During all of its existence, most of humanity was subordinated and subordinated to more authoritative people, occupying leading positions.
Subordination is the main component of the structure of a person's social life. A management system is necessary in every society. We can say that submission is a mechanism of psychological coercion of each person, according to which the individual must act in the direction of the given goal.
In order to study the structure of human subordination, a special procedure was created. It was called the Milgram Experiment. Developed by her famous psychologist Stanley Milgram. The main purpose of this study was to find out how many ordinary people are capable of inflicting on others innocent, if the infliction of pain is one of their duties.
Stanley Milgram Experiment
The experiment consisted in the following: a person who did not know about the true purpose of the study was asked to periodically deliver another electric shock to another person, that is, a victim. A false current generator was used.
In the role of the victim, a specially trained person, an experimenter's assistant, spoke. His reactions were built according to a certain scheme.
Then the subject was asked to apply electro-shock, warning that this procedure is carried out, as if to study the effect of punishment on human memory.
As the experiment progresses, the subject is motivated to strike with increasing power, which could be supposedly dangerous for the victim's life. Behavior of the person under test is described as "submission", when he concedes to the requests of the experimenter, his requirements. The act of insubordination is the moment when punishment ceases. At the maximum value of the force of electric shock, which the subject of the victim caused, the amount of performance of the actions of the subject is based.
Thus, the degree of subordination of a person can be reduced to a certain numerical value depending on each subject and a certain experiment.
This technique allows you to perform various manipulations with variables. The experimenter will change the source of the commands, the form of the orders and their content, the object of punishment and devices, through which punishment will be applied, etc.
In the form of test subjects were about 40 men, whose age was from 20 to 50 years. The local newspaper published an advertisement about the experiment, and people were also personally invited. Subjects were selected in a variety of professions: engineers, postal clerks, tradesmen, etc. The level of education was different. For the participation of the experiment, Milgram was paid $ 4. Each subject was told that this amount was paid for the fact that he came to the laboratory and this does not depend on what indicators the experimenters will receive.
The experiment was conducted at Yale University. Another option is outside of it.
In each experiment, the subject and the victim participated. The pretext, under which striking was justified, was that it was supposedly necessary to find out the impact of punishment on the value of learning as a whole.
Results of the experiment
Milgram derived two results, which affected the experiment and some conclusions in social psychology.
The first result: the subject showed an unpredictable tendency
Milgram made these conclusions according to the experiment: the data obtained showed that in adults there is a strong willingness to move so far that it is difficult to predict when they follow an authoritative person.
So, the Milgram experiment made a significant contribution to the development of social psychology and, unfortunately, is relevant in our time.