A Pocket Guide to Villain Psychology. Heroes of History - The Heroic Monomyth. As of July 1, 2013 ThinkQuest has been discontinued.
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What Makes a Hero? This month, Greater Good features videos of a presentation by Philip Zimbardo, the world-renowned psychologist perhaps best known for his infamous Stanford Prison Experiment.
In his talk, Zimbardo discusses the psychology of evil and of heroism, exploring why good people sometimes turn bad and how we can encourage more people to perform heroic acts. In this excerpt from his talk, he zeroes in on his research and educational program designed to foster the “heroic imagination.” What makes us good? What makes us evil? Research has uncovered many answers to the second question: Evil can be fostered by dehumanization, diffusion of responsibility, obedience to authority, unjust systems, group pressure, moral disengagement, and anonymity, to name a few.
But when we ask why people become heroic, research doesn’t yet have an answer. I believe that heroism is different than altruism and compassion. By that definition, then, altruism is heroism light—it doesn’t always involve a serious risk. Mutations and Disease. DNA is constantly subject to mutations, accidental changes in its code.
Mutations can lead to missing or malformed proteins, and that can lead to disease. We all start out our lives with some mutations. These mutations inherited from your parents are called germ-line mutations. However, you can also acquire mutations during your lifetime. Some mutations happen during cell division, when DNA gets duplicated. Adolescence and the Tyranny of Extremes.