Social Psychology Overview— UCLA Demonstration, Milgram, & Stanford Ms. Wiley | 2019

UCLA Demonstration Social Psychology Professor, Dr. Lieberman

UCLA Demonstration Told students on Day 1 of class: Board displayed physical commands for students to follow At end of sequence, students were told to …

UCLA Demonstration ___ of about 350 …

UCLA Demonstration Discusses how he created a conflicting situation as an authority figure:  in ambiguous situations we …

UCLA Demonstration She can’t look to everyone else to see what is right thing to do; others won’t define the situation; can’t look to others to share the blame if the Professor is mad Connection to Day 1: Bystander Effect (video)

UCLA Demonstration

Social Psychology The impact of a person or group’s thoughts/feelings/behaviors on another person’s thoughts feelings or behaviors How we influence each other Large macro perspective: “Socio-cultural” Smaller micro perspective: UCLA demonstration is prime example

Key Tenets of Social Psychology Situations are much more powerful than we typically think, exerting enormous influence over how we think and behave Fundamental attribution error:

Milgram Experiment Social Psychologist Stanley Milgram, 1960s

Lead-up to the Milgram Experiment (1960s) Stanley Milgram: social psychologist interested in the psychology of evil, cruelty, conformity, and authority Key question in the experiment: After devising the experiment (but before conducting it) Milgram asked psychiatrists what % they thought would go to maximum level—they said only _____%

Milgram Experiment (1960s): Key Findings

Implications of Milgram Experiment Clearly, an individual’s moral compass, sense of right vs. wrong, did not play a major role in determining their behavior Instead, it was __ that determined their behavior: Agentic state—we allow others to direct our actions, passing off responsibility for consequences to those giving order

Why Milgram was/is Shocking

Milgram’s Thoughts “The results . . . [are] disturbing. . . American democratic society cannot be counted on to insulate its citizens from brutality and inhumane treatment at the direction of malevolent authority. . . If in this study an anonymous experimenter could successfully command adults to force what was believed to be painful electric shocks against his protests one can only wonder what government, with its vastly greater authority and prestige can command of its subjects.” – Stanley Milgram

Moving Forward So…what can we do to avoid the behaviors seen in these kinds of experiments? What would Zimbardo say, given his TED Talk on the Psychology of Evil?

Victims of the Herero Genocide Critiques of Milgram Some survivors of the Holocaust and other evil episodes in history have argued that … As such, they have critiqued Milgram’s focus on obedience, arguing that he should have … Victims of the Herero Genocide

Stanford Prison Experiment Social Psychologist Philip Zimbardo, 1971

Stanford Prison Experiment: Fill-Ins The Stanford Prison experiment was similar to the ____________ Experiment in that both were interested (in part) in understanding the dynamics of ____________. ____________ Psychologist Philip Zimbardo aimed to show that situational factors—rather than ____________—cause negative behaviors and thought patterns found in prisons by conducting a prison simulation with “____________” participants playing the roles of guard and prisoner. Zimbardo had to ____________ the experiment after just six days because of the prisoner’s reactions (which included mental breakdowns) and ____________ by the guards. Zimbardo would likely believe that we are ____________ capable of acting out of character—perhaps in an evil or cruel way—when placed in certain situations. Word options: Abuse | Personality | Evil | Milgram |All | End | Social | Normal