FR

Module 1
Introduction

SOCPSY
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

to your first module!

This module is a combination of

synchronous& asynchronous learning
and will last for two weeks.
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND
SCIENCES

ALONDRA ARA A. MENA, RPm

Instructor

Date Initiated

Date of Completion

San Mateo Municipal College

Gen. Luna St. Guitnang Bayan I, San Mateo, Rizal
Tel. No. (02) 997-9070
www.smmc.edu.ph No part of this module may be
reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in
San Mateo Municipal College any form or by any means
SOCPSY-Social without the
Psychology
Bachelor of Science in Psychology prior permission
Ms. Alondra of theRPm
Ara A. Mena, instructor.
 ©

SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
Module 1: INTRODUCING SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

“People love to say, nobody is above the law, which is one of the most dangerous delusions of the
social psyche. It is a lie fed to the meek citizens of a nation to keep them obedient to the state, even in
the face of corruption. Every human is above the law, until the law that governs the society is made
incorruptible or at least close to incorruptible.”

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 MODULE 1: INTRODUCTION TO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
MODULE OUTLINE

MODULE DURATION:
I. 2 weeks

CONSULTATION HOURS:
If you have any clarifications or queries, you may reach me at my:
Gmail: menaalondra.rpm@gmail.com or message me at my messenger account:
Facebook: Alondra Ara Smmc
I’ll make a concerted effort to entertain your questions within 24 hours. Provide only one
account for regular basis.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the module, you will be able to:
• define social psychology and explain what it does.
• identify and describe the central concepts behind social psychology.
• distinguish the ways that values penetrate the work of social psychologists.
• assess how social psychology’s theories provide new insight into the human condition.
• examine the methods that make social psychology a science.

COURSE MATERIALS:
• Textbook/ E-book: “Social Psychology (12th Edition) by Myers and Twenge
• Module

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 INPUT INFORMATION

There once was a man whose second wife was a vain and selfish woman. This woman’s
two daughters were similarly vain and selfish. The man’s own daughter, however, was
meek and unselfish. This daughter, learned only on that she should do as she was told,
accept ill treatment and insults, and avoid doing anything to upstage her stepsisters and
their mother.

But then, thanks to her fairy godmother, she was able to escape her situation for an
evening and attend a grand ball, where she attracted the attention of a handsome prince.
When the love-struck prince later encountered her back in her degrading home, he failed
to recognize her.

Implausible? The story demand that we accept the power of situation. In the presence of
her oppressive stepmother, the man’s daughter was humble and unattractive. At the ball,
the daughter felt more beautiful—and walked and talked and smiled as if she were. In one
situation, she cowered. In the other, she charmed.

The French philosopher-novelist Jean-Paul Sartre (1946) would have had no problem
accepting the “Cinderella” premise. We humans are “first of all beings in a situation,” he
wrote. “We cannot be distinguished from our situations, for they form us and decide
our possibilities.”

WHAT IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

Social Psychology is a science that studies the influences of our situations, with special attention to how
we view and affect one another. More precisely, it is the scientific study of how people think about,
influence, and relate to one another.

Social psychology is a young science.

Social psychology studies our thinking, influences, and relationships by asking questions that have
intrigued us all.
EXAMPLES:
• Does our social behavior depend more on the objective situations we face or how we construe
them?
Our construal matter. Social beliefs can be fulfilling.
• Would people be cruel if ordered?
How did Nazi Germany conceive and implement the unconscionable slaughter of 6 million Jews?
Those evil acts occurred partly because thousands of people followed orders.
• To help? Or to help oneself?
As bags of cash tumbled from an armored truck one day, 2 million pesos was scattered along a
highway. Some motorists stopped to help, returning 100, 000. Judging from the 1, 900,000 that
disappeared, many more stopped to help themselves.

These questions focus on how people view and affect one another. And that is what social
psychology is all about. Social psychologists study attitudes and beliefs, conformity and
independence, love and hate.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 “WHAT ARE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY’S BIG IDEAS?”

