CONSTRUCTIONS OF THE OBEDIENCE EXPERIMENTS - A FOCUS UPON DOMAINS OF RELEVANCE

The significance of the Milgram obedience experiments resides inevitab ly in the constructions of these studies-in the meaning and interpreta tions that this research holds for students and researchers. This pape r reviews these constructions, with an emphasis upon the domains of re levance that have been associated with the obedience experiments. Cons idered first are issues bearing on the internal validity of the obedie nce paradigm. A brief historical excursion then examines Hannah Arendt 's thesis of the ''banality of evil,'' a thesis with a powerful and co ntroversial legacy of its own. To understand what those who are encoun tering the Milgram experiments for the first time are learning, I cons ider next the manner in which the ecological validity of the obedience research is discussed in contemporary texts. The paper concludes with a review of recent conceptual analyses of evil from the perspective o f the obedience experiments.