The Power of the SituationChapter 16

Music: “Do You Know the Enemy” Green Day

“Change is Gonna Come”Adam Lambert

Agenda

• 1. Social Psychology:– A) Definition– B) Roles and Rules: Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment

• 2. Conformity: – Asch’s Experiments

• 3. Obedience to Authority:– A) Milgram’s Experiment – B) Foot-in-the-door phenomena

• 4. Attribution Error• 5. Deception in Psychological Studies• 6. Movie: “Power of the Situation” DVD # 10683

1. Social Psychology:

1. A): Definition– Scientific study of how individuals behave, think and feel in social

situations• How we are affected by the actual, or implied presence of others

(p. 700)– How we relate to one another (next week)– How social pressures can exert significant influence on behaviour

(this week)• E.g. Influence of cults; e.g. Jonestown mass suicide

• B) Social Roles and Rules Social role:

• Socially defined pattern of behavior that is expected of a person when functioning in a given setting

• See social schemas (p. 702)• E.g. Guards vs. prisoners

1. B) Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment (1973)

• Corruption in prisons: Bad seeds, or bad soil?

• Study:• 22 subjects screened for psychological maturity and

health• Randomly assigned to role of guard or prisoner• Guards:

• worked 8-hour shift• Wore uniform, whistle and club• Task=maintain reasonable degree of order

• Prisoners: • stayed in mock prison 24hrs/day• Wore degrading uniform• Depersonalized• Lived in bare cells without personal

belongings/dehumanized

1. b) Zimbardo’s Experiment (cont’d)• Results:

• After 6 days of role simulation:Indoctrination into roles that could not be attributed to personal dispositionsGuards devised cruel routinesPrisoners broke downStudy had to be called off.

• Prisoner abuse• Process of deindividuation, devaluation of the prisoners, and power differential• Prisons are “bad soil” • http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5474164325345921501

• 2. Conformity• Adjusting our behavior or thinking to bring it in line with some group standard• Solomon Asch’s experiment (early 50’s)

People can be led to say “black” when they see “white” 70% agreed at least once with the wrong answer

Modern day replication:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qlJqR4GmKw&feature=related

2. Factors that promote conformity:

– Group size (p. 725) – Group unanimity– Ambiguity of situation– You identify with group members/ In group

pressure– Also see “groupthink” (p. 733)

• Pressure to have group members conform, at the expense of critical thinking in arriving at a decision

3. Obedience to Authority: • A) Milgram’s study: Would you electrocute a

stranger?– Emerged from a need to understand the Holocaust and the ways in

which obedience could lead to the death of millions of people• Details on the experimental situation provided in lecture

– Conclusions:• Ordinary people, following authority, can become agents of

aggression • 2/3 participants administrated the highest level of shock

– Legitimate authority: • Someone who has the right to dictate behavior within a particular

setting.– Conditions for disobedience:

• Experimenter left the room or was replaced by an ordinary man• The victim was right there in the room• Participant worked with peers who refused to go further

– Modern Day Replication: http://thesituationist.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/replicating-milgrams-obedience-experiment-yet-again/

3. b) Foot-in-the-door technique

• Get people to comply to small requests, and you will be more likely to have them comply to greater requests later (p. 742)

• Study in California: – (Described in class)– Initial agreement to experimental request:

• Lawn sign: 17% only say “yes”

– When a smaller request is presented first:• #1 License plate sticker: 65% say “yes”

• #2 Lawn sign: 76% now say “yes”

4. Attribution Error• Attribution Dimensions:

– Internal/external; stable/unstable (Fig. 16.3, p. 705)

4. Fundamental Attribution Error:

– More likely to make internal attribution and underestimate situational influences for others’ behaviour (p. 706)

4. Attribution Error

• Why do we blame the victim?– We have a tendency to make internal attributions for victims’

misfortunes– Just world hypothesis:

• World is fair and we get what we deserve• Also called defensive attribution, and makes one feel less likely to

be victimized in a similar way (p. 707)• Self-Serving Bias:

– Tendency to make internal attributions for positive events, and external ones for negative events that happen to us (p. 707)

• Except for depressives who make internal attributions for negative events

• Conclusions:– The power of explanations

5. Ethics of Deception

– Is it acceptable for psychologists to lie to subjects in the name of research?

– Pros:– Cons: – Ethics committees: Now require

deception to be kept to a minimum, and to be justified.

5. Movie: “Power of the Situation”

– Excellent film, with several clips from studies described in this lecture

– Available at the Sound and Moving Image Library in Scott (DVD # 10683)

– 2 exam questions will be extracted from this movie