Thesis: Morals, which dictate what is right and wrong, are easily influenced according to the circumstance.
My thesis revolves around the concept of how authority shapes the behavior of a person. This topic is highly relevant because of our studies on power play and recent blog posts on the Milgram Obedience study. My main source is the book The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, by the famous Philip Zimbardo. His Standford Prison Experiment is known throughout the world and gives great insight onto the topic. I plan to use most of my sources and quotes from this book and I hope to write about the prison experiment and milgram obedience study. Most likely, I will start off with the introduction defining morals and what is considered right and wrong. I can then transition from there onto the experiments to serve as my evidence and continue to relate it to modern day.
This is a really interesting topic, personally I find this experiment to be fascinating and highly influential. I think your plan for the essay is pretty well done and you have a good idea of what you are going to do. I like that you are planning to compare Milgram’s experiment with Zimbardo’s and it would be interesting if you compare their methods and how that shows their own morality. My question is, are you going to be disputing the effectiveness of Zimbardo’s claims? Also, will you analyze Zimbardo’s morality in conducting the experiment or that of his students during the experiment?
Elviris Rodriguez
I agree with Elviris and the the thesis statement you have laid out looks to be the beginning of an interesting essay, however it makes no mention of the studies or the effectiveness. The thesis statement itself though seems like a good foundation but I believe you can make it more specific to tailor it to the particular experiments you will be discussing in your essay. The Stanford Prison Experiment is quite disturbing so I look forward to seeing how you argue the manipulation of morals.
Yes, Johnson, I agree with both Elviris and Sofiya, that while this is quite an interesting topic, remember, this essay is asking you to analyze the effectiveness of the author in reaching a specific demographic. In other words, your thesis should contain whether or not the writer of your chosen article is overall effective or not, and then you are to analyze specific aspects of the article. Please read, again, the assignment sheet for Essay#2.