1. WE CONSTRUCT OUR SOCIAL REALITY

People have an irresistible urge to explain behavior, to attribute it to some cause and therefore to make
it seem orderly, predictable and controllable.

There is an objective reality out there, but we always view it through the lens of our belief and
values.
We are all intuitive scientists. We explain behavior, usually with enough speed and accuracy to suit our
daily needs. When someone’s behavior is consistent and distinctive, we attribute that behavior to his or
her personality.
EXAMPLE:
If you observe someone who makes repeated snide comments, you may infer that this person has
a nasty disposition, and then you might try to avoid the person.

Your beliefs about yourself also matter. Your answers influence your emotions and
actions. How we construe the world, and ourselves, matters.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
2. OUR SOCIAL INTUITIONS ARE OFTEN POWERFUL AND SOMETIMES PERILOUS
Our instant intuitions shape fears (Is flying dangerous?), impressions (Can I trust him?), and
relationships (Does she like me?). Intuitions influence presidents in times of crisis, gamblers at the
table, jurors assessing guilt, and personnel directors screening applicants. Such intuitions are
commonplace.
Intuition is huge but intuition is also perilous.

EXAMPLE:
As we cruise through life, mostly on automatic pilot, we intuitively judge the likelihood of things by
how easily various instances come to mind. We carry readily available mental images of plane crashes.
Thus, most people fear flying more than driving, and many will drive great distances to avoid risking
the skies.

Even our intuitions about ourselves often err. We intuitively trust our memories more than we
should. We misread our own minds; in experiments, we deny being affected by things that do
influence us. We mispredict our own feelings---how bad we’ll feel a year from now if we lose our job
or our romance breaks up, and how good we’ll feel a year from now on, or even a week from now, if
we win our state’s lottery. And we often mispredict our own future. When selecting clothes, people
approaching middle age will still buy comfy (“I anticipate shedding a few pounds”); rarely does
anyone say, more realistically, “I’d better buy a relatively loose fit; people my age tend to put on
pounds.”

Our social intuitions, then, are noteworthy for both their powers and their dangers. By identifying our
intuition’s gift and drawbacks, social psychology aim to fortify our thinking.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
3. SOCIAL INFLUENCES SHAPE OUR BEHAVIOR
We are, as Aristotle long ago observed,
social animals. We speak and think in
words we learned from others. We long to
connect, to belong, and to be well thought
of. Relationships are a big part of human.

As social creatures, we respond to our

immediate contexts. Sometimes, the power
of a social situation leads us to act contrary
to our expressed attitudes. Indeed,
powerfully evil situation sometimes
overwhelm good intentions, inducing
people to accept falsehoods or comply with cruelty.

Our culture helps define our situations.

For example, our standards regarding
promptness, frankness, and clothing
vary with our culture.

Social psychologist Hazel Markus

(2005) sums it up: “PEOPLE ARE, ABOVE
ALL, MALLEABLE.” Said differently, we
adapt to our social context. Our
attitudes and behavior are shaped by
external social forces.

4. PERSONAL ATTITUDES AND DISPOSITIONS ALSO SHAPE BEHAVIOR

Internal forces also matter. We are not passive tumble weeds, merely blown this way and that by
the social winds.
• Our inner attitudes affect our outer behavior.
• Our political attitudes influence our voting behavior.
• Our smoking attitudes influence our susceptibility to peer pressure to smoke.
• Our attitudes toward the poor influence our willingness to help them.

Personal dispositions also affect behavior. Facing the same situation, different people may react
differently.

5. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IS BIOLOGICALLY ROOTED

Just as the area of a rectangle is determined by its length and its width, biology and experience both
shape us.
As evolutionary psychologists remind us, our inherited human nature predisposes us to behave in
ways that helped our ancestors survive and reproduce. We carry the genes of those whose traits
enabled them to survive and reproduce. Our behavior, too, aims to send our DNA into the future.
We are sensitive and responsive to our social context.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 If every psychological event (every thought, every emotion, every behavior) is simultaneously a
biological event, then we can also examine the neurobiology that underlies social behavior.
What brain areas enable our experiences of love and contempt, helping and aggression, perception
and belief?
Do extraverts, as some research suggests, require more stimulation to keep their brain aroused?
When shown a friendly face, do socially secure people, more than shy people, respond in a brain
area concerned with reward?
How do brain, mind, and behavior function together as one coordinated system?
What does the timing of brain events reveal about how we process information?

