Assignment #9: Obedience to Authority

Chapter 1: The Dilemma of Obedience

This chapter detailed the shocking for failure to learn experiment and explained some of the results. Every time I hear about this experiment, I am shocked. I don't want to believe that anyone is capable of doing the things that are described in this experiment, but I cannot see any way that I am correct. I also wonder if I was placed into this situation, what would I have done? I know most people don't want to know the results of this experiment about themselves, but I would like to know if I am a blind follower of authority or if I am capable of taking a stance. Several years ago, I know I would have followed blindly but I am not so sure anymore. Maybe one day I will find out.

 

Chapter 2: Method of Inquiry

This chapter covered the details in the experiment stated in chapter 1. I was surprised at how many changes were made from the original experiment to the final one. I also would have figured that there would have been minimal communication between the experimenter and the subject. Why did the experimenter tell each of the subjects what was occurring in the experiment when they were finished? The subjects could have told others what was happening and then the experiment would have been ruined? Also, I wonder how many of the subjects were unhappy in realizing that they were the whole purpose of the experiment. I wouldn't have been happy to learn that someone had lied to me in an attempt to do an experiment, though I would have been happy to participate in an experiment where I knew what was occurring.

 

Chapter 3: Expected Behavior

The topic covered in this chapter was the description of how and what the expected results of the experiment were. The people providing the expected results had drastically different ideas about what the results should be as compared to what they really were. These people thought that almost everyone would stop the experiment with only 1 or 2% of the population able to continue on to the last switch which is significantly less than actually got there. I am surprised, but not that surprised. This ties back in with the idea that I am not sure what I would do in this situation, and would actually like to know.

 

Chapter 4: Closeness of the Victim

 This chapter describes the effect that the variation in closeness to the victim had on the outcome. The closer the victim, the less likely a person is to complete the experiment. There were several points made which explained why this was the case. I felt that most of these, while accurate, might not have been the best description. The only one that makes sense from the initial description is "empathetic cues" which clearly means the closer the subject is to the victim, the more likely he is to see the cues and behave in an empathetic manner. After reading this section, I would not want to be a participant in this study in any way.

 

Chapter 5: Individuals Confront Authority

This chapter is entirely made up of descriptions of persons who participated in these experiments. There is a surprising deviation in the ideas behind why a person chooses to continue or to stop. These people come from all different backgrounds and have totally different world views. Because of this, no two persons reacted the same way to the situation. I was not surprised that the former military member followed the orders to the letter, but was surprised in the justification used by the priest and others as to why they did or did not continue. Again, after reading this chapter, I would not want to participate in this study at all.

 

Chapter 6: Further Variations and Controls

 This chapter described more experimental changes and their possible effects. The changing of the personal and the position of the authority figure changed the results spectacularly. I was mildly surprised, but not so much so that the results astounded me. If placing the victim closer made it harder to follow the authority figure, wouldn't removing the authority figure make it harder also? Women had the same results as men, this is interesting. Why would the experimenter expect this value to change? Changing the location of the lab, while it affected the overall results, did not affect them significantly enough to classify the results as different. Again, the experiment was changed so that the subject could choose the level of shock. This showed that many people were not willing to shock someone beyond1 the level where they complained. Each of these experiments changed at least one thing from the original experiment and thus showed  some ways that the subjects are able to skirt around authority without directly disobeying it. This was an interesting chapter, but hard to read because I can practically feel the anguish of some of the subjects in their words describing the actions that the subject had to take.

 

Chapter 7: Individuals Confront Authority II

It is shocking at the number of ways that people will try to absolve themselves of guilt. Each of the participants mentioned in this chapter had a reason why they were willing to continue the experiment or was clearly firm in their thought that the experiment was over. I was surprised that Milgram was able to find a subject that actually performed the way he was expecting. I thought no one would perform as expected, but I was incorrect. It is clear from reading this section that many people are deluding themselves about many parts of the experiment, including the fact that they were being studied and not the victim.

 

Chapter 8: Role Permutations

This chapter detailed new experiments where the authority figure and the person telling the subject to continue were not the same. The results of the experiments were surprising to Milgram, but not to me. If a person doesn't consider the victim as having the ability to stop the experiment, why would an authority figure playing the victim have the ability to stop the experiment. This chapter really expanded on the number of experiments which could be related to this topic. I was surprised by the number of variations available. What else can Milgram possibly change?

