Chapter 14: Social Psychology

If a person of authority ordered you inflict a 15 to 400 volt electrical shock on another innocent human being, would you follow your direct orders? That is the question that Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at Yale University tested in the 1960’s. Most people would answer “no,” to imposing pain on innocent human beings but Milgram wanted to go further with his study. Writing and Reading across the Curriculum holds a shortened edition of Stanley Milgram’s “The Perils of Obedience,” where he displays an eye-opening experiment that tests the true obedience of people under authority figures. He observes that most people go against their natural instinct to never harm innocent humans and obey the extreme and dangerous instructions of authority

Many of the participants shook and shivered as they administered the shocks but they still continued to shock when the experimenter told them it was vital to the experiment. The participants that stopped shocking were more likely to take personal responsibility for shocking the “student” while the participants who had continued shocking mostly claimed that it was the experimenters fault for pressuring them to continue. These statistics lead Milgrim to believe that obedience to authority had a great effect on our behavior.

Psychological subjects of part 1 are we, she, and I. P5 narrates from both his and his ex-girlfriend’s perspectives throughout this part. P5 starts the narrative by informing us that his last was unlike other romantic relationships, which he had in the past. He summarizes the relationship as one that he feels lonely while they are together. He discusses their differences, her focus (i.e., study), and a lack of her effort as factors that surround his experience of loneliness while he is with her. He recalls feeling alone while being in the same room with her.

Everytime they flip a switch, giving the shock, the learner shouts with growing intensity as the voltage increases. Many subjects wanted to stop, but when they said they wanted to stop or that they felt it was wrong, an authority figure told them to continue, which they did. After a certain point, the learner was instructed to stop responding, as if they had been killed or rendered unconscious. While some subjects stood up and quit, others continued and administered the highest possible voltage. When looking for reassurance that this was okay, the authority figure nodded. If someone else takes responsibility for the subject’s actions, it is easier for them to do things they perceive as morally unjust because they don’t feel responsible for their decisions. They are willing to let an authority figure make decisions for them because they don’t feel accountable for the outcome. This experiment has been conducted in many different societies and the outcomes have been

Social scientists believe that gender differences are not caused by biological differences; rather, they are a product of socialization, prejudice, discrimination, and other forms of social control (Bem, 1993). Which of the following two faiths were used in this chapter as examples of gender regulation?

Out of 40 participants, 5 refused to obey to experimental commands beyond a 300 volt-level, 2 stopped at 330 volt, 1 stopped at each: 345V, 360, and 375V. Subjects whom delivered the most extreme shocks reported they wanted to stop and felt that is was immoral to harm another human being, yet continued to administer shocks for every incorrect answer due to the authoritative pressure from the apparent experimenter . 14 of the

In 1974 Stanley Milgram conducted the classic study of obedience to authority. The study looked into how far individuals would be willing to go, and were asked could they deliver increasingly devastating electric shocks to a fellow human being, as they were requested to do so by the professor in charge of the experiment.

2. a. Habituation is a common and simple form of learning. It involves a diminished awareness of a stimulus after constant experiences with it. An example of this would be when I spray on some perfume before I leave for class in the morning. As the day progresses, I will no longer notice the scent of the fragrance I am wearing, but other people around me will be able to smell it. I have become habituated to the smell because I am used to being around the smell.

The principles and theories of Social Psychology are important and useful in assessing behaviors in situations. These social psychological principles and their applications can be seen in fictional films which can also be attributed to everyday life. One such film that holds certain social psychological perspectives is Will Gluck’s 2010 production of Easy A. A film about high school student Olive Penderghast and how a sudden change in popularity and financial status, after an unintentional rumor about how she supposedly lost her virginity to a college guy spread through the entire her school. The film draws on the behavioral connections of pronounced hussy Olive Penderghast and her English class’s assigned reading of The Scarlet Letter.

One of the key events occurring in history that initiated the bystander effect for Darley and Latane’ was because of the creation of the SPSSI or the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues in 1936 which became involved in the study and application of psychological principals to social issues, which at the time was unheard of. Still today, there are psychologist who do not believe the field of psychology could engage in attempting to solve the social problems that the world faces today. However, during the Great Depression, the movement of social psychology began to change with more people believing that psychology could be used to resolve social conflict all over the world. An example of the is the pioneer work of Kurt Lewin in 1939, who attributed in the research on social action and social change, which contributed to the factors that influences prosocial behavior in groups. Lewin’s principal interest was researching ways groups functioned and influenced

Chapter 12 social psychology cover how we affect one another’s behaviors. Culture, stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination attitude, and interpersonal attraction are all factors that contribute to behavior in a social setting. Understanding how we influence one another on a social level forces us to look at not only ourselves, but also look at how others affect the world we live in and why it is important to be able to identify these influences and the impact they have on our behaviors good or bad

Our perception, or the way we interpret neutral sensory stimuli, can have a drastic effect on how see things. Dunning and Balcetis (2013) give many examples of this, such as a perceiver’s desire predicting what they interpret from an ambiguous stimulus, or participants estimating desirable objects closer than undesirable objects. This idea has important implications for the way we interact with other people. The way these participants arrived at their conclusions is an example of an unconscious process. A conscious process is one that is slow and effortful, but gives us more power to make accurate decisions. An unconscious process

People are social beings. From the moment we are born, we are raised to socialize with an incredible amount of people. These people influence our day-to-day lives just as much as we affect the lives of others. Social psychology searches to understand these interactions. What complicates these interactions is that they do not even need to be real, as long as they are perceived interactions. The idea is that people are a combination of their own personality plus the people they interact with on a regular basis.

As described by Myers, “schema” is a very important concept in social cognition. How does the “power of perception” or “self-fulfilling prophecy” play a positive or negative role in our everyday life? Provide an example of the fundamental attribution error, and be sure to explain why the error is considered “fundamental.” Describe the strengths and the weaknesses of both controlled and automatic processing. Explain how journalists can fall prey to cognitive bias in news-making.

The first topic is Social Psychology. For, social psychology people tend to judge and influence people in society, we all tend to react different in situations then others, each person will think and behave different from his pears. In my life, I let my friends influence me to be just like them. I had a hard time getting along with people that knew good English and always talked about sports. The friends I have right now are the same nationality as me, I feel like I belong with them because they speak the same language as me, and also do activities that are related to my culture, so I follow them in everything they do. My group also told me to stay away from people that don’t have the same background and interests as us. Now, I’m starting to realize that I will not always be with