Book Reading #3: Obedience to Authority

Chapter Summaries

Ch. 1 - The Dilemma of Obedience: This first chapter serves to introduce the experiment, which, I think is quite an interesting one. After thinking about it, it makes perfect sense. I think it points out a very crucial issues with humans, in that we pass off the blame until no one is held responsible.

Ch. 2 - Method of Inquiry: Chapter 2 is a nice chapter that that explains the procedure of the experiment in greater detail. I like how it tells us the exact steps that were taken. It definitely helps explain how this process was scientific, as I originally thought there would be too many variables due to human interaction.

Ch. 3 - Expecte Behavior: Chapter 3 is a short chapter discussing the expectations of the experiment. Most people predicted that the subjects would stop at the 10th shock level (first demand to be freed). I thought this accurate, because I feel that is what I would of predicted as well.

Ch. 4 - Closeness of the Victim: I found this chapter on closeness to the victim quite a nice twist on the study. It makes sense that the closer the "teacher" is to the victim, the sooner they will disobey. It does seem a tough situation to be in, and I am surprised that some people actually followed through with the close proximity test.

Ch. 5 - Individuals Confront Authority: I think it was very good of Milgram to include some responses from participants in the experiment. This chapter does a good job of giving a "teacher's" point of view. It shows the pain that some of these people went through when obeying instructions.

Ch. 6 - Further Variations and Controls: After reading the first 3 chapters of this book, I was wondering how it would stretch to so many chapters, but now I see that they did many variations of this test. I think this was good, because it was necessary to prove that it was indeed authority. The experiment at Bridgeport was especially interesting to me, as I felt people only followed instructions because the trusted Yale in the initial test. This was obviously proven wrong.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7 just seemed to show the cruelty of the experiment to me. These people seemed quite troubled at the task they obeyed to perform. It seems not quite ethical to put someone through such as scenario. Mrs. Rosenblum seemed especially confused, and Mr. Gino came off as quite cynical with his bragging about "doing his job", even if the man was dead.

Ch. 8 -  Role Permutations: This chapter was quite interesting to me. The one experiment with two authorities and one as a victim really surprised me. It seems crazy that the "victim authority" could lose his role so easily and be treated as any of the other "ordinary victims".

Ch. 9 - Group Effects: The section on the shock administer disobeying early because the rest of the group disobeyed seemed to match my predictions. The interesting experiment was the one where the naive subject does not administer shocks, and so goes on fully with the experiment. It is rather eye opening to think of the real life parallels of such a scenario. People don't stop wrong, but remain accessories to it because they are not directly doing the wrong.

Ch. 10 - Why Obedience? An Analysis: This chapter's in depth look on obedience was an interesting read. It does a good job of explaining why humans would obey and the need for hierarchy. It does make sense -- we need hierarchy and obedience to keep society organized and functioning.

Ch. 11 - The Process of Obedience: Chapter 11 delves into the reasons why people obey. It discusses the social norms and feelings people have when obeying authority. I found the section on anxiety especially true, as it states that breaking social norms is troubling until the break occurs.

Ch. 12 - Strain and Disobedience: This chapter discusses the strain that people go through when they are faced with issues they are uncomfortable with. It also talks about the different ways people reduce their strain, such as passing of responsibility or avoiding the discomfort.

Ch. 13 - An Alternative Theory: Is Aggression the Key?: The author points out the possibility of aggression being the reason for people continuing to shock. As he points out, this is not the case, because as in experiment 11, people chose to shock at the lowest levels when given the option. They were not aggressive, but merely following orders.

Ch. 14 - Problems of Method: This chapter discusses the possible problems the experiment might of had and why they were not in fact issues. The more times and more variations of this experiment just go to show and prove its correctness. People obey authority, even if it is not moral.

Ch. 15 - Epilogue: This chapter goes into the moral aspect of the experiments. It raises a good question of how people can judge the subjects of this experiment with disdain, and then be okay with the killing in wars. The story of the massacre is especially troubling and brings back thoughts of Nazis. It is scary what people will do when they are just obeying orders.

