Skip to main content

The Empty Boat and Young Monk

Introduction A long time ago, a young Zen monk lived in a little monastery in the forest by a small lake. The monastery was occupied by a few older monks, but the remainder were beginners who still needed to learn. The monks had numerous tasks at the monastery, but one of the most essential was their daily routine, which required them to sit down, close their eyes, and meditate. The monk struggled to focus during his meditation practice for several reasons, which irritated him. After that, I concentrated in quiet for hours at a time. After each meditation, they were to report back to their mentor on their development.  Anger of a Young Monk When the young monk reported his progress, or lack thereof, to his mentor, the senior monk asked him a simple question with a hidden lesson: "Do you know what is making you angry?" The young monk responded, "Well, normally, as soon as I close my eyes and begin to meditate, someone moves around and I lose focus. I am angry when someone

Milgram’s Obedience Study

milgram's obedience study

Introduction

Milgram’s Obedience Study is one of the most famous studies of obedience in psychology. It was conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram at Yale University in 1961. Milgram’s Experiment was conducted to study the conflict between obedience to authority and personal human conscience. It was mainly conducted to analyse the genocide that occurred during World War Two in Germany.
The main aim of Milgram’s Experiment was to see how far people would go in harming a person in obedience to the authority figure.

Stanley Milgram Experiment

In July 1961, the Stanley Milgram Experiment began, that is, a year after the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Milgram did this experiment to find the answer to the following 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 wanted to investigate in 1963 that the common explanation given to the world for the Nazi killings in World War II was true or not that the Germans were following the orders of the authority figures.
For this experiment, 40 male participants were recruited who were unskilled to professionals between the ages of 20-50 on a wage basis. These 40 participants were introduced to another Milgram confederate participants. Draws were made where participants were always made teachers and Milgram’s confederates were the learners.
Milgram’s Obedience Study was done in two interactive laboratories at Yale University. One room that had an electric chair was for learners and another one was for teachers that had an electric shock generator. Learners were given a list of pairs of words to learners and teachers were asked to test them by naming a word and asking the learner to recall its pair by giving four choices. 
Don't forget to watch the motivational biography of Michael Phelps:
Teachers were asked to give shock every time the learner gave a wrong answer, increasing the shock every time from 15 volts (slight shock) to 450 volts (severe shock). The learners gave wrong answers on purpose and for each wrong answer, there were given an electric shock, increasing with more wrong answers. The teachers were given four orders/prods from the experimenter every time the teacher refused to give a shock to learners.

Results

The results of the Stanley Milgram Experiment were shocking. Almost all participants gave a shock to 300 volts. 65% of teachers gave the highest electric shock to 450 volts. There were 18 variations in total, in which Milgram carried out his study by altering the situations to see how it affected obedience.

Conclusion

Milgram tried to examine whether the justifications given by the accused at World War II in the Nuremberg War Criminal Trials for the acts of genocide were true or not. Most of the time their defence was based on "obedience". They said they were simply following the orders of their superiors.
the essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, and he therefore no longer sees himself as responsible for his actions Stanley Milgram
Milgram’s Obedience Study concluded that we are all brought up in a way that obedience to authority is ingrained in us. We can even harm/kill an innocent person if the orders are given by an Authority Figure. The chief finding of the experiment was that the adults had the extreme willingness to go to any lengths on receiving the command from an authority.

Criticism

The situation in the Stanley Milgram experiment was more suited to the military forces. Milgram’s obedience study was gender-biased as all participants were male. It was conducted in conditions similar to a laboratory, and therefore, we need to think about it that "do it tells us much about real-life situations?" Therefore it’s important to see the factors that operate in our everyday obedience. The participants were also exposed to severely stressful conditions which could have caused psychological harm. For these above-mentioned serious reasons, Milgram’s obedience study was highly criticized.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

21 Principles of Miyamoto Musashi

Introduction Miyamoto Musashi lived during the Sengoku period of Japan. He was a Samurai, a philosopher, and a Japanese swordsman. He was raised as a Buddhist. He was called Kensei that is, a sword saint of Japan as he was one of the world’s greatest swordsmen that anybody has ever seen. Musashi wrote a book called Dokkōdō (The Path of Aloneness”, or “The Way of Walking Alone”) for his favorite student in the last week before his death. This book contains the philosophy of his life as 21 precepts on self-discipline and perseverance. M iyamoto Musashi 21 rules are explained below: 21 Principles of Miyamoto Musashi 1. Accept everything just the way it is: This is the first principle of the 21 principles of Miyamoto Musashi. It means that if we remain attached to our ideas of how things should be in our life, then, there will be no lasting peace. 2. Do not seek pleasure for its own sake: This is the second principle of the 21 principles of Miyamoto Musashi. The pleasure if generated by li

25 Chanakya Quotes For Success

Introduction Chanakya lived in 4th Century BC. He was one of the first leadership gurus of India. His ideas on how to identify leaders and groom them to rule a nation has been documented in his most famous book Arthashastra. Chanakya Quotes or Chanakya Niti Quotes can transform your life and prepare you for a big goal. We brought a set of 25 Chanakya quotes in english for you today. You can feel and inculcate ethics of Chanakya through these Chanakya quotes. Read these quotes and become a corporate Chanakya. 25 Chanakya Quotes For Success 1. “The fragrance of flowers spreads only in the directions of the wind. But, the goodness of a person spreads in all direction”  ~ Chanakya 2. “Avoid him who talks sweetly before you but tries to ruin you behind your back, for he is like a pitcher full of poison with milk on top.”  ~ Chanakya Chanakya Quotes or Chanakya Niti Quotes can transform your life and prepare you for a big goal. We brought a set of 25 Chanakya quotes in english for you today.

The 7 C’s of Success: Brian Tracy

Introduction Brian Tracy is a renowned public speaker and self-development author who has spent more than 2 decades studying the behaviors and habits of self-made millionaires. He after studying them, has put together a list of 7 C's that they all did to get to success and happiness. In the opinion of Brian Tracy, if you want to achieve maximum success, then, you must practice these seven essential principles. These are powerful seven steps that you can use to set and achieve your goals for the rest of your life. 7 C’s of Success 1. Clarity The first C of the 7 C’s of Success given by Brian Tracy is Clarity which has a huge role in both, the success and the failure of a person. You need to know who you are, what your goals and what you want to accomplish. 80% of success comes from this clarity and on the flip side, 80% of failures also come from the lack of this clarity.  Buy life changing books of Brian Tracy: Eat that Frog | Goals | No Excuses | Million Dollar Habits The great