Such questions are asked by those in social neuroscience.

Social neuroscientists do not reduce complex social behaviors such as helping and hurting,
to simple neural or molecular mechanisms. Each science build upon the principle of more
basic sciences (sociology builds on psychology, which builds on biology, which builds on
chemistry, which builds on physics, which builds on math).

6. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY’S PRINCIPLES ARE APPLICABLE IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Social psychology has the potential to illuminate your life, to make visible the subtle influences that
guide your thinking and acting, It also offers many ideas about how to know ourselves better, how
to win friends and influence people, how to transform closed fist into open arms.

As but one perspective on human existence, psychological science does not answer life’s ultimate
questions: what is the meaning of human life? What should be our purpose? What is our
ultimate destiny?
But social psychology does gives us a method for asking and answering some exceedingly interesting
and important questions.
Social Psychology is all about life---your life: your beliefs, your attitudes, your relationships.

“HOW DO HUMAN VALUES INFLUENCE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?”

Are social psychologists really that objective?

They are human beings, don’t their values---their personal convictions about what is desirable and
how people ought to behave---seep into their work? If so, can social psychology really be scientific?

TWO GENERAL WAYS THAT VALUES ENTER PSYCHOLOGY: THE OBVIOUS AND THE SUBTLE.

OBVIOUS WAYS VALUES ENTER PSYCHOLOGY

Values enter the picture when social psychologists choose research topics. These choices
typically reflect social history.

Values differ not only across time but also across cultures.
In Europe, people take pride in their nationalities.
The Scots are more self-consciously distinct from the English, and the Austrians from the Germans,
than are similarly adjacent Michiganders from Ohionians. Consequently, Europe has given us a

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
major theory of “social identity”. American social psychologists have focused more on individuals-
--how one person thinks about others, is influenced by them, and relates to them.

Values also influence the types of people who are attracted to various disciplines.
At a university, do the students majoring in the humanities, the arts, the natural sciences, and the
social sciences differ noticeably from one another?
Do social psychology and sociology attract people who are, for example, relatively eager to challenge
tradition, people more inclined to shape the future than preserve the past?

Finally, values obviously enter the picture as the object of social psychological analysis. Social
psychologists investigate how values form, why they change, and how they influence attitudes and
actions. None of that, however, tells us which values are “right.”

NOT-SO-OBVIOUS WAYS VALUES ENTER PSYCHOLOGY

Three not-so-obvious ways values enter psychology.

THE SUBJECTIVE ASPECTS OF SCIENCE

Scientists and Philosophers agree: Science is not purely objective. Scientists do not simply read the
book of nature. Rather, they interpret nature, using their own mental categories.
Our numbers do not speak for themselves. We interpret them.

In our daily lives, too, we view the world through the lens of our preconceptions.

“Science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between
nature and us; it describes nature as exposed to our method of questioning”.

Because scholars in any given area often share a common viewpoint and come from the same
culture, their assumptions may go unchallenged. What we take for granted—the shared beliefs that
some European social psychologists call our social representations---are often our most important
yet most unexamined convictions.

DEFINITION:
CULTURE
The enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large group of people and
transmitted from one generation to the next.
SOCIAL REPRESENTATION
A society’s widely held ideas and values, including assumptions and cultural ideologies. Our social
representations help us make sense of our world.

During the 1980s feminists and Marxist exposed some of social psychology’s unexamined
assumptions. Feminist critics called attention to subtle biases.
EXAMPLE:
The political conservatism of some scientists who favored a biological interpretation of gender
differences in social behavior.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
Marxist critics called attention to competitive, individualist biases---for example, the
assumption that conformity is bad and that individual rewards are good. Marxists and
feminists, of course, make their own assumptions, as critics of academic “political
correctness” are fond of noting.

