Social Roles: The Stanford Prison Experiment Guard responses –Justified action through need to maintain order –Uniform provided power and deindividuation Prisoner responses –Dehumanized –Isolated –Learned to be helpless Ethical concerns

The Situation Can Also Be Manipulated for Good Helping -- Personality doesn’t matter as much as situational factors How the help is asked for Whether the helper is in a hurry The mood and previous situation of the helper Characteristics of the victim Whether there is room for diffusion of responsibility

Construal: Determining Social Reality

Culture: Changing our Construal of Self and Society Independent vs. Interdependent Views of the Self –Defining the self –Attending to actors vs. situations –Forming preferences for figures and pens –Forming social goals Cultural Variation within the United States

Construal and Attitudes Perceiving Social Reality –Hastorf & Cantril “They Saw a Game” Cognitive Dissonance –Festinger & Carlsmith (1959) Self-Fulfilling Prophesies –Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968) –Snyder (1978)

Forming and Overcoming Prejudice Sherif “Robber’s Cave” Study Aronson’s Jigsaw Classroom More on stereotyping tomorrow...