick Line A?

• This is the sort of task that Asch asked subjects to complete.

• The correct answer is chosen easily by most people in the absence of any experimental manipulation.
• But what if subjects had to give their answers in a group where everyone else had given a wrong answer (e.g., Line B) instead of the correct answer? 

Solomon Asch used confederates in order to find out what subjects would do in groups where others gave the wrong answers. A confederate is a person who acts as if s/he is a subject but who is really following the instructions of the experimenter. Other subjects see the confederate as a “fellow subject” but really the confederate is acting in the way that the researcher has already set up ahead of time.

Subjects were brought into groups where all other subjects were confederates (though the subjects, of course, didn’t know this).  They were asked to complete a series of line tasks similar to the one you just saw in this presentation.

Findings of the Experiment

For beginning trials, confederates picked the correct line but then as the experiment went on, they began to answer incorrectly.

What did Asch’s subjects do?

• Asch’s subjects conformed to giving the wrong answer that the rest of the group gave 1/3 of the time. In other words, the group pressure influenced them to give an answer they probably knew was incorrect.

• 76% of the subjects conformed at least once at some time during the experiment

• This is especially important when one realizes that these are groups of people with whom the subjects have no long lasting relationships.

 Watch a video of a reenactment of the Asch Experiment here.

Read more about the experiment here: 
http://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html

Writing Workshop

Put your answers to the following three questions into a blog post, writing in complete sentences and well-organized paragraphs. Don't forget to give your readers context. Ask a partner to proofread it and then publish!

Question 1: Based on this sentence, write down your own definition of “conformity” or “conform.”
"A lot of girls in school – including Johanna's best friend, Sarah – were dying their hair orange, but Johanna refused to conform, stating that she preferred her natural color."
Question 2: How do you think conformity and obedience are similar? How do you think they are different?
Question 3:
(a) What does the Asch Experiment demonstrate? Explain.
(b) Given what you’ve learned, do you think you're more of a conformist or an individual? How has this benefited you and/or worked against you in the past?
(c) Is conformity good or bad? Consider these situations: driving laws, Nazism, the Holocaust, body image, religion, and clothing styles.
(d) Can you think of other instances where people might conform?

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

What's Due

• Selfie poster
• Letter to me
• First post
• Essential Questions worksheet
• Identity post
• Asch Experiment

****Always check Engrade for your up-to-the-minute progress in this class.****

Identity

Aim: How do we identify the forces of influence on our own lives? 

Quick Write: Make a list of at least five things, people, places or events that have influenced you. Select one and write about it in a well-organized paragraph. In your response, be sure to explain the significance of what you’ve chosen, and discuss how this has changed you.

Identity and Where it Comes From

We are born within a culture, and during the first stages of life we learn our culture. This process is sometimes referred to as our socialization. Each society transfers to its members the value system underlying its culture. Children learn how to understand and use signs and symbols whose meanings change arbitrarily from one culture to another. Without this process the child would be unable to exist within a given culture. Imagine what would happen if your children could not understand the meaning of a red traffic light. There is no objective reason for red to mean 'stop', or green to mean 'go'. Parents and family, school, friends and the mass media, particularly television - all of them contribute to the socialization of children and, often, we are not even aware that we are part of this process.

What have been the biggest influences in your socialization?

Culture is lived in a different way by each of us. Each person is a mixture of their culture, their own individual characteristics and their experience. This process is further enriched if you are living with two or more cultures at the same time. For instance, as a second-generation immigrant, you may be learning your culture of origin within the family and the culture of the country where you live at school and through the media.

Identity

Who am I? What am I? Identity is like culture, there are many aspects to it, some hidden some visible. One way of looking at this could be to imagine yourself as an onion (even if you don't like to eat them). Each layer corresponds to a different part of your identity.

Question 1: What are the most important things that make up your identity? Write them next to the numbers 1 -5, with number 1 being the most important to you.

Some of these will be related to:

• the roles you play in life: a daughter, a friend, a school student, a baker, a banker;
• the parts of your identity you may be able to choose: fan of a certain type of music, member of a political party, style of clothes;
• where you were born, where you now live;
• belonging to a minority or not;
• your gender and your sexuality;
• your religion
• and, perhaps strangely, what you are not or don't want to be: not a woman, not a socialist, not French, not an alcoholic.

Consider the diagram below.

