Book Reading #?: Odedience to Authority

Chapter Summary 1:
This chapter serves as an intro the authority. I did not read the pretext before I began this book so I was a little caught off guard as to the nature of the experiment mentioned in this chapter. This chapter talked about the responsibility of authority and how people act under an authority figure with an agenda besides their own. They talked about the experiment of shocking others under the pretense that it was your responsibility to submit and follow rules. I have heard other people in discussions in class talk about how they don't know if they would follow their own morals and might do the same as the figures in this book, but this chapter made me think even stronger of my own morals. I don't think I would ever intentionally harm another like they do in this book.

Chapter Summary 2:
This chapter talked a bit more about the experiment and went a bit further in depth. It talked about the situation the experimenters and participants were in and mentioned that the situation was a bit more complicated than most people think. I disagree with this a bit in the sense that I believe people are often easily clouded in judgement and need to take an outside look on things instead of letting emotions get the better of them. In some cases, this is a bit harder to do. They must have had a overwhelming environment for the experimenters to act the way they did in this chapter. They talked about how they recruited volunteers, what the person undergoing the experiment had to go through, and how the shock worked. Changes were made apparently during the experiment based on the volunteer's responses. An actor was also present to make the experiment more dramatic and decrease the chance of non belief.

Chapter Summary 3:
This chapter talked about the different subjects that underwent the experiment and how the people who underwent the experiment were from a select group of people (Specifically college students, adults, and psychiatric experts). All participants seemed to be mature in age. The author mentioned that people are usually there with good intent and think independently, but are extremely susceptible to change and authority.

Chapter Summary 4:
This chapter talked about the experiment and the results. It went on to talk about how the participants (although originally good willed) usually submitted to authority and shocked people when they were told. They passed off their own morals in the sense as they were just doing what they were told. A few people told themselves they were doing it in the name of science. Disobedience was talked about a bit in this chapter and the relationship between the shocker and 'shockee' was further expanded upon. A sense of suffering and morals began to conflict with their submission to authority.

Chapter Summary 5:
This chapter talked about the subjects specifically and their own justifications on why they followed through with the experiment. An experimenter finally made an impression on me in this chapter in that he became disobedient and talked about how the experiment is really harmful for the person being shocked. It shows an outside point of view in this chapter and talked a bit about the pain involved.

Chapter Summary 6:
This chapter yet again talks about the experiment, but shows that they changed the experiment up a bit. The situation was changed a bit and they had some people not present that were normally present and watched to see if there was any change in people's view on authority and their willingness to follow through with the experiment. To my satisfaction, results were changed and people became less willing and less authoritative figures were present. Although the opposite was also true.

Chapter Summary 7:
This chapter was a bit different than the rest and talked about experiences some people had with the experiment and in one case how someone was able to justify his actions by passing off and forgetting about his own morals. Robot-like in my opinion. One lady mentioned that she acted different when trying to prove herself to other people than how she normally did. Another woman had became disobedient early and told the authoritative figures her views early on. She was more scientific and skilled than the other people. She had a more broad and outside view than the others as well. I found that interesting. She also seemed to give reason that it wasn't because she was having issues or she was stressed, but because she knew what was right. That was the most interesting and inspiring of all.

Chapter Summary 8:
This chapter talked about authority and the transfer or obligations a bit more. What caught me off guard is that the situation was reversed in this chapter. The person being shocked wanted it and the authority seemed to want to stop the experiment. Strangely enough, the person following directions stopped more willingly. I found this interesting but it follows the notion that people submit to authority and forget about the victim. Using this as a pretext, it's easy to see why they would still follow their initial beliefs and go with the authority figure instead of the one in pain.

Chapter Summary 9:
This chapter talked about changing the group up a bit to see different results. It talked about peer influence a bit more and that people were more willing to follow the group's view when banded together. Strangely, I think the group's view was more strong than the authority's view to the subject.

Chapter Summary 10:
This chapter talked about hierarchy, obedience, and the social aspect to it. The author said that people are usually trained at a young age to submit to authority and respect them. Most of society in general has a social hierarchy that people follow. The author also talked about a state of agency and the concept of agentic shift.

Chapter Summary 11:
This chapter talked about the process that usually influences people when it comes to obedience. It talked about his concept in the previous chapter of agentic shifts and that certain conditions have to be met before it can happen. (In his example usually the concept of family, environment, and rewards). Anxiety plays a big part in this concept.

Chapter Summary 12:
This chapter talks about the concept of strain and how it influences actions by people. Avoidance is used to help remove some of this strain, but strain plays a big part in obedience and the ways people think about issues they aren't comfortable with. This was an interesting chapter in that I never thought of strain itself as the thing that people struggle with. I usually had it the other way around than how the author describes this.

Chapter Summary 13:
This chapter talked about the author and his experiment's issues he faced. It seemed to me he wanted to counter people's disbelief in this experiment by providing reason of his own. People said that his subjects were in a different time period than the past WW2 setting he described, people weren't actually giving shocks, and that you can't generalize people by the actions of these few people. Everyone is different. I found myself siding with the dis beliefs rather than his counter points. I like to believe in people and will always try to follow through this. Most of his arguments somehow completely slipped my mind.

Chapter Summary 14:
This is the last chapter and talks about present day a bit. He also talks about people who have the ability to follow through with his experiments the most, soldiers. He says they're trained to follow authority and even kill people before they actually have to do so. Training is done early on and soldiers are extremely capable of passing morals off and submitting to authority. Rewards and punishments are talked about more in this chapter and he mentions people are coded to follow through with authority. Punishments await for people who don't.

Book Response:
I found this book interesting but not to my liking as much compared to previous books I have read for this course. Mostly because I found myself disagreeing with a lot of the author's points and his disbelief in people in general. I don't like the way he generalizes people and tried to justify his actions from the start in the name of science. I do however believe that a lot of people believe this way and are generally more susceptible to authority and committing acts that do not generally agree with their own morals. I think some people are too quick to give up on their own goals and morals and a lot of people are simply just bad people.

I learned a few terms and was interested though that more people than I realize have trouble with anxiety and stress. The difference between them and me though is that they are more willing to give up and do the unthinkable. The capacity of human kind is shown in this book and kind of elaborates what we see sometimes when people do horrible things.