 

Chapter 9: Group Effects

This chapter was all about the ways in which a group setting would affect the subject's ability to shock the victim. When there are multiple people participating in the shocking of a man and the subject sees that there are no consequences in choosing to not continue, that is what the subject chooses to do most of the time. Likewise, if the subject is removed from the actual shocking process, he is able to continue for longer periods of time. I was not surprised by this, but I do wish that more people had the ability to stand up to authority by themselves. Though, I cannot note that I would be able to stop if placed in this scenario. The more of this book that I read, I want to know where I would fall on the given spectrum, but I am less and less inclined to want to participate.

 

Chapter 10: Why Obedience? - An Analysis

This chapter confused me like no other. What I was able to glean from it's pages is that as a person, we will either place ourselves under the supervision of a superior (the experimenter in this book) or we will be working for ourselves. The reason for this is so that all of humanity is able to fall into one of these rolls and not end up destroying ourselves one person at a time. Beyond that, the rest of this chapter was lost to me.

 

Chapter 11: The Process of Obedience: Applying the Analysis to the Experiment

This chapter is all about the interaction between the subject and the experimenter and how their "relationship" is created and defined. The subject has a perception of authority that must be filled and he willingly chooses to enter into the system of authority provided in the experiment. There were a lot of terms used to help describe this situation, but it boils down to a few ideas. First, the subject has volunteered for this and is assuming that an authority figure will be there. The experimenter is placed as this authority figure immediately. Second, the subject (once involved in an authority system) basically turns all responsibility over to the experimenter which is why he is able to continue the experiment until completion. Finally, because of the design of this experiment, the subject feels bound to complete the task or he will let the experimenter (his authority figure) down. This chapter helped to explain some of the reasons that the subject will completely follow the experimenter's instructions.

 

Chapter 12: Strain and Disobedience

This chapter showed the steps that a subject had to pass through in order to be classified as disobedient: inner doubt, externalization of doubt, dissent, threat, and finally disobedience. I didn't realize there were so many steps to breaking completely with the experimenter. I always assumed that the subject was able to jump past several of these steps at the same time, but separating them into distinct steps also makes sense. Each of these steps gets progressively harder. I am not surprised that some people were unable to break completely, but (despite the large number of distinct steps) I am still surprised at the number of subjects that do NOT break with the experimenter.

 

Chapter 13: An Alternative Theory: Is Aggression the Key?

This chapter briefly discusses the possibility that it is aggression which provokes the subject to shock the victim. As soon as this theory is presented, it is discounted based on previous work and the experiment where the subject could choose the shock level. I happen to agree, while there are those occasional odd balls who would shock someone just cause they could, a much larger majority of the population would not shock a person beyond minimal levels for any reason.

 

Chapter 14: Problems of Method

This chapter compared the experiments conducted by Milgram with the Nazi Germany time period. It also demonstrated that the results of this experiment should be representative of what would occur with anyone. Before reading this book, I would have thought that the results of this experiment could not easily be replicated, but it appears that no matter where the experiment is conducted the results are generally the same. I feel like many of the atrocities from Nazi Germany were done through obedience and often there was no thought made about whether or not the action should be taken.

 

Chapter 15: Epilogue

This chapter detailed an example of obedience to authority that was common in the Vietnam War and it shows how our society teaches us to follow authority figures unilaterally. The given example is terrible, I would never want to be placed in that situation, but this is why I am a student and not a soldier. The amount and type of things that humans will do in defence of authority is astounding and frankly, scary. Why do we as humans blindly follow authority? There are cases where it is clear that the authority figure has the individuals best intentions at heart, but what about the times when this is not the case? How far will we have to go before we are able to break away from the authority figure and say no? Only time, and experiments like Milgram's will tell.

 

Obedience to Authority

This book was at times interesting and at times boring. It provokes the reader to think and wonder about how he/she would react in the situation in which these subjects are placed. Could you tell the experimenter no? I know I would have trouble doing that. The role of authority figures in society is necessary, but we also need to know when to stop listening to authority.

