Obedience paper for school

Obedience

" In the beginning, I thought that Stanley Milgram's  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCVlI-_4GZQ) experiment was torture - just like I'm sure a lot of people assume, being shocked with high voltage would seem to kill a man in a seemingly heartless way. Then when I got to the point of the video where it mentioned that it was all in the person's mind and that they weren't actually being shocked, I was amazed how a person's brain can trigger them to think they were being shocked all because they were told as such. To have such an influence over someone to where they actually think that they are being shocked at such high voltages to where they think they are actually in pain.

It seems that the presence of an authority figure puts such a pressure on people that they either mess up because they are concentrating more on the authority rather than their task at hand. On the other side, there seem to be other people who perform better under a watchful eye, so it all depends on how the individual performs under stress. Either way, having that figure present seems to influence people to behave - in an obedience sense - better since they do know they are being watched and could get in trouble or in the video's case "shocked".

When I think of authority figures in every day life, four different people come into my mind: police, teachers, bosses and parents. What's funny is to each it seems that they have a different affect on people and obedience. Maybe because they're in different environments or maybe because each holds a different form of being an authority figure.

Police get both sides of the spectrum when it comes to how others obeying them. They get some people who obey and listen better when there is a cop around, maybe for fear of going to jail or getting a ticket or maybe out of sheer respect for someone with a badge. But of course, there are criminals. There are always those people who try to run, spit on or fight the police and then usually attempt to run. In general though, it seems that the majority of people do obey most laws and listen, as well as respect, police.

As for teachers, they also get both hands dealt to them. I'd almost put teachers and parents in the same boat when it comes to obedience in people towards authority figures. There's the kids who do well and seem to never get in trouble in school or at home, then there's the "rebellious" group who seems to always be in trouble and are frequent visitors to the principal or the term grounded.

I think bosses are really the only ones I see where they have an affect on obedience because it seems, especially in my town, people struggle so much to get a job that they wont do anything to risk losing that job once they get it. So, they do every task and obey every rule that their boss gives them. I am even guilty of this. People might still talk negatively behind their boss' back, but to their face they try to be on their best behavior.

In general, I feel that people think that being a person of authority means that they are higher on the totem pole and closer to being "top dog". I feel that a lot of people go against their own personal ethics because they think that this person has something to offer them. Whether it be getting out of a speeding ticket, getting an A on a test or getting a raise, it does come off that the authority always has something to offer."