Conformity and Obedience Response

Question 1 

Stanley Milgram carried out the most famous studies of obedience in psychology. In his experiment performance, he focused on the conflict between obedience to command and individual conscience. The aim and interest of Milgram were to study on how far persons would go in complying with instructions even if it concerned injuring another individual. The interest was encouraged by the easiness of ordinary individuals being influenced to performing atrocities, like the Germans in World War II. 

The recruitment of volunteer participants for the lab experiment was done which involved 40 men, whose daily activities ranged from unskilled to professionals. The participants were introduced at the beginning of the trial to another partaker who was the associate of the experimenter. The participants were taken through the goals study by the experimenter. The experimenter then outlined who would be the teacher as well as the students' participants. Both the teacher and the student were separated to different adjacent rooms, with the learner being strapped in what seems like an electric chair. A sample of electric shock from a generator was given to the teacher, as a means to make the teacher think he would be inflicting shock to the learner during the experiment (Mcleod, 2007). 

The teacher was supposed to read a word to the student who would appear in response press a button to display his reply. If the response turned out to be incorrect, the teacher would inflict shock to the learner, gradually raising the voltage by 15 volts for every reply that is incorrect. In the process of shock application, a recorded player made sounds that would make the teacher think he was applying real shock on the student. All the way through the process of fake shocks, the yells would become louder, with the student felling silent in the attainment of the highest voltage. 

In the experiment, it was observed that ordinary individuals are most likely to follow commands instructed by an authoritative personality, to the extent of even killing a person who is innocent. From the experiment, it can be portrayed that obedience to authority has been entrenched in human species all the way from the system of upbringing. There is a tendency to obey orders from persons recognized to possess morally right authority or legally founded. The response to obey a lawful command is learned from a variety of situations including family, learning institutions, and workplaces. The aspect of obedience in the legal and philosophical is of great importance, but they reveal very little about how individuals conduct themselves in concrete circumstances. 

Question 2 

Events that happened in Abu Ghraib prison where the American military tortured the Iraq inmates psychologically and physically could be observed as a situation which explains how authority can control behaviors of individuals as an established routine. In the investigation after the events at the Abu Ghraib prison, a lot of the soldiers claimed that they were following orders from the senior intelligence to get information from the inmates. As what was seen as a routine activity in prison, the soldiers were comfortable taking photos of the torture activities. 

In the analysis of the situation, the senior military intelligence had encouraged some correctional officers into applying abusive acts due to the shortage of regulation in prison. Although in their conscience they could have thought of the acts being wrong, orders from military intelligence and what appeared to be the only authority figure were to be followed. In the activities that happened at the prison, it is exposed that obedience to a person on the command or authority shifts responsibility from oneself to the authority (Minow, 2007). The seniors in the military intelligence created fundamental principles to be followed by the correctional officers, thus being obedience to the senior's command. At all stages, the military intelligence seniors should have been much more responsible in creating social atmosphere and situation that support positive behavioral principals for the prison guards' responsibility. 

Question 3 

The Technical responsibility is outlined as the prearranged fulfillment of all lawful and other errands linked by the use of technical conducts. The conduct of being legally responsible and productive is technically responsible, with an individual being judged according to the legally laid procedures. While moral responsibility an individual is judged through actions that are morally responsible. In most cases, the judgment of responsibility may include anything including processes, events, and individual’s psychological character. An individual is referred as morally responsible as a result of some acts and occurrences depending on what is destined by the human activity. What an individual means by free, freely or else freedom will mirror his moral standards and most importantly the views regarding justice. 

Question 4 

Obedience to authority was one of the main reasons that the people used in aiding the large extent in running of Holocaust. Many people might have participated in the Holocaust as they were amongst administers of the German administration. Following orders was the simplified excuse that many Germans used to evade responsibility for their actions. Many participants in the Holocaust confused between technical and moral responsibility because their feeling of responsibility was based on administrators arrangement that everyone should follow the rules (Salrini, & Silver, 1975). However, the participants could still have correctly maintained that although he was mandated to do atrocity, he could have resisted in the light of its consequences in moral status as the intended action is irresponsible. 