Book Summary

I thought this book was very interesting and did a good job of testing out its initial goal. The goal was to see if most people would obey even if it is immoral. This question was supposed to parallel the obedience that Nazis held during their experiments that killed and harmed people. Although the Nazis operated over a decade long and this experiment lasted only an hour, I feel that it still did a great job of proving the correlation because both tasks involved the same inherent behavior.

I, like most of the people questioned before the tests were run, thought that people would hold to their morals more than the social contract of the experiment. I would not think that a person would continue to shock a complete stranger just because a scientists tells them to. I especially think that screams from the learner would immediately halt the experiment and cause disobedience, but as this book showed, this hypothesis was wrong. It seems quite crazy that so many people went to the full shock value of 450 volts.

Milgram does do a good job of explaining why people obey. Upon further evaluation, you start to understand the position those subjects were in. They volunteered for the experiment and did not want to mess it up. Although they had no reason to trust the scientists, you find yourself trusting such an authority and assuming they are right and that no harm will come of the shocks. The especially interesting point that Milgram makes is the strain that the subjects go through and how they try to reduce it. I can see myself using these same tactics -- avoidance, passing off the blame, "lightly" shocking, etc. -- if I was placed in the situation. Whatever it took to both complete the experiment and not do too much harm to the victim.

I of course hope that I would not go through with the experiment at all, as I can not imagine shocking another stranger for forgetting random word pairs. Of course, the odds would have been against me though, since it appears most people obey, and so I can only assume I would have too. This is a scary thought, and it really makes you wonder. I feel sorry for the subject's that had to learn this the hard way. It seems wrong to inform someone that they are willing to hurt others, without them asking or even wanting to know. Overall though, I guess it was a good experiment and brought to light some important facts about people.

Book Reading: Gang Leader for Day

     Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Venkatesh was a very interesting read, and definitely my favorite book in this class so far. Contrary to popular belief, I have never been in a gang, nor have I known anyone that has been, so this was very enlightening. The study might not have been a typical ethnography, but I feel that is what made it such a unique read.

     I think the ethical aspect of the whole study was the most intriguing portion. Sudhir was present for many illegal activities and even the planning of drive by murders. I do not know if I would have been able to watch all of those activities go down. I do think that he definitely got attached to the people in the community and so this was a big reason for letting his morals slide. I know that just from reading the book, I felt sorry for J.T. because his rise was ending and the gang was falling apart. If I, from just reading the story, feel bad that there are no more crack users to help supplement J.T., I can only imagine how attached Sudhir got during his many years there. I think this study was a great one, but it definitely broke the rules of typical ethnographers.

    Another aspect of the book that I found interesting was the way the community as a whole functioned. It was practically its own little city with its own government and hierarchy. There were jobs and taxes and even a punishment system that was separate from the rest of Chicago. Everyone in the community depended on one another, whether it be protection or services or food, in order to get by. They seemed to even have their own currency to go with cash, in that they just trade favors or threats to get what they want. It definitely is a fight to survive for all of the people, always just trying to get by, and doing what is necessary to get what you need. It seems like an endless cycle that can not be escaped.

Ethnography Ideas

My idea for an ethnography at Texas A&M would be to study the Corps of Cadets. I think this would be an interesting study because most students at Texas A&M do not know what life in the corps all entails. I can't say I even know too many corps people personally so it would definitely be a study that is completely new to me. I know they have very strict rules and a busy schedule so it would be interesting to see what that lifestyle is like.

My idea for an ethnography of a group that I am familiar with and think would be an interesting ethnography for another person would be the Texas A&M Football team. I do not know if this is totally a plausible idea (considering access issues), but from being in the locker room and around those guys for my first three years, I think it would be an interesting study. Most of them are not what you think of when you think of college football athlete (although some fit the stereotype very well). It would be interesting to compare the way the media portrays them and how they really are.

