Summary:
Chapter 9: Group Effects
This chapter discusses the effects when there is a group of people rebelling rather than just an individual. The difference between conformity and obedience is distinguished and their differences as well. The differences lie in that subjects of Hierarchy, Imitation, Explicitness, and Voluntarism. After explaining these an experiment is described along with results.
Experiment 17 puts the strength of the group to the test. Two people are instructed to act along with the experiment and then disobey the instructor. After both people have rebelled it was shown that most people followed the group. The subject is the person doing the shocking in this experiment.
In the next experiment the same people are used except the subject is not doing the shocking. Only 3 out of 40 refused to participate until the end.
Chapter 10: Why Obedience? An Analysis
This chapter starts by discussing the value of hierarchy and why it causes obedience. Hierarchies promote stability and harmony and reduce friction between people. Along with the potential for obedience that we are born with this makes obedience possible.
The points to be taken from this chapter are the following, organized social life provide survival benefits, behavioral and psychological features that are necessary have been shaped by evolutionary forces, and the need for hierarchies. An important concept, the agentic state, is described as the condition a person is in when he sees himself as an agent for carrying out another person's wishes. This state is largely a state of mind.
Chapter 11: The Process of Obedience: Applying the Analysis to the Experiment
Questions are answered regarding the agentic state.
What does it take for a person to move to the agentic state? There are different factors such as family, institutional settings, and other properties of immediate atecedent conditions that make this state possible.
Characteristics of the agentic state are then described along with binding factors. These factors include things such as anxiety and obligations.
Chapter 12: Strain and Disobedience
The methods for disobedience are described as strain. The ways that strain are caused from the study are discussed, an example is hearing the screams of the learner. The way strain is resolved is by the act of disobedience. There are more ways to resolve strain such as avoidance of the situation. The ultimate resolution of strain is disobedience.
Chapter 13: An Alternative Theory: Is Aggression the Key?
This chapter discusses if the aggressive act of shocking the learner was the key to the disobedience. It talked about the experiment 11 where subjects were allowed to shock the learner with any shock level they thought was necessary but most of them shocked with the lowest level. The key to the behavior of the subjects lies with their relationship with authority not any built up anger or feelings.
Chapter 14: Problems of Method
Some ideas are discussed about how people may think the method is flawed.
The first problem people have discussed is that the subjects used were not normal and represented a special group. The first group used was Yale undergraduates who were described as aggressive and competitive. However, when the study used subjects from all over the city they observed the same outcome.
The second problem discusses if the subjects knew if they were physically shocking the learners. The facts from the experiments are re-stated to show that most thought the experiment was genuine and only a few did not.
The third problem is whether or not the laboratory situation was special and what was observed can not contribute to what would be viewed in the social world. It is said that the experiments are legit because of how easily people become instruments of authority. It is also worth noting that subjects used in the experiments are volunteers who willingly comply to what society has given them.
Discussion:
This half of the book was interesting because it discussed what was drawn from all of the experiments. I liked the first half better but it is important to hear both sides of the story. I like how the author stated what was drawn from the experiment but also defended his claims at the end of the book.
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