There were two main examples given about obedience to authority and it's negative connotations: Nazi Germany and the Vietnam War. It may seem strange that both examples are of a war, but in reality people are willing to do things that they would never have considered doing before when in defence of themselves or their country. Most soldiers will follow orders when given simply because that is what they are supposed to do.

As humans, we need to recognize this need to follow authority completely and realize that this is not always the best option. Sometimes we need to be able to say that this is a terrible idea and I do not want to participate. Until humanity as a whole is able to accept that we are "hard wired" to be obedient to authority and find a way to be obedient when it is helpful and disobedient when it is not, humans will always be committing terrible actions simply because someone in a position of power told them to do so.

I wait eagerly for the day in which we realize that we give authority figures the ability to tell us what to do, so we must also check those figures and ensure that they are only doing what we would want to do. Obedience to authority is acceptable, but we must also know when to break from authority.

Assignment #8: Ethnography Ideas

So, we are supposed to write two ethnography ideas, one that we want to do and one that we would like to do but are unable to because of prior experiences.

I would like to do an ethnography on a dance group. I have no experience dancing in a structured environment and I have little knowledge of what it takes to be a good dancer. For this reason, I would like to immerse myself in the culture of a dance group and begin to understand how they work. I could spend time with salsa groups, with country western groups, or in a pop/hip-hop club. Either way I would be able to immerse myself in the culture and gain a better understanding of a structured dance group.

One possibility for an ethnography that I am not able to participate in is the gay community in B/CS. This is because I spend a lot of time with friends who are in this community and I already have a good view of the area. If someone wants to investigate this community, there is a club in downtown Bryan called Halo which is popular with this community and a person can easily observe what occurs in this community there.

There are many more possibilities, but these are the only ones that come to mind right now.

Assignment #7: Gand Leader for a Day

Chapter 1:

This chapter details the author's first experience attempting to connect with the underprivileged class in urban Chicago and the first meeting between the author, Sudhir Venkatesh, and the Black Kings gang. The details given in this book make the reading so simple and easy. It is almost as though Sudhir Venkatesh is trying to paint a picture with words from the book. The imagery is simple and straightforward, but he leaves you hanging wanting to know more. I don't know if I will be able to stop reading this book to do my other homework. This book is less like a description of an ethnography and more like a novel.

Though I believe this book is intended to be a sort of ethnography, its novel like characteristics make it more challenging to read for the information. The author is telling his story, but explaining in detail what he is learning about each of the people he is meeting. I can't wait to see what happens next.

Chapter 2:

This chapter was really interesting. It covered the days from Sudhir's first return to the gang all the way through his realization that all of his interactions with the gang and community were controlled by T.J. I was surprised by the amount of time that Sudhir spent with the gang, from his description it appeared that he spent most of his time there. How could his classmates and professors not notice? I also noticed that while spending time with the gang, he didn't spend a lot of time outside of with T.J. Some of this was because T.J. was keeping him somewhat isolated, but did Sudhir ever consider the idea that he could just show up and NOT talk to T.J.? I mean there were hundreds of people around, surely he didn't have to talk with T.J.

Chapter 3:

This chapter was basically a description of Sudhir’s realization that he needed a “sponsor” whenever he interacted with people in the community. His choice of sponsor was T.J., but that could have caused some problems. I found the entire interaction between the gangs with regard to reparations for the shooting of gang members to be interesting. The first meeting was clearly just a way for community members to get their anger expressed while the second meeting was the way for the two gangs to settle their differences without resorting to a gang war. I was not surprised that the gangs settled their differences without a war, but that the community just accepted the results of the gang’s being present. Hopefully all of the future problems between the gangs can be settled this way, but I have a feeling that later chapters will not show the same results.

Chapter 4:

This chapter was the inspiration for the name of the book “Gang Leader for a Day” because Sudhir gets the opportunity to spend the day as a gang leader. He realizes that there is no way he could do this job day after day. I was surprised by the fact that Sudhir seemed to take his role so seriously. I would not have been able to do that. There was so much associated with the idea of being a gang leader that I would not understand. I am surprised by the amount of jobs that, despite being gang leader, Sudhir was not able to do. I can understand though. I’m glad that we are able to see this side of the gang and realize there was so much more than can be seen on an average day.

