July/August 2011 > Features > Stanford Prison Experiment. What happened in the basement of the psych building 40 years ago shocked the world.
How do the guards, prisoners and researchers in the Stanford Prison Experiment feel about it now? It began with an ad in the classifieds. The Ten Most Revealing Psych Experiments. Psychology is the study of the human mind and mental processes in relation to human behaviors - human nature.
Due to its subject matter, psychology is not considered a 'hard' science, even though psychologists do experiment and publish their findings in respected journals. Some of the experiments psychologists have conducted over the years reveal things about the way we humans think and behave that we might not want to embrace, but which can at least help keep us humble. The Power of Conformity_mpeg2video.mpg. Asch Experiment - Conformity in Groups. The Asch Experiment, by Solomon Asch, was a famous experiment designed to test how peer pressure to conform would influence the judgment and individuality of a test subject.
The experiment is related closely to the Stanford Prison and Milgram Experiments, in that it tries to show how perfectly normal human beings can be pressured into unusual behavior by authority figures, or by the consensus of opinion around them. For the experiment, eight subjects were seated around a table, with the seating plan carefully constructed to prevent any suspicion. Only one participant was actually a genuine subject for the experiment, the rest being confederates, carefully tutored to give certain pre-selected responses. Careful experimental construction placed a varying amount of peer pressure on the individual test subject. The experiment was simple in its construction; each participant, in turn, was asked to answer a series of questions, such as which line was longest or which matched the reference line.
10 More Brilliant Social Psychology Studies: Why Smart People Do. Psychology studies relevant to everyday life - PsyBlog. 10 Practical Uses For Psychological Research in Everyday Life.
People love to give each other advice.
The web is full to bursting with all types of pseudo-psychological advice about life. The problem is, how much of this is based on real scientific evidence? Well, here on PsyBlog we’ve got the scientific evidence. So here’s my top 10 list of what you can learn practically from the psychological research discussed here recently. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 10 Brilliant Social Psychology Studies. Ten of the most influential social psychology experiments.
“I have been primarily interested in how and why ordinary people do unusual things, things that seem alien to their natures.Why do good people sometimes act evil? Why do smart people sometimes do dumb or irrational things?” –Philip Zimbardo Like eminent social psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo (author of The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil), I’m also obsessed with why we do dumb or irrational things. The answer quite often is because of other people – something social psychologists have comprehensively shown. Over the past few months I’ve been describing 10 of the most influential social psychology experiments. Each one tells a unique, insightful story relevant to all our lives, every day. 1. The ‘halo effect’ is a classic social psychology experiment. » Read on about the halo effect -» 2. » Read on about cognitive dissonance -» 3. » Read on about Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiment -»
Many of whom take a moral high ground. 2009 may well be remembered for its scandal-ridden headlines, from admissions of extramarital affairs by governors and senators, to corporate executives flying private jets while cutting employee benefits, and most recently, to a mysterious early morning car crash in Florida.
The past year has been marked by a series of moral transgressions by powerful figures in political, business and celebrity circles. New research from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University explores why powerful people - many of whom take a moral high ground - don't practice what they preach. Researchers sought to determine whether power inspires hypocrisy, the tendency to hold high standards for others while performing morally suspect behaviors oneself.