PSYCHOLOGICAL CONCEPTS CONTAIN HIDDEN VALUES

Implicit in our understanding that psychology is not objective is the realization that psychologists’
own values may play an important part in the theories and judgments they support.
Psychologists may refer to people as mature or immature, as well adjusted or poorly adjusted, as
mentally healthy or mentally ill. They may talk as if they were stating facts, when they are really
making value judgments.

DEFINING THE GOOD LIFE

Values influence out idea of how best to live.
Personality psychologist Abraham Maslow, for example, was known for his sensitive descriptions of
“self-actualized” people--- people who, with their needs for survival, safety, belonging, and self-
esteem satisfied, go on to fulfill their human potential.

PROFESSIONAL ADVICE
Psychological advice also reflects the advice giver’s personal values. When mental health
professionals advise us how to get along with our spouse, or our co-workers, when child-rearing
experts tell us how to handle our children and when some psychologists advocate living free of
concern for others’ expectations, they are expressing their personal values.

FORMING CONCEPTS
Hidden values even seep into psychology’s research-based concepts.
EXAMPLE:
Pretend you have taken the personality test and the psychologist, after scoring your answers,
announces: “You scored high in self-esteem. You are low in anxiety. And you have exceptional ego
strength.” Now, another psychologist gives you a similar test, which asks some of the same
questions. Afterward, the psychologist informs you that you seem defensive, for you scored high in
“repressive coping.” “How could this be?” you wonder. “. The other psychologist said such nice things
about me.” It could be because all these labels describe the same set of responses (a tendency to say
nice things about oneself and not to acknowledge problems.)
Shall we call it high self-esteem or defensiveness? The label reflects judgment.

LABELING. Value judgments, then, are often hidden within our social psychological language---but
that is also true of everyday language.

• Whether we label a quiet child as “bashful” or “cautious” as “holding back” or “an observer,”
conveys judgment.
• Whether we call information “propaganda” or “education” depends on our opinion,
• Whether we call public assistance “welfare” or “aid to the needy” reflects our political views.
• When “they” exalt their country and people, it is nationalism; when “we” do it, it is patriotism.
• “Brainwashing” is social influence we do not approve of.
• “Perversions” are sex acts we do not practice.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 IS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY SIMPLY COMMON SENSE?
Social Psychology faces two contradictory criticisms:
1. It is trivial because it documents the obvious.
2. It is dangerous because its findings could be used to manipulate people.

One problem with common sense is that we invoke it after we know the facts. Events are far more
“obvious” and predictable in hindsight than beforehand. Experiments reveal that when people learn the
outcome of an experiment, that outcome suddenly seems unsurprising---much less surprising than it is
to people who are simply told about the experimental procedure and the possible outcomes. After more
than 800 investigations of this tendency to retrofit our prior expectations, hindsight bias has become
one of psychology’s best-established phenomena.

HINDSIGHT BIAS- The tendency to exaggerate after learning an outcome, one’s ability to have
foreseen how something turned out. Also known as the I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon.
Error in judging the future’s foreseeability and in remembering our past combine.

If hindsight bias is pervasive, you may now be

feeling that you already knew about this
phenomenon. Indeed, almost any conceivable
result of a psychological experiment can seem
like common sense---after you know the result.

You can demonstrate the phenomenon

yourself. Take a group of people and tell half of
them one psychological finding and the other
half the opposite result.
Example:
(Tell the half as follows)
Social psychologists have found that,
whether choosing friends or falling in love, we
are most attracted to people whose traits are
different from our own. There seems to be
wisdom in the old saying “Opposites attract”.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
(Tell the other half)
Social psychologists have found that, whether choosing friends or falling in love, we are most
attracted to people whose traits are different from our own. There seems to be wisdom in the old saying
“Birds of a feather flock together.”

OTHER EXAMPLES:
1. If a social psychologist reports that separation intensifies romantic attraction, John Q. Public
responds “You get paid for this? Everybody knows that ‘absence makes the heart grow
fonder.’”