Chapter 5:

This chapter detailed Sudhir’s interaction with Ms. Bailey. Ms. Bailey tried to make the best of a bad situation for everyone. She helped people get on their feet when something bad happened, but she was also a source of comfort for those who are less fortunate in the building. She was willing to help anyone who needed it, but they had to be willing to work with her and stay clean. Sudhir still doesn’t realize the impact that he has on the building and Ms. Bailey is attempting to help him understand that his actions will reflect on him whether he means them to or not. Helping one person will make it harder for him to say that he cannot help another.  The relationship between the gang and the building in complex, but T.J. seems to manage it in a way that prevents the amount of conflicts from increasing. Hopefully, Sudhir is able to realize that even his pittance of employment payments is far higher than the average person in Robert Taylor is able to make.

Chapter 6:

Sudhir begins talking to the local people to try and determine how much income is made in Robert Taylor and accidentally tells T.J. and Ms. Bailey what occurs that they don’t know about. Because of this, he is isolated from ALL of Robert Taylor until he decides to start a writing group. This group allows women to write about their experiences and discuss them with other women. The idea behind this group is to help the women with their writing and to get on the good side of the tenants again. I can’t see that Sudhir doesn’t know his conversations with Ms. Bailey and T.J. are being used to gain additional information about the tenants. It is incredibly stupid of him to think that they just want to know for the sake of knowing as he does. The more of this book that I read, the more I begin to think that Sudhir has taken the general concepts from what he observed but changed them into a novel. I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens now.

Chapter 7:

Sudhir finally begins to realize the conflicts that he is placing himself into in this chapter. He has to interact with gang members, people doing illegal activities, people doing legal activities, and police and still justify his actions to himself. The gangs don’t trust him because he is not a gang member, the illegals don’t trust him because he can turn them in if he needs to, the legals don’t trust him because he isn’t from around there and the police don’t trust him because of the amount of time he spends in Robert Taylor. As Sudhir begins to finish his experiment in social injustices, he begins to realize that there are people there that might actually miss him and that this wasn’t the smartest thing he could have done. Sudhir’s interactions with the police and limited interactions with T.J. begin to show him that there will always be a much larger portion of the projects that he will never see.

Chapter 8:

This chapter ended the relationship between Sudhir and T.J. The projects that the Black Kings had been operating in (Robert Taylor) were assigned to be torn down and therefore the whole operation seemed to suffer. I think that Sudhir finally realized the impact that meeting T.J. and the gang had in his academic career. He was able to understand many of the things that occur in the projects, but successfully distance him from them in both actions and thoughts. This chapter really tried to tie the entire book together, but I feel that it failed in this regard. There were many questions brought up by this book that were never answered and because of that, there are many things which I would still like to know. What happened to T.J.? Did Sudhir ever get in touch with the gangs of New York? Those are two of the questions I have, but there are many more.

Gang Leader for a Day:

Overall, Gang Leader for a Day was a good read. The author, Sudhir, attempted to make an interesting topic even more interesting by turning it into a novel style document. This book showed sides of the Chicago gangs that had never been seen before. The gang was portrayed as a company and not just a group of people looking to get into a fight over drugs. The actual display of drugs in this book was extremely limited. There was much more time devoted to the other ways in which gangs make money.

Sudhir seemed to be incredibly naïve when this book started, but as I continued reading it I began to think that because this book was not going to be a technical report, it needed to be more interesting and therefore Sudhir made himself look even more naïve than usual. He is constantly doing things without seeming to think about the possible problems that will occur from them. He tries to blend in, but sticks out like a sore thumb. Basically, Sudhir does some of the dumbest things that are possible and blames the actions on his naïveté.

This book seems to be a screaming request for ethnographies. The differences between what Sudhir sees and what his professors think occurs is tremendous. There is an entire group of people who according to the government and its census have no jobs and no form of income. But within this group of people, some of them have actual part time jobs and just don’t claim them while others work within the community to make money in less upstanding ways. These people barely make enough to get by even with the subsidies that the government provides. But without spending huge amounts of time with these people, there is no way that anyone would ever figure it out. Ethnographies allow the researcher to immerse themselves in the group they are studying to try and determine what exactly they are seeing.