Question 5 

The images from Abu Ghraib prison revealed military police were subjecting inmates to psychological and physical abuses as well as humiliating them sexually. In the scenes, smiling soldiers can be seen standing while even making thumb-up signs. The scenes demonstrate a failure of both personal and shared moral responsibility. The soldiers in the perpetration of the abuses should be held morally responsible for their actions. Although the juniors were following orders from their seniors, the acts were technically and morally illegal, and individual's soldiers had the moral responsibility to refuse orders which would result in technical and moral irresponsibility. 

Question 6 

During his return from round talks in the neighboring country of Tanzania on 6th of April in 1994, the Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana was murdered when his airplane was shot down outside the capital of the country, Kigali. The president death sparked a sequence of an organized campaign of violence against minority Tutsi perpetrated by the majority Hutu. Government radio stations were used in fueling violence and calling upon Rwandans to kill their neighbors. The violence that lasted for almost 100days left an estimation of over 800,000 Rwandans killed, between 250,000 to 500,000 women raped and much more displaced and resulted in being refugees outside their country (Human Rights Watch/Africa, 1994). 

Question 7 

In Rwanda, ethnic anxiety existed for centuries but grew extremely more even after the country gained independence in 1962 from Belgium. In the period of 1990s, elite politicians from Hutu blamed the Tutsi populace for the uprising social, economic and political challenges that were being faced by the country. The Tutsi inhabitants were also associated with the RPF (Rwandan Patriotic Front) group of rebels. A lot of Hutus disliked the individuals from Tutsi originality, as they were mostly considered as the influential and governed the nation for decades. The feared the Tutsi's as a result and were determined to struggle for their power. When the plane of president Habyarimana who was a Hutu crashed, extremists from the president's community assumed that the Tutsis were behind the shot down. Hutus immediately set out to finish the whole Tutsi populace in seeking revenge on the considered elite and influential community. 

Altitude and behavior are some of the social psychological factors that aided in the Rwandan genocide. A certain altitude that a particular group holds about others can have insightful effects on their chances of being influenced, their partiality to help other groupings in times of emergency and the probability of accommodating violent deeds committed by group associates. The said attitudes are relatively associated with how the association or group distinguishes itself. The manner an individual tend to identify him, or herself is the same way an organization does. A specific effect of this is the disconnection of the association from others and an inclination towards the personal attitude that is biased to a group that the person belongs. If the group, therefore, expresses itself as superior and the other low-grade, or view itself as weaker with the other group to blame for that disadvantage, there is an enhanced probability of violent directed to members of the opposing group. 

There can be powerful social influences on behavior if there is a favorable environmental condition. When there is strong identification with a particular association, one consequence is when the crisis arises persons tend to seek support from the groups. An individual can act in aggressively when there is a view of being expelled from the group. In the scenario of genocide, this can principally be destructive. In case of Rwanda genocide, it is unlikely that all Hutus felt equally as passionate about chasing down Tutsis, but large associations were created; thus individuals found themselves following objectives of the groups. 

References  

Human Rights Watch/Africa. (1994). Genocide in Rwanda. Human Rights Watch/Africa, 6 (4), 1-15. 

Mcleod, S. (2007). Milgram experiment. Simply Psychology . Retrieved on 6 February 2018, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html. 

Minow, M. (2007). Living up to rules: Holding soldiers responsible for abusive conduct and the dilemma of the superior orders defense . Retrieved on 6 February 2018, from https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/12341082/2172095-1219617374_Minow.pdf?sequence=1. 

Salrini, J., & Silver, M. (1975). Do milgram's obedience experiments help explain the nature of the holocaust? Challenge Questions . Retrieved on 6 February 2018, from http://www.hallquistcphs.com/ap-lecture-notes/ts---obedience.pdf.