Should it turn out that separation weakens attraction, John will say “My grandmother could
have told you, out of sight, out of mind.”
2. Karl Teigen (1986) must have had a few chuckles when he asked his students to evaluate actual
proverbs and their opposites.
When given the proverb “Fear is stronger than love,” most rated it as true. But so did students
who were given its revered form, “Love is stronger than fear.”
3. Likewise, the genuine proverb “He that is fallen cannot help him who is down” was rated
highly; but so too was “He that is fallen can help him who is down.”

“Wise men make proverbs and fool repeat them” (authentic) and its made-up counterpart,
“Fools make proverbs and wise men repeat them.”

We blame not only others, but also ourselves for “stupid mistakes” ---perhaps for not having handled a
person or a situation better. Looking back, we see how we should have handled it. “I should have known
how busy I would be at the semester’s end and started that paper earlier.” I should have realized sooner
that he was a jerk.” But sometimes we are too hard on ourselves. We forget that what is obvious to us
now was not nearly so obvious at the time.

“It is easy to be wise after the event.”

- Sherlock Holmes, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s story “The problem of Thor Bridge”

The point is not that common sense is predictably wrong. Rather, common sense usually is right-
--after the fact. We therefore easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we know and knew more than
what we do and did. And that is precisely why we need science to help us sift reality from illusion and
genuine predictions from easy hindsight.

RESEARCH METHODS: HOW DO WE DO SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY?

Social psychologists organize their ideas and findings into theories. A good theory will distill an
array of facts into a much shorter list of predictive principles. We can use those predictions to
confirm or modify the theory, to generate new research, and to suggest practical application.
Most social psychological research is either correlational or experimental. Correlational
studies sometimes conducted with systematic survey methods, discern the relationship
between variables (amount of education-amount of income). Knowing two things are
naturally related is valuable information, but it is not a reliable indicator of what is causing what-
--or whether a third variable is involved.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 When possible, social psychologists prefer to conduct experiments that explore cause and effect.
By constructing a miniature reality that is under their control, experimenters can vary one thing
and then another and discover how those things, separately or in combination affect behavior.
We randomly assign participants to an experimental condition, which receives the
experimental treatment, or to control condition, which does not.
We can then attribute any resulting difference between the two conditions to the independent
variable. By seeking to replicate things, today’s psychologists also assess their reproducibility.
In creating experiments, social psychologists sometimes stage situations that engage people’s
emotions. In doing so, they are obliged to follow professional ethical guidelines, such as obtaining
people’s informed consent, protecting them from harm, and fully disclosing afterward any
temporary deceptions. Laboratory experiments enable social psychologists to test ideas
gleaned from life experience and then apply the principles and findings to the real world.

In an experimental research design, the variables of interest are called the independent variables and
the dependent variables. The independent variable refers to the situation that is created by the
experimenter through the experimental manipulations, and the dependent variable refers to the
variable that is measured after the manipulations have occurred. In an experimental research design,
the research hypothesis is that the manipulated independent variable (or variables) causes changes in
the measured dependent variable (or variables). We can diagram the prediction like this, using an
arrow that points in one direction to demonstrate the expected direction of causality:

viewing violence (independent variable) → aggressive behavior (dependent variable)

Consider an experiment conducted by Anderson and Dill (2000), which was designed to directly test
the hypothesis that viewing violent video games would cause increased aggressive behavior. In this
research, male and female undergraduates from Iowa State University were given a chance to play
either a violent video game (Wolfenstein 3D) or a nonviolent video game (Myst). During the
experimental session, the participants played the video game that they had been given for 15 minutes.
Then, after the play, they participated in a competitive task with another student in which they had a
chance to deliver blasts of white noise through the earphones of their opponent. The operational
definition of the dependent variable (aggressive behavior) was the level and duration of noise
delivered to the opponent. The design and the results of the experiment are shown in the figure below:

Figure 1.14 An Experimental Research Design (After Anderson & Dill, 2000). Two advantages of the
experimental research design are (a) an assurance that the independent variable (also known as the

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
experimental manipulation) occurs prior to the measured dependent variable and (b) the creation of
initial equivalence between the conditions of the experiment (in this case, by using random assignment
to conditions).

