The Influence of Society on Human Psychology
The human psychology is largely influenced by the society more than individualistic traits. Social situations tend to have a great influence on individual behaviors, feelings, and thoughts. It is common to find people changing their behavior to conform to a social situation at hand. Furthermore, when many people find themselves in a new situation and they are unsure with how to behave, they tend to take their cues from the people around them. Other things such as social norms and expectations tend to dictate on how we conduct ourselves when in different situations. In most cases, we monitor our individual attitudes to suit the expectations of the people around us because we don’t want to be outliers who fail to fit in particular circumstances. Because of the desire to associate with others, people will always strive to adjust their behaviors to fit with those whom they want to associate with. Sometimes people may not willing adjust to social expectations, but they do so because of the rules put in place for everyone to follow.
Ethics of Milgram's Study
Milgram’s study was not unethical since the experiment was not really conducted as it ought to be but instead, a simulation was involved to imitate the level of pain from participants according to the amount of voltage used. In reality, the experiment would have been unethical if it was real because of inflicting pain on human beings. An act of inflicting pain on a human being is considered torture, which constitutes a violation of human rights thus renders such an act unethical. Furthermore, the participants were not forced but rather took part with their consent.
The Influence of Authority in Obedience
The participants continued to obey the experimenters because of the pressure of obeying authority from the experimenters. The participants, who were reading questions and punishing learners by shocking them, were taking orders which they were demanded to obey. In the experiment, the authority was persistent and in the same room with the participants; therefore, disobedience was very low. Some participants were reluctant to continue shocking the learners but they carried on because of the intense pressure put on them by the experimenters. It is likely that they were afraid of the consequences of disobeying the authority. Furthermore, the participant teachers were in separate rooms with the learners, hence, the level of humanity was very low because of a lack of eye contact which tends to increase emotions and consequently increase humanity.
The Vulnerability of Individuals with Mental Illness
People with mental illness lack the capability to regulate this type of influence and therefore, they can easily be taken advantage of. Mental illness temper with the human conscious and consequently the victims lose their humanity. It becomes difficult for them to differentiate between pain and happiness. They can easily mistake someone’s cry for laughter and hence decide to continue hurting someone, confusing their pain with enjoyment. Furthermore, mental illness distorts one’s ability to reason. Without the ability to reason, such people are vulnerable to doing whatever one is asked to do as they cannot think of the possible outcomes of their actions. Therefore, the level of influence in obeying authority is likely to be high because they lack the ability to reason that the actions they are ordered to take may consequently affect someone with an ounce of pain. Their human conscious is ineffective for them to feel sorry for anybody.
