Theories of Obedience to Unjust Authority

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Theories of Obedience to Unjust Authority

• Nazis were an aberration in history
• Shirer Flaw in German character
• Arendt Flaw in human character
• Milgram A social psychologist looks at obedience

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Milgrams Baseline Procedure
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Milgrams Baseline Procedure

• 63 shock to the limit (STL)

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Ethical Criticisms of Milgrams Work

• No true informed consent
• Participants experienced significant stress
• Long-term negative effects on self-worth

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Milgrams Response To Ethical Criticism

• Extensive debriefing
• After session discovered learner was not harmed
• Participants were free to leave
• No evidence of permanent psychological harm

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Follow-up of Milgrams Participants

• 80 reported that they were Very Glad or Glad
  they participated.
• 15 had No Strong Feelings
• Just over 1 were Sorry or Very Sorry
• 80 said more research of this kind should be
  done.
• 74 said they learned something of lasting value.

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A Question Mark The Cost of Ethics?

• ?

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How To Get Good Men and Women To Murder Their
Neighbors

• Get them to say
• I hate or
• I would never

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Psychology of Learning From Protozoa to Beyond
Virtual Reality
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Habituation in Spirostomum ambiguum

• Habituation A response decrement to repetitive
  stimulation
• Spirostomum is a ciliated protozoa

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Habituation in Spirostomum ambiguum

• Place individuals on a slide
• Tap slide with a mechanical stimulus each 4
  seconds
• Animal shows a response decrement (habituation)
  after 12 to 15 stimuli
• Other studies show that Spirostomum can remember
  for a least 10 minutes

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E. B. Twitmyer

• A Beauty Never to See Flower
• A discoverer of the conditioned reflex

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Ivan Pavlov

• A Russian physiologist
• Discovered the conditioned reflex by chance

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Pavlovs Basic Procedure

• Present the CS without the US-The UR is observed
• Pair the CS with the US for a number of trials
• The CR is observed just prior to the US onset

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Mowers Bell and Pad
Pavlovian procedure used to treat enuresis