MOST BRILLIANT SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS

1. THE HALO EFFECT
The halo effect is the idea that one trait
about a person is used to make an
overall judgment about them, (e.g. what
is beautiful is good.)
The ‘halo effect’ is a classic finding in
social psychology. It is the idea that
global evaluations about a person (e.g.
she is likeable) bleed over into
judgements about their specific traits
(e.g. she is intelligent).

It is sometimes called the “what is beautiful is

good” principle, or the “physical attractiveness
stereotype”.
It is called the halo effect because a halo was
often used in religious art to show that a
person is good.
The saint is bathed in heavenly light, just as people are bathed in a metaphorical positive light, mainly
by their appearance.

HISTORY OF HALO EFFECT

The halo effect was coined by American psychologist Edward L. Thorndike.

Thorndike noticed that when evaluating other people tall and attractive people were automatically
assumed to be more intelligent and ‘better’ than others.
Hollywood stars demonstrate the halo effect perfectly.
Because they are often attractive and likeable, we naturally assume they are also intelligent, friendly,
display good judgement and so on.
That is, until we come across (sometimes plentiful) evidence to the contrary.
In the same way politicians use the ‘halo effect’ to their advantage by trying to appear warm and
friendly, while saying little of any substance.
People tend to believe their policies are good because the person appears good.

2. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE
As part of your course, you agree to take part
in an experiment on ‘measures of
performance’. You are told the experiment
will take two hours. As you are required to
act as an experimental subject for a certain
number of hours in a year – this will be two
more of them out of the way.
Little do you know; the experiment will
actually become a classic in social

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 psychology. And what will seem to you like accidents by the experimenters are all part of a
carefully controlled deception.

Since this experiment numerous studies of cognitive dissonance have been carried out and the effect is
well-established. Its beauty is that it explains so many of our everyday behaviours.
Here are some examples provided by Morton Hunt in ‘The Story of Psychology:
▪ When trying to join a group, the harder they make the barriers to entry, the more you value
your membership. To resolve the dissonance between the hoops you were forced to jump
through, and the reality of what turns out to be a pretty average club, we convince ourselves
the club is, in fact, fantastic.
▪ People will interpret the same information in radically different ways to support their own
views of the world. When deciding our view on a contentious point, we conveniently forget
what jars with our own theory and remember everything that fits.
▪ People quickly adjust their values to fit their behaviour, even when it is clearly immoral.
Those stealing from their employer will claim that “Everyone does it” so they would be
losing out if they didn’t, or alternatively that “I’m underpaid so I deserve a little extra on the
side.”

3. STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT: ZIMBARDO’S FAMOUS SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY

STUDY

The Stanford prison experiment

was run to find out how people
would react to being made a
prisoner or prison guard.
The psychologist Philip Zimbardo,
who led the Stanford prison
experiment, thought ordinary,
healthy people would come to
behave cruelly, like prison guards,
if they were put in that situation,
even if it was against their
personality.
It has since become a classic study, studied by generations of psychology students and recently
coming under a lot of criticism.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
The Stanford prison experiment asks timeless questions about human nature, like what makes a person
evil?
Can a good person commit evil acts?
If so, what can make people cross the line?

The idea was simple: to see how ordinary men, chosen to be the most healthy and ‘normal’ would
respond to a radical change to their normal roles in life.
Half were to become prison guards, the other half their prisoners. In this experiment there were no half-
measures, for it to be effective it had to closely approximate the real experience of prisoners and guards.
These participants in the Stanford prison experiment were in for the ride of their lives.
‘Prisoners’ were ‘arrested’ by a police car with sirens wailing while they were out going about their
everyday business.
Then they were fingerprinted, blindfolded and put in a cell, then stripped naked, searched, deloused,
given a uniform, a number and had a chain placed around one foot.
The other participants were made into guards who wore uniforms and were given clubs.
A prison was mocked up in the basement of a Stanford University building.
And so the Stanford prison experiment began.

