August Blog

What is social psychology?

I've chosen to present on social psychology, which according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary,  is "A branch of psychology concerned with the personality, attitudes, motivations, and behavior of the individual or group in the context of social interaction.." Throughout my senior project, I hope to give others a better understanding of social psychology by sharing many groundbreaking studies and experiments. I've included two famous studies to offer a better understanding of what social psychology experiments aim to achieve in the study of human behavior. 

1. The Stanford Prison Experiment:

• Conducted by: Philip Zimbardo
• Purpose: to see how 'normal' men would react to dramatic changes in their lifestyle. 
• How it was conducted: One half of the selected men became prison guards and the others were set to be prisoners. The guards were given sunglasses to mask their identity as well as weapons to make them believe they had authority. The prisoners were given numbers instead of names. The guards became ruthless and abused power. Many of the prisoners became mentally unstable and suffered great emotional damage. The experiment was stopped by Philip's college who thought the experiment became incredibly unethical. 
• Result: The experiment lasted only six of the planned fourteen days and even then, many of the prisoners had to end their participation early. This experiment taught a valuable lesson about people being put in certain situations and how it makes them adapt by changing their behavior to what they feel is expected of them even if it means going against existing morals. 
• The Stanford Prison Experiment

2. The Bystander Effect:

• Conducted by: John Darley and Bibb Latané
• Purpose: To test the theory that people do not react as quickly and take action in situations if other people are witnessing the same things with them.
• How it was conducted: People were selected at random to participate in the experiment. half were tested individually, and the other half were placed in groups. To test each individual, they placed each in a room to fill out a survey. Slowly, the room started to fill with smoke through an air vent. 
• Result:The individuals almost always immediately reacted and went to seek help. However, when there were groups of people in the room slowly filling with smoke, they looked to each other to feed off each others' reactions before deciding what to do. They often took a lot longer to react. Psychologist concluded that people are more likely to react when they think they're the only on experiencing something because they feel like they're the only ones who can help. 
• The Bystander Effect