Question 2: Determine if you agree or disagree with what this diagram is saying. What is the relationship between the individual (you) and the world and other outside influences? Who determines who you are? What factors do you have control over? What factors control you? Answer in a well-developed paragraph with a topic sentence, supporting details, and a conclusion. 

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

What's Due

• Selfie poster
• Letter to me
• First post
• Essential Questions worksheet
• Today's Workshop

****Always check Engrade for your up-to-the-minute progress in this class.****

Taking Charge Of Our Academic Progress

Aim: How do we track our academic progress on a daily basis?  

Quick Write: Assess your performance in this class so far using the CCS rubric which you should have in your folder. It also is available under "Resources" on this blog. In other words, have you completed everything you have been asked to complete? Have you exercised critical thinking skills? Have you written clearly and appropriately for your audience? Have you put your best effort into your work? Put your thoughts on your blog.

Today if you haven't already, you will be opening an Engrade account so that you can monitor your own progress in this class on a 24/7 basis. Engrade is also another option for messaging me. You'll have to get the handout from me with your 4-digit access code. If you are reading this from home, email me and I will email you an invitation to open an account.

To create an account, enter your assigned access code and then choose a username/password combination. Write it down someplace safe! Once you have opened your account, you can use your username and password to log in anytime and anyplace to see your up-to-the-minute classroom information on Engrade and/or to message me or other students in the class.

Your access code is:

Crotonaacademy1-student ID#-four digit code

Write down the code exactly, hyphens included.

For those of you who already opened Engrade accounts in the past, you can sign on with your old username and password. If you forgot your password, Engrade will offer you the option of re-setting it.

Students who already have Engrade accounts might volunteer to help those who are new to this electronic gradebook.

If you missed this class or need a refresher on how to sign up and use Engrade, watch this tutorial.

Today's activity: After you have signed on, you will have to send me a message through Engrade to earn your class work points. Explain what if anything is inaccurate and your strategy for using Engrade as a learning tool.

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

What's Due

• Selfie poster
• Letter to me
• First post
• Essential Questions worksheet
• Independent reading homework
• Message on Engrade

A Well-Organized Paragraph = M.E.A.L.

A well-balanced M.E.A.L.

Aim: How do we write a well-organized paragraph? 

Do Now: Check out the well-organized paragraph graphic organizer. There is one posted on Pages on this blog. Hard copies are available in the classroom.

You should be continuing work on the essential questions from yesterday (2/10/15 post). But, how do you write a well-organized paragraph? After the mini-lesson, compose a paragraph on your assigned essential question with your partner. Then annotate it together, meaning identify each of the four elements of a well-organized paragraph. Here's an example of a well-organized paragraph that has been annotated:

A Well-Organized Paragraph

M I strongly feel that you should follow your beliefs in life regardless of whether someone is watching what you do. E For example, I believe stealing is wrong under any circumstances. It makes no difference to me if someone takes his or her eyes away from the cash register. Even if someone were able to guarantee to me that I would never ever get caught or suffer consequences for stealing, it would not change my mind about stealing from the cash register. A My sense of right and wrong is not influenced by consequences or what people might think of me as a person. The rightness of something has nothing to do with how many people are there to watch it. L The true mark of an honest person is how you live your life when nobody’s watching.

Finally, evaluate the paragraph using the CCS rubric, which is also under "Resources" on this blog. Don't forget to add comments explaining why you gave it those scores. Post your self-assessment on your blog along with your worksheet.

If you were not here yesterday, click here for the quick write and today's worksheet.  

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

What's Due

• Selfie poster
• Letter to me
• First post
• Essential Questions worksheet

Click here to see your homework assignment for winter break.

Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

All Aboard!

Once again, welcome to Conformity, Obedience, and Individuality in Literature! This course is an exploration of the psychology of group behavior and how it affects individuals. Look around you right now. What do you see your various classmates doing? Are some completely focused on what they are doing? Are others bouncing off the walls? (Figuratively speaking, of course). As we read, write, and discuss fiction and non-fiction works in this course, you'll discover that a lot of individual behavior is influenced by group behavior.

SHOUT OUT to Marilynn Moron for problem solving the conflict many were having in creating new blogs by using her smart phone. Of course, she first asked permission to do so!  

Aim: How do we answer some essential questions about conformity?

Do Now: Check out the poster above. Do you agree or disagree? Explain why.

You should have a copy of the essential questions that will guide us through this course. First, we will discuss our initial responses to these questions. Afterwards, there is a worksheet to complete individually or with a partner.

