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Behavior in Social and Cultural Context C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Behavior in Social 10 and Cultural Context © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Definitions 10 Norms Rules that regulate social life, including explicit laws, and implicit cultural conventions Role A given social position that is governed by a set of norms for proper behavior Culture A program of shared rules that governs the behavior of members of a community or society, and a set of values, beliefs, and customs shared by most members of that community © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry The Obedience Study 10 Stanley Milgram investigated whether people would follow orders even when the orders violated their ethical standards. Most people were far more obedient than anyone expected. Every single participant complied with at least some orders to shock another person. Two-thirds shocked the learner to the full extent. Results are controversial and have generated further research on violence and obedience. © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry What Conditions Were 10 Tied to Disobedience? • When the experimenter left the room • When the victim was in the same room • When two experimenters issued conflicting orders • When the person ordering them to continue was not the experimenter • When the participant worked with peers who refused to go further with the project © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry The Stanford Prison Study 10 • Students agreed to live in a “simulated” prison for two weeks. • They were randomly assigned to be prisoners or guards. • Those assigned the role of prisoner became distressed and helpless. • Those assigned the role of guards became either nice, “tough but fair,” or punitive and harsh. • The study had to be ended after six days. © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry 10 Guard “John Wayne” vs. “Prisoner 416” • Guard John Wayne’s inspiration for his role was . • 416’s strategy to revolt: . • Fellow prisoners given ultimatum: – Lose blankets and release prisoner 416 – Keep blankets and have him remain in solitary. – Proves that “Power Corrupts” © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Class Discussion ?’s 10 • Do you believe Zimbardo’s role as the Prison Superintendent created a bias that inadvertently derailed the experiment? How/Why… © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Class Discussion ?’s 10 • Did this decision to play a dual role compromise the integrity of the experiment? How/Why… © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Class Discussion ?’s 10 • What is dissociation? • Why would Guard John Wayne rely on this defense mechanism when face to face with 416 after the experiment came to an end? • Why? • This is an example of Attribution Theory © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Class Discussion ?’s 10 • Why didn’t the other guards question Guard John Wayne’s authority/behavior? • What is the Bystander Effect? © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Class Discussion ?’s 10 • Q: Did the APA ever review the experiment's ethics? • A: Yes. In 1973 Professor Zimbardo asked the American Psychological Association to conduct an ethics evaluation, and the APA concluded that all existing ethical guidelines had been followed. • Q: Has Professor Zimbardo ever apologized for the suffering that occurred? • A: Yes. In his book The Lucifer Effect, Professor Zimbardo wrote: "I was guilty of the sin of omission -- the evil of inaction -- of not providing adequate oversight and surveillance when it was required... the findings came at the expense of human suffering. I am sorry for that and to this day apologize for contributing to this inhumanity." (pp. 181, 235) • IN 2002, Dr. Zimbardo became the President of the APA and later served as an expert witness in the trial of the US Soldiers of Abu Ghraib Prison. © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry What makes good people do bad things? 10 Former APA president drew from research to help explain evil under the backdrop of recent Iraqi prisoner abuses at Abu Ghraib. By MELISSA DITTMANN Monitor Staff October 2004, Vol 35, No. 9 “As the story goes, Dr. Jekyll uses a chemical to turn into his evil alter ego Dr. Hyde. In real life, however, no chemical may be needed: Instead, just the right dose of certain social situations can transform ordinarily good people into evildoers, as was the case with Iraqi prisoner abusers at Abu Ghraib, argued former APA president Philip G. Zimbardo, PhD… "That line between good and evil is permeable," Zimbardo said. "Any of us can move across it....I argue that we all have the capacity for love and evil--to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein. It's the situation that brings that out.“ © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry 10 Seduced into evil In fact, the classic electric shock experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, PhD, showed that when given an order by someone in authority, people would deliver what they believed to be extreme levels of electrical shock to other study participants who answered questions incorrectly. Zimbardo said the experiment provides several lessons about how situations can foster evil: • Provide people with an ideology to justify beliefs for actions. • Make people take a small first step toward a harmful act with a minor, trivial action and then gradually increase those small actions. • Make those in charge seem like a "just authority." • Transform a once compassionate leader into a dictatorial figure. • Provide people with vague and ever-changing rules. • Re-label the situation's actors and their actions to legitimize the ideology. • Provide people with social models of compliance. • Allow dissent, but only if people continue to comply with orders. • Make exiting the situation difficult. • Particularly notable, Zimbardo said, is that people are seduced into evil by dehumanizing and labeling others. • "They semantically change their perception of victims, of the evil act, and change the relationship of the aggressor to their aggression--so 'killing' or 'hurting' becomes the same as 'helping,'" he said. By MELISSA DITTMANN © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Monitor Staff October 2004, Vol 35, No. 9 C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Why People Obey 10 Entrapment A gradual process in which individuals escalate their commitment to a course of action to justify their investment of time, money, or effort The first stages of entrapment pose no difficult choices. But as people take a step, or make a decision to continue, they will justify that action in order to feel that it is the right one and that they haven’t done anything foolish or unethical. © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Abu Ghraib… 10 • http://www.cbsnews.com/news/exposing- the-truth-of-abu-ghraib/ © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Social Cognition 10 An area of social psychology concerned with social influences on thought, memory, perception, and beliefs Researchers are interested in how people’s perceptions of themselves and others influence: • Relationships • Perceptions • Beliefs • Values © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Attributions 10 Attribution theory A theory that people are motivated to explain their own and others’ behavior by attributing causes of behavior to a situation or a disposition Fundamental attribution error The tendency to overestimate personality factors and underestimate situational influence when explaining others’ behaviors © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Biases 10 The bias to choose the most flattering and forgiving attributions of our own lapses The bias that we are better, smarter, and kinder than others The bias to believe that the world is fair Just-world hypothesis: the belief that bad people are punished and good people are rewarded © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. C H A P T E R Invitation to Psychology, 6e Carole Wade, Carol Tavris, & Maryanne Garry Attitudes 10 A belief about people, groups, ideas, or activities Explicit: Attitudes that we are aware of, that shape our conscious decisions and actions; can be directly measured Implicit: Attitudes about which we are unaware and that influence our behavior in ways we do not recognize; can be measured indirectly © 2015, 2012, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc.
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