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Discovering Psychology: Updated Edition

Classroom Resources > Discovering Psychology: Updated Edition > 19. The Power of the Situation

Social Studies & History

9-12, College/Adult

The Power of the Situation

The Power of the Situation is the nineteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores psychologists' attempts to understand human behavior within its broader social context. It also examines how beliefs and behavior can be influenced and manipulated by other people and subtle situational forces.

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Discovering Psychology, The Power of Situation Transcript

Experiment: Simulating Prison Life


In the early 1970s, Craig Haney, Curt Banks, Carlo Prescott, and Philip Zimbardo conducted a landmark situational study at Stanford University. The experiment tested the fundamental attribution error: our tendency to attribute causes of behavior to personal factors, underestimating the influence of situational conditions.

For this study, a small group of college students volunteered to be subjects and were carefully tested for sound psychological and physical health. Half of the students were randomly selected to act as prisoners, the other half to act as guards. The study took place in a simulated jail facility in the Stanford University Psychology Department.

Once the study subjects entered the simulated jail, uniforms, rules, and other details distinguished the two groups from each other, and blurred the line between the reality of the study and life in prison. The students spent much of the day cramped in tiny cells, undergoing physical trials, and enduring the overall claustrophobic atmosphere of a small jail 24 hours a day. The guards, however, were allowed to return to their homes and normal surroundings after their shifts.

What happened during the study, originally planned to last two weeks, was more dramatic than anyone had anticipated, even the researchers themselves.

As the days passed, the boundary between roles and real life disappeared. Civilized students became aggressive guards, while formerly active students became listless, disengaged prisoners who passively underwent their trials and became depressed or disoriented. Some of the prisoners were so overpowered by the situation that they developed extreme stress reactions and had to be released from the study.

Eventually, after only six days, the study was forced to end. The behavior induced by the situation and physical environment shocked everyone, both students and researchers. But through this extreme example of situational manipulation, new understandings of social psychology, as well as the dynamics of life in a prison environment, were gained. When the study was over, the students returned to their normal lives, and extensive follow-ups have shown no negative long-term effects on the students.

An extensive Web site for the Stanford Prison Experiment, including day-by-day summaries, as well as images and video clips, is available. http://www.prisonexp.org/.

Glossary

Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE): The dual tendency of observers to underestimate the impact of situational factors, and to overestimate the influence of dispositional factors on an actor’s behavior.

Series Directory

Discovering Psychology: Updated Edition

Credits

Produced by WGBH Boston with the American Psychological Association. 1990, 2001.
  • ISBN: 1-57680-414-3

Units

Unit 0 Explorations

Explore Key Topics in Contemporary Psychology.

Unit 1 Past, Present, and Promise

Past, Present, and Promise is the first program in the Discovering Psychology series. It provides an introduction to and overview of psychology, from its origins in the nineteenth century to current study of the brain's biochemistry. You'll explore the development of psychology in general and some of the paths scientists take to determine relationships among the mind, the brain, and behavior.

Unit 2 Understanding Research

Understanding Research is the second program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program examines how we know what we know. You'll explore the scientific method, the distinction between fact and theory, and the different ways in which data are collected and applied, both in labs and in real-world settings.

Unit 3 The Behaving Brain

The Behaving Brain is the third program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at the structure and composition of the human brain: how neurons function, how information is collected and transmitted, and how chemical reactions relate to thought and behavior.

Unit 4 The Responsive Brain

The Responsive Brain is the fourth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores how the brain alters its structure and functioning in response to social situations. You'll learn about the impact of different stimuli on human and animal brains, from the effect of human touch on premature babies to the effect of social status on the health of baboons.

Unit 5 The Developing Child

The Developing Child is the fifth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program introduces examples of cognitive, perceptual, and behavioral development in children. You'll explore the roles of heredity and environment in child development, and children's incremental understanding of such phenomena as object permanence, symbolic reasoning, and perception of visual depth.

Unit 6 Language Development

Language Development is the sixth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program outlines the development of language in children. It highlights linguist Noam Chomsky's theories about the human brain's predisposition to understand language, and then profiles three scientists working on aspects of psycholinguistics.

Unit 7 Sensation and Perception

Sensation and Perception is the seventh program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program unravels the complex process of how we see. You'll learn about visual illusions and what causes them, the biology of perception, the visual pathway, and how the human brain processes information during perception.