All was quiet until the second day when the ‘prisoners’ rebelled against their incarceration.
The guard’s retaliation was swift and brutal.
Guards stripped the prisoners naked, removed the beds from the prison, placed the rebellion’s
ringleader in solitary confinement and began harassing all the ‘prisoners’.
Soon the ‘prisoners’ began behaving with blind obedience towards the prison guards.
After only a few day’s realistic role-playing participants reported it felt as though their old identities
had been erased.

They had become their numbers.

So too had the ‘guards’ taken on their roles – taunting and abusing their prisoners.
Even the lead researcher, Philip Zimbardo, admits he became submerged in his role as the ‘prison
superintendent’.
In fact, Zimbardo believes the most powerful result of the Stanford prison experiment was his own
transformation into a rigid institutional figure, more concerned with his prison’s security than the
welfare of his participants.
Other members of the experimental team became engrossed in their new role.
Craig Haney, like Zimbardo, explained he became completely engaged in the day-to-day crises they were
facing in running the ‘prison’ and forgot about the aim of the Stanford prison experiment.

Playing the roles

It was only when one of his colleagues intervened that the Stanford prison experiment was finally
stopped.
In total it only lasted six of the planned 14 days.
Young men previously found to be pacifists were, in their roles as guards, humiliating and physically
assaulting the ‘prisoners’ – some even reported enjoying it.
The ‘prisoners’, meanwhile, quickly began to show classic signs of emotional breakdown.
Five had to leave the ‘prison’ even before the experiment was prematurely terminated.
The psychological explanation for the participant’s behaviour was that they were taking on the social
roles assigned to them.
This included adopting the implicit social norms associated with those roles: guards should be
authoritarian and abuse prisoners while prisoners should become servile and take their punishment.
Inevitably the Stanford prison experiment has attracted criticism for being unethical, involving a small
sample size, lack of ecological validity and so on.
Despite this it’s hard to deny that the experiment provides important insights in to human behaviour,
perhaps helping to explain the abuses that occurred in situations like the Abu Ghraib Prison.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
Conclusions of the Stanford prison experiment
The Stanford prison experiment showed how people are
ready to conform to the roles they are given and expected to
play.
They lost their identity within the group, taking the cue from
what other people were doing.
The situation of the prison turned guards into sadists and
reduced their sense of identity and personality
responsibility.
The prisoners were also surprised how much it changed
their behaviour.
Even assertive types became submissive and weak when
placed in the role of a prisoner in the Stanford prison
experiment.
In this sense it showed that the situation was more powerful

in guiding people’s behaviour than their personality.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm
 LEARNING ACTIVITY

1. Consider a recent situation from your personal experience in which you took into
consideration the person and the situation as causes of a behavior. Do you think you
might have underestimated the power of the social situation?
2. Consider the potential person and situational variables that might have contributed to
teach of the following events. Do you think the behavior was determined by the person,
by the social situation, or by both? You may want to consider the role of culture in your
responses.
• On March 13, 1964, 28-year-old Kitty Genovese was attacked and killed by a male
attacker within a few yards of her apartment building in New York City. When 38
of Kitty’s neighbors in the apartment building were later interviewed by the police,
they said that they had seen or heard the attack occurring. And yet not one of these
38 people had bothered to intervene, and only one person had called the police, but
that was long after Genovese was dead.
• After Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States in 2005,
thousands of people came from across the country, and even from around the
world, to clean up the mess and repair the damage that the storm had caused on
the streets of New Orleans and other Southern towns. Many of these volunteers
had been to New Orleans and some had families there. Yet others came simply
because they had heard about the disaster and wanted to help the people of New
Orleans.
3. For each of the following variables, (a)propose a research hypothesis in which the variable
serves as an independent variable and (b) propose a research hypothesis in which the
variable serves as a dependent variable.
• Helping
• Aggression
• Life satisfaction

Example:
1. Prejudice-
IV- effect of uphold prejudice upon aggression
DV- Showing the subjects a film about black people and measuring its effect on
prejudice.

San Mateo Municipal College SOCPSY-Social Psychology

Bachelor of Science in Psychology Ms. Alondra Ara A. Mena, RPm