For anyone that lives in an aera where there is a large population of less well-off people, I would recommend reading this book. It is an incredibly helpful read and explains many things that are less obvious in reality.

Assignment #6: Nonobvious Observation

I know this blog post is supposed to cover the various forms of non-obvious behaviour that can be observed through videos, but I have to comment about the Language Style Matching article. This article was very dry, and hard to read. The only really interesting part was when the in depth case studies were covered and this was only interesting because I did not have much background knowledge of any of the persons in question. On the other hand, I greatly enjoyed the first chapter of The Secret Life of Pronouns. I would not mind reading more of that book in the future.

Anyway, back on track... This post is supposed to cover the videos we created and the nonobvious things you might be able to take note of to determine more about a person.  The video that my group created involved us entering a bar, ordering a drink, and participating in one round of a game.

There are several things which the user can take note of, I will just start a list of the items and how they can be used:

1.     Height of camera (women are typically shorter than men)

2.     Range of motion (women are typically more flexible than men)

3.     Direction of view (how shy is the person in question)

4.     Amount of personal interaction (less interaction = more shy)

5.     Jewelry (women wear it, men don't)

6.     Looking people in the eye (more shy people won’t)

7.     What did they do? (women won’t do everything men will)

8.     Did they buy anything? (men can eat more than women)

9.     Did they appear to be outgoing?

10.  Was the person treated well or ignored?

11.  Did they draw attention to themselves?

12.  Did they play with their hair? (women yes, men no)

13.  Are they in charge or just there?

14.  Are you viewing things at an angle?

15.  Do they sit still or are they constantly moving?

16.  Do they care when other people look at them?

17.  How fast are they moving?

18.  Do they trip or fall?

19.  Do they look out or down as walking?

20.  Are hand motions prevalent?

21.  Do they constantly look at new things?

22.     Can you see their frustration?

While each of these things can be used to help identify the person in the video, I just want to point out that this blog assignment had absolutely nothing to do with the reading assignment and that annoyed me. So I included my rant about the reading assignment at the beginning of this blog.

Assignment #5: Ethnographies

The first article primarily covered some different definitions of ethnography. These definitions gave me a more generalized view of what ethnography actually is. There is much more to an ethnography than I initially realized. I did not understand the depth of submersion in the group that is required.

The second article was an indepth description of what is included in an ethonography and many examples of them. One thing that I noticed and thought was appropriate was the three categories of "conceptual clusters" which are actually ethical delimas. Many of the descriptions of these delimas are cases which I had not considered. One in particular stands out: "the candid ethnographer." This situation stands out because I had never considered that the ethnographer could report on a situation which did not actually occur. Another key concept is the American Anthropological Association's eight page code of ethics; it is important, but not covered in enough detail for my personal thoughts. "Richardson provides 5 criteria that ethnographers might find helpful" are listed and explained in this article. These questions help the reader to accurately evaluate an ethnography in a manner that can be consistant even though there is no known consensus on the evaluation performed. There are other new ideas (to me) presented in this article, but they did not seem as important to me as the ones listed here.

The final article was the most interesting to me. It covered a book written by Margaret Mead entitled "Coming of Age in Samoa." This book discussed the nature vs. nurture debate and a variety of topics related to the transition from child to adolescent to adult. The major conclusion found in Mead's book was that the transition from childhood to adulthood in Samoa is much smoother and easier to handle than that in America. The second major part of this article is the controversy between Margaret Mead and Darek Freemen's ideas of who is correct. Freemen states that Mead was completely wrong in her conclusions because the girls she interviewed lied to her. Critics have stated that Freemen "systematically misrepresented Mead's views on the relationship between nature and nurture, as well as the data on Samoan culture." In the long run, it was essentially found that Freemen was incorrect and Mead's "hypotheses and conclusions are essentially unfalsifiable, and therefore 'not even wrong.'" Though this controversy appears to be settled in my mind, there is no clear result in this article. This seems to be a topic that there is no real solution to and there will never be a solution to. Must we continue to argue over whether Mead or Freemen is correct? Is it possible that both of them are correct?