Classic Experiments in Social Psychology Revealing Important Understanding About Prejeduce, Stereotyping and Aggression

Introduction.

Social psychology is an important psychological science. Social psychology investigates how the thoughts, feelings and behaviours of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others, including individuals small and large groups. Social psychologists observe human behaviour and attempt to describe why certain behaviours are observed in reaction to certain events. Human behaviours include major physical behaviours such as jumping and punching but also include more subtle examples such as facial expressions, the selection of words we make to construct a sentence. Social psychology looks at explaining human behaviour in relation to processes in the human psyche. Social psychology looks at many aspects of human behaviour. Some of these aspects include prejudice, stereotyping and aggression. In todays world where contact between different cultures, religions and social groups is very common, research into prejudice, stereotyping and aggression is important.


Why experiment?

Experiments in social psychology have been performed since the dawn of man. Experimenting on how people react to situations is something which envelops large amounts of curiosity within all humans. Seeing how your mum will react when you walk out wearing her expensive lipstick and wedding shoes in the middle of her dinner party when you were five years old, experimenting how your dad will react when taking his brand new ute for a drive down the drive way when you were eleven, we’ve all performed our own experiments in social psychology. Results of research into social psychology bring about discoveries which can be used to help individuals, corporations and society in general increase personal satisfaction for individuals, production efficiency for business and gross domestic happiness for societies. Investigations which look at prejudice, stereotyping and aggression help individuals to get along better which can lead to building healthy relationships and various cultures and countries to increase relations which can lead to trade opportunities which can benefit all sides. Some of the most profound experiments in social psychology have produced some interesting findings, with results leading to successful implementing of social practice. Other experiments in social psychology have been interesting themselves, even if not being completed or finding anything particularly useful findings. World events which have had influences including prejudice, stereotyping and aggression have had huge impacts on the world we see today and in the past.
Classic social psychology experiments.


Philip G. Zimbardo’s 1971 Stanford prison experiment:

At Stanford University in 1971, one of the most confronting and famous social psychology experiments was performed. The experiments aims were to investigate what would happen to “normal” people when they were given roles not accorded to their nature. A group of 24 young male university students were assigned tasks of either playing a prisoner or the prisoners guard. The group was divided evenly into 12 prisoner and 12 guards chosen by the flip of a coin. 9 guards and 9 prisoners participated at any one time. The prisoners experienced a realistic mock arrest, made using real police, police cars, police stations and police procedures. Guards of the prison, were given complete control over the willing participants of the social psychology experiment. The experiment was performed in a realistic prison like environment, specially built in consultation with professional consultants who specialise in the industry and also in consultation with former prison inmates. Following their arrest, the prisoners were brought to the mock prison and degraded and humiliated by strip searching, delousing using pesticide spray and various other techniques aiming to make the participants feel de-individualised, humiliated and emasculated, punished and tortured. Prison guard participants became aggressive and wicked, conforming to their stereotypical roles. The experiment was to include observations being made of participants including the social dynamics of the guards and the prisoners over a fourteen day period. Zimbardo halted the entire experiment after six days. Participants became so over engrossed in their stereotypical roles that even the head researcher of the project admitted that even he became persuaded that his role was not as a social psychology researcher but rather as a prison superintendent. The findings and implications of the Stanford prison experiment have been compared to many modern day scenarios such as the human right atrocities which occurred at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the big brother like reality television shows and the 1971 Attica prison riots in New York where terrible decisions led to many deaths. The findings showed that normal people who are put into evil situations themselves can easily and quickly become evil, inflicting suffering on people who may even have done nothing wrong.


Milgrams studies of obedience to authority:

During the early 1960’s Stanley Milgram performed one of the most classic experiments in Social Psychology. Milgram placed participants of the study in to a situation whereby they would be able to administer an electric shock after an incorrect answer to a person whom they were to question. The experiment involved the controller of the electric shock believing that they were indeed shocking someone with electricity who was supposed to answer a question correctly but answered incorrectly. The person they were questioning was offcourse not wired to any electrical circuit but in fact acting to be shocked. The maximum voltage to be administered was 450 volts. A survey conducted prior to the experiment on the expected results of the experiment said that a very small number of people (less than 2%) would administer the callous maximum voltage. In a remarkable difference to the expected results, a much larger percentage of people administered the maximum amount of electricity. More than half of the participants administered what they wrongfully believed to be a full 450 volts of electricity to a screaming actor. The experiment was repeated and found to be repeatable with similar results. The findings and implication from the Milgram experiments have been profound. In showing that under authoritarian rule people can perform dreadful acts of aggression toward complete strangers. Results of the findings have pointed to events which led to many of the war atrocities that have occurred throughout history particularly those which occurred throughout world war two. Milgrams experiment demonstrated weakness in the human psyche in not overcoming authoritarian rule and performing acts including those of being aggressive outside of moral beliefs.


Solomon Asch 1951 conformity experiments:

Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments were classic in revealing important understandings of peoples psyche which can be related to stereotyping, prejudice and aggression. The experiment involved placing a number of participants in a room and asking the participants as a group questions relating to the length of lines shown in a picture. The lines were varying in length and the participants were asked to tell which line was longer than the other. All but one and in a few trials two or three of the participants were directed before the experiment to answer the same incorrect answer. The incorrect answer was a blatantly obvious mistake and though most of the unknowing participants answered correctly at first, many of them changed their minds in order to conform with the group. The conformity displayed to the group demonstrated the power of peer pressure and large groups actions on the actions of individuals. Although the individuals indeed knew the correct answer many changed their responses to suit the order of the group. This changing of response to a response they don’t genuinely believe to be the truth also reveals the human psyches action of doing something they genuinely don’t believe in. Some of the worst historical instances of people conforming to the majorities ideals have led people to perform terrible inhumane acts against other people. Many of the accused war criminals from wars such as the Balkans war in Yugoslavia and the genocide which occurred in Somalia argued that they were simply acting under orders. The events which led to these human atrocities included individuals performing acts in order to accord with the group.


Princeton Trilogy experiments on stereotyping:

In 1933 an experiment was performed by Katz and Braly at Princeton University asking participants to describe stereotypes of various ethnic groups including , Turks, Japanese, Jews, African Americans, and other ethnic group from around the world. Participants responded generally agreeing on most of the stereotypes of all of the various ethic groups. The interesting results from this study occurred when the study was repeated in 1951 and again in 1969 and all three studies compared. The 1933 study was found to be noticeably more negative than the 1951 study and the 1969 study revealed noticeably less negative views of the various ethnic groups again. The important findings of the experiment reveal that as our last century proceeded, stereotypical views of various foreign ethnic groups have become less negative. Contact with these ethnic groups has also increased. Through education and experience, various myths can be excluded from popular belief. Sidney Poitiers 1967 movie “Guess who’s coming to dinner” demonstrates some of the popular opinions of that day. Jane Elliots 1968 classroom “blue eye brown eye” experiment demonstrated some of the contact levels with various ethnic groups that children had in that era. Today interracial relationships are not only common, they’re entirely acceptable and not discouraged.


Bibliography:

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Zimbardo P. G. (2007) Stanford Prison Experiment http://www.prisonexp.org/slide-1.htm