ANSWER EITHER A or B in approximately 75-100 words. Give reasons or explanations for your particular suggestions. Also, think of how your suggestions may “backfire” and tell what the consequences might be.
A. A. Imagine that you are a participant in Milgram’s study of obedience. What would you have done if you had protested and the experimenter in charge answered, “The experiment requires you to continue?”
B. B. What options or other choices might have been available to the experimental student “prisoners” in the Stanford University 1971 experiment where students assumed roles of “guards and prisoners?”
Angela N.
ReplyDeletePhil 250-951
If I had participated in the Milgram study and the person told me to stop I would of stopped. When the experimenter told me I had to continue I would of told him or her if you want to continue then you can finish the experiment theirself! I am not one to take orders from someone but dont have a problem giving orders to other people. lol However it would be interesting to see if the experimenter would of taken over if someone had told them that.
Ashlie M.
ReplyDeletePhil 250-951
I am choosing A. If I was a participant in the Milgram experiment and the experimenter in charge told me to continue after I protested to continue, I would stick to my protesting. If I say no, then the answer stays no. I am not one to cause harm to others, and if I would have heard the person on the other side scream, I would have stopped with the first scream, and walked out.
If I was a participant in the Milgram’s study of obedience and the other participant asked for me to stop I would have to stop; I try to live by the golden rule (do onto other’s as you would want done onto you). If the experimenter told me I had to continue I would simply tell them no, I have a brain of my own. I don’t have a problem taking orders that are reasonable and not cause harm to others, but once it causes harm or violates the laws or my beliefs then I have to stop. My decision to stop couldn’t “backfire” because they said in the beginning you could stop at anytime without facing any consequences.
ReplyDeleteAbbey Baker
ReplyDeletePHIL 250-902
Answering question A, I would have totally stopped participating in the Milgram experiment even if I was told not to. First and foremost, I cannot deal with the sound, thought, or "doing" of torturing ANY living thing. If I were to hear somebody yelling "stop, it hurts, please" I would go no further. I don't even care what the consequences may be. The only harsh consequence that would have hurt me was to have had to live with knowing I tortured someone, especially just becuase they got a wrong answer. No innocent person should be tortured, and I would not have been able to live with myself knowing I participated and kept going even if I was told to.
John H.
ReplyDeleteIf I was a proticipant in the Milgram's exsperiment.I would have stopped he told me to stop. It was a volintary exsperiment. I was not by force. When the person in charge told me to continue, I would have gotton in to a agument over it. It could not have backfired, sence it was a voluntary exsperiment anyways. I would have stopped due to the fact that the exsperiment was illogical anyways.
Ruth.M.
ReplyDeleteI'm answering question A. If I was a paticipant in the Miligram experiment I would have when with it. I believe I could have finished. I know how poeple can tend to over react to things I do it all the time. I would have felt bad for the person being tested. But then you have to wonder did they have a choice to be in there being tested. I do believe that the experiment made no since and wasn't all that usefull after all. I would not have contiued because someone was telling me to either I would've done it because I wanted to. Simple answer.
Sasy C.
ReplyDeleteI'm choosing to answer question A. Had I participated in the Milgram experiment, I would of probably (and I say probably because you never know how you are going to react in a situation until you are in it) have stopped once the participant on the other end receiving the shocks continued to answers wrong. Everyone has a certain threshold for pain, and everyone is different. But for myself I believe that one should not need to cause pain upon another as punishment. I don't like causing pain to a person, this is probably why I did not choose a profession in boxing or martial arts. I believe in following your gut feeling, and doing what's right. This has been a rule I live by and in certain past situations it has backfired with people of authroity, such as my previous bosses, but I have always stuck to my guns. In the Milgram experiment, I don't believe there would of been any "backfire" due to the fact that at the beginning, there was an option given to stop at anytime.
If I had participated in the Milgram experiment, I probbly would have went as far as the person getting shocked demanding me to stop. I tend to go along with authority figures and what they say to do, until I realize that what I am supposed to be doing could harm someone. As children we are taught to pretty much obey authority figures no matter what. It is pretty difficult to go against what has been taught to you since the day that you were born. Although there are some people that could just go completely on their own judgement, I myself probbly would not have. Its easier to say that you would have not went through with it knowing that it was all just an experiemnet, but it is difficult to give an exact truthful reaction without actually going thorugh the situation personally.
ReplyDeleteThe above was posted phil250-951
ReplyDeleteJenny B
Abbey Baker
ReplyDeletePHIL 250-902
A.If I were a participant in Milgram’s study of obedience, I know for a fact I would have stopped. I would not have been able to deal with knowing that I was hurting someone, especially when they were just getting a wrong answer; they didn’t deserve to be hurt over that. It would have been pure torture in my opinion, knowing that they were asking me to stop and I just kept going. It could have caused so many bigger problems, and as far as backfiring would go, I would have to deal with the guilt every day for the rest of my life if I continued to allow someone to be seriously hurt or even dead if I didn’t stop. The thought of hurting someone when they are crying out and asking to stop, would upset me enough, I would not continue at all and probably make a bigger scene than just to ensure it would not continue with anybody else as well.
Amy Schafer
ReplyDeletePhil 250-951
In the Stanford University 1971 experiment students were assigned the roles of guards and prisoners. Some took it to the extreme and made the experiment show what can happen in a real life situation when authority figures let their “power” go to their head. The guards dehumanized the prisoners and embarrassed them in front of the others because they could. This experiment backfired in some ways because they had to stop and remove some who could not handle it anymore. The prisoners did not have many options to them. The could have kept in mind that it was just an experiment and tried to get through the entire thing but after being tortured for days that is not an option.
When it comes to Milgram’s study of obedience, if I had been a participant in this experiment I would like to think that I would have stopped as soon as the other person had asked me to. I would like to think that I would have stopped but I believe that I might only be saying this now (and now given the chance I would stop) because I have gathered the general idea of the study, I have had the time to stop at think and come up with my own personal opinion. Had I been a participant in this experiment without the knowledge that I have learned thus far, I believe that I would have found myself caught up in the moment and unsure of what to do. This is when I find myself most vulnerable to influences. When I am unsure of what to do I find it hard to think for myself and tend to look up to authority figures for answers.
ReplyDeleteAlex H.
Semika Bradshaw
ReplyDeletePHIL 250
A. If I had to participte in the milgrams experience, I would have ended the experiement once i heard the discomfort in the persons voice. No matter what the authority figure says to me i will really go with my own intelligence. Being the person I am i can discern whether or not something is real. That would lead me to do the right thing instead of the good thing.
B:
ReplyDeleteThe Stanford University experiment out of the two really interested me. The part that really got to me was how could the people conducting the experiment let the situation get that far out of control? It seemed that they were more concerned with colleting the data and to see how far the people in the experiment would take it on their own and how much would the prisoners put up with before dropping out. It seemed that the prisoners didn’t really have a clear way to stop the experiment. In my opinion there should have been some kind of a safe word to stop what was happening at that time and have the ability to talk with someone running the experiment. Or they should have had one of the guards be the nice guy and stand up for the prisoners’ rights as people to see if the others would fallow. I think something like that would have really changed things. With the safe word being add to the experiment it could have kept them from collecting and solid data because the prisoners might have used it anytime they felt any stress they didn’t like. With a guard playing nice the other guards could have ignored him and did whatever they wanted.