Assignment 7: Nonobvious Observation

Blog your response about the videos you created and the nonobvious things you might be able to take note of to determine more about a person

In order to create our videos for this project, we rode our bikes from Rudder Tower to the C-Store by Sbisa. We then bought an item from the convenient store and returned to the tower on our bike. This made for an interesting video for all the group members. Riding our bike down military walk gave ample opportunity for interaction with pedestrians. This gave many changes for observation of the person wearing the camera and quite a fun task of guessing who it was.

After just watching a few of our group's videos, you start to notice many different things that give away who is wearing the camera. For instance, by seeing the path they took and the pace they rode it, you could start to guess who was the rider. The different directions the person looks is also a hint. You can see if the person is focused on the goal or has a wondering gaze. Another nonobvious thing that could be noticed was the way they let pedestrians travel in front of them. Did they cut them off or let them go first, or just totally go around them altogether. These are just some of the hints that could be viewed when analyzing the videos and the process we took.

I now realize how much more there is about people and the way they interact in general. There are many nonobvious things that this assignment helped point out -- things that would not be otherwise noticed without this extra analysis. Just like in Pennebaker's book "The Secret Life of Pronouns", sometimes it is the small things such as pronouns, or hand gestures and head movement (in the case of the videos), that can tell a lot about a person.

Ethnography Articles Response

eth·nog·ra·phy 
Pronunciation: \eth-ˈnä-grə-fē\ 
Function: noun 
Etymology: French ethnographie, from ethno- + -graphie -graphy 
Date: 1834

: the study and systematic recording of human cultures ; also : a descriptive work produced from such research

              -Merriam-Webster Online

As I was not very sure what an ethnography was before reading these three articles, I found them very informative. The "American Ethnography" and Wikipedia descriptions pointed out many important points in describing what an ethnography is. The Wikipedia article was especially descriptive and discussing the different types of ethnography. Some of these types included Cultural and Social Anthropology,  Sociology, and Communication Studies.

As an example of one the "Cultural and Social Anthropology" type of ethnography, the third article discussed Coming of Age in Samoa by Margaret Meade. I found this ethnography quite interesting. It is about Meade, at the age of 23, doing field work in Samoa and the information she gathered. She was trying to discover if troublesome adolescence was just an issue in the United States or if it was prevalent in other cultures as well. By going to Samoa and studying young girls, Meade discovered that adolescence was a smooth transition for those girls. This proved that problematic adolescence for children was due to the culture of the United States.

This example of Meade's study in Samoa helped me better understand how an ethnography could be helpful. Before these articles, I just assumed that an ethnography was a way to get to know other cultures. This is true, but what is important is that this information can be used to better our society.

Book Reading #2: Emotional Design

     Chapter One of Emotional Design, by Dan Norman, is a very interesting read. It focuses a lot on how people think and they way design can be affected by emotion. As the chapter is titled, "Attractive Things Work Better", I find it ironic that Norman is the author, due to his adamant stance on functionality over aesthetics in his book Design of Everyday Things. The two books do have some things in common though, as they both seek out finding the best way to interact with users of designs. The two books just seem to approach this matter differently.

     Emotional Design discusses the visceral, behavioral, and reflective ways of thinking by humans. Norman points these out because it is important to think of the state of the user when designing. By placing yourself in the user's situation, you can more effectively plan for improving the user experience. This is similar the point made in Design of Everyday Things -- design with the user in mind.

     In contrast though, Emotional Design focuses on improving design by making it look better, by relaxing the user and having them accept more fault because they are in a better mood. I do agree that this make sense, and the Mini Cooper example is an excellent one for this very scenario. I do think this contradicts Norman's points in Design of Everyday Things though. In that book, he stresses focusing on fixing errors and changing designs as opposed to just covering them up by making them look better.

    While both books seem to have valid points, I think Design of Everyday Things has a stronger case. Attractive designs are important, and Norman's total lack of focus on it in his first book did bother me, but I think it is more important to provide better feedback and visibility as opposed to a more attractive design. Playing on the user's state of mind seems to be too risky when designing because, as Norman points out, people are all different and designing in this way can be a hard way to please everyone.