Click here for the quick write and today's worksheet.

Step 1: Once you have opened the worksheet, go under "File" and click on "Make a copy" to create your own writable document in Google Drive. Don't forget to give it a title.

Step 2: You may work on the worksheet with a partner, but you are responsible for posting your own copy. Make sure your work is proofread by a partner.

Step 3: When your document is ready to publish, click on the "Share" button in the top right-hand corner of the Google doc to get a "shareable link" so that you can post it on your blog. Copy and paste the shareable link by clicking on the "Link" button on your post dashboard. Your blog readers will need context, so explain what the document is on your blog and add pictures or graphics to spice it up!

***Don't forget to complete and turn in your "Six Elements of Engagement Daily Self-Tracker" before leaving class.***

Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.11-12.1 Initiate and participate effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grades 11–12 topics, texts, and issues, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.11-12.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

Welcome to Conformity, Obedience, and Individuality in Literature!

Aim: How do we create a blog so that we can write to learn?  

Do Now: Bookmark this page and write it down because you will be using it each day for classwork and homework.

Welcome to Conformity, Obedience,and Individuality in Literature! 
This semester we will explore some social psychology theories related to group behavior--how we as individuals are influenced for good or for bad by the groups around us. Needless to say, this involves reading, critical thinking, class discussions, and writing. Most if not all of your writing will be published on your own personal blog. To get things going, first examine the drawing above. What do you think it is saying? Do you agree or disagree with its message?

In order to proceed, you will need to create your own blog. Your blog will be your "virtual" portfolio for this course. Do Nows and daily Writing Workshop activities will all be posted on your blog along with any other musings, photos, drawings, or graphics you like. Just remember that you are creating this blog in an academic environment. In order to get some great online discussion going, we also will link all of our blogs together. 

You must have a gmail account for Blogger. If you don't already have a gmail account, create one now. Please give yourself a professional email address that you can use your whole life.

Here are the steps for creating your own blog:

1. Go to google.com
2. Under "more" at the top of the page find and click on "blogger."
3. Sign in on your gmail account to create your own blog.
4. Click on "Create a blog."
5. Choose a title for your blog.
6. Choose a design and template for your blog.
7. In settings, please be sure to set the time and date for Eastern Standard Time.
8. Under comment moderation (also in settings), please turn OFF word verification so that I don't have to prove I'm not a robot every time I want to leave a comment on your blog.
9. Create your profile. (Add a photo if you want.)
10. When you are done, write your first post: Introduce yourself in your post. Explain a little about yourself, where you live, and what you hope to explore in this course. Be detailed. Finally, write one open-ended question (can't be answered with yes or no or one word) that you have related to group behavior. 
11. Send an email to msbecker4@gmail.com with the link to your blog so that I can follow it and share it with the other students in the Conformity in Literature classes.

Congratulations! If you reached this step, you have created your own blog and filed your first post. Don't worry--your design, template and even your first post can be edited. I welcome your comments. (It all counts toward participation!)

****A reminder that you are responsible for completing a selfie poster and sending me a letter (first-time students) or a writing sample. See February 5 post for details.*****

Today's Standards
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.4 Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience. (Grade-specific expectations for writing types are defined in standards 1–3 above.)

Please Write!

Aim: How do we reflect on our own identities? 

Quick Write: Complete the graphic organizer defining the word resonate.

Step 1: After we discuss our worksheets, choose a word that resonates with you. Mine? Resilience.

Step 2: Once you have chosen your word, google a quotation that relates to your word. For example, I googled "quotations related to resilience" and found this: "The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall."
--Nelson Mandela

Step 3: After you have found your quotation, take a selfie. Using either documents or presentations on Google Drive, create a poster that incorporates your word that resonates for you, your selfie, and your quotation. Don't forget to include your name and the author of the quotation. Share your poster by emailing it to msbecker4@gmail.com.

Wait! You are not done yet! 

Step 4: For those of you new to my classroom, I am requesting you write me a letter. I promise to write back. To see the assignment and my letter to you, click here.
Please submit all work to msbecker4@gmail.com. You will be graded this time merely on learning outcomes and effort.

Step 5: Not so fast, Veterans! You don't have to write me a letter if you have sent me one before, but I want you to create something that reveals something about YOU. It could be a video, a podcast, a PowerPoint, a song. It could be an opinion piece, a story or poem--anything that reveals in some small way what you are about.

Any questions?