Today’s class was divided into two parts. In the first part, we all had a chance to read an article titled as Abu Ghraib torture and prisoner abuse which was about how the prisoners in Iraq were treated by American soldiers with evidence pictures included. The pictures themselves were pretty self-explanatory. The main reason we were told to read this article was because it goes along with the idea of social psychology. It was to be understood by psychologists that humans’ behaviors were influenced by situations and environments. In my opinion, the fact that one human is torturing the other is scary enough to admit, but worst, (as mentioned in class) taking a photograph of it. However, I would not dare give my absolute opinion upon their actions because I am not confident enough that I would not do the exact same thing under those circumstances.
The second part is watching the video by Phillip Zimbardo, Developmental Psychology which talks about different experiments by different psychologists. First of all, Milgram who experimented with electric shocks. Milgram had his volunteers apply electric shocks every time the control person makes a mistake on a memory test. He found out that none of the volunteers made the effort to rescue the control person but rather, some of them even followed the exact order and went on with the experiment to the extend that the control person could die. Secondly, Zimbardo, experimented with playing roles between prisoners and guards. The volunteer group was divided into prisoners and guards. With the expected two weeks experiment, it went on only for six days, seeing the expected result. The prisoners were depressed whereas the guards were tortuous. Most importantly, these people undergo tests prior to the experiment to make sure they all were both physically and mentally healthy. The third experiment is about eyesight. This one fascinates me the most. Under different situations, people performed differently on the same eye test. This proves that humans can really be influenced by environments and situations.
The second part is watching the video by Phillip Zimbardo, Developmental Psychology which talks about different experiments by different psychologists. First of all, Milgram who experimented with electric shocks. Milgram had his volunteers apply electric shocks every time the control person makes a mistake on a memory test. He found out that none of the volunteers made the effort to rescue the control person but rather, some of them even followed the exact order and went on with the experiment to the extend that the control person could die. Secondly, Zimbardo, experimented with playing roles between prisoners and guards. The volunteer group was divided into prisoners and guards. With the expected two weeks experiment, it went on only for six days, seeing the expected result. The prisoners were depressed whereas the guards were tortuous. Most importantly, these people undergo tests prior to the experiment to make sure they all were both physically and mentally healthy. The third experiment is about eyesight. This one fascinates me the most. Under different situations, people performed differently on the same eye test. This proves that humans can really be influenced by environments and situations.
Labels: Social Psychology
posted by Tat S. @ 8:54 PM
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