Unit 8 Learning

Learning is the eighth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program discusses the basic principles of how we learn; classical, instrumental, and operant conditioning; and the role that stimuli and consequences play in learned behavior and habits. You'll explore how renowned researchers Ivan Pavlov, B. F. Skinner, Edward Thorndike, and John B. Watson contributed to what we know about human and animal learning.

Unit 9 Remembering and Forgetting

Remembering and Forgetting is the ninth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at the complexity of memory: how images, ideas, language, physical actions, even sounds and smells are translated into codes that are represented in the memory and retrieved as needed.

Unit 10 Cognitive Processes

Cognitive Processes is the tenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores the evolution of cognitive psychology and how we take in information. Cognitive psychology spans a vast range of study, from the parts of the brain used in reading to the computer's impact on the study of how humans think.

Unit 11 Judgment and Decision Making

Judgment and Decision Making is the eleventh program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at the process of making decisions and judgments, how and why people make different choices, the factors that influence decisions, and the psychology of risk-taking.

Unit 12 Motivation and Emotion

Motivation and Emotion is the twelfth program in the Discovering Psychology series. Based on the early research of Sigmund Freud and Abraham Maslow, this program explores the sources of motivation, causes of behavior, and interplay between motivation and action. It examines societal and individual motivation, sexual motivation, and cumulative effects of optimism and pessimism in human life.

Unit 13 The Mind Awake and Asleep

The Mind Awake and Asleep is the thirteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. Drawing on the theories of early modern psychologists Wilhelm Wundt and William James, this program looks at conscious and unconscious awareness, how the mind functions awake and asleep, and the biological rhythms of activity, rest, and dreaming.

Unit 14 The Mind Hidden and Divided

The Mind Hidden and Divided is the fourteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. Based on the pioneering research of Sigmund Freud, this program explores how the events and experiences that take place in the subconscious manifest themselves in our conscious lives. You'll learn about repression, the distinction between discovered and false memory syndrome, hypnosis, and split-brain cases.

Unit 15 The Self

The Self is the fifteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. In this program, you'll explore how psychologists study the origins of self-identity, self-esteem, and the social determinants of self-concepts. You'll also learn about some of the emotional and motivational consequences of self-esteem.

Unit 16 Testing and Intelligence

Testing and Intelligence is the sixteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores the history of intelligence tests, based on the work of Alfred Binet. You'll also explore the field of psychological assessment, potential biases in testing, and the influence of cultural beliefs and stereotypes on test performance.

Unit 17 Sex and Gender

Sex and Gender is the seventeenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores the distinction between sex and gender, and the ways gender stereotypes channel behavior in animals as well as in humans. It also examines some of the psychological effects of societal gender roles, from birth to adulthood.

Unit 18 Maturing and Aging

Maturing and Aging is the eighteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at the human life cycle in spans of 20-25 years, and what happens physically and mentally as we age. Popular misconceptions about the elderly are examined, often in contrast to the reality of growing old. Researchers, who are developing mental exercises to improve mental efficiency, explain senile dementia and other effects of aging.

Unit 19 The Power of the Situation

The Power of the Situation is the nineteenth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores psychologists' attempts to understand human behavior within its broader social context. It also examines how beliefs and behavior can be influenced and manipulated by other people and subtle situational forces.

Unit 20 Constructing Social Reality

Constructing Social Reality is the twentieth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at the process and elements of interpreting reality. You'll explore the power of cognitive control, the Pygmalion effect, the development of prejudice, and how expectations affect behaviors like performance and compliance.

Unit 21 Psychopathology

Psychopathology is the twenty-first program in the Discovering Psychology series. Through glimpses of the original theories of Philippe Pinel, this program explores the biological and psychological components of mental illness, as well as the role of genetics and cultural factors. It also takes a closer look at a few of the major mental illnesses like depression, neurosis, manic-depressive disorders, and schizophrenia.

Unit 22 Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the twenty-second program in the Discovering Psychology series. It explores different therapeutic approaches as well as the relationships among theory, research, and practice. You'll learn how some historical, cultural, and social forces have influenced approaches to the treatment of psychological disorders.

Unit 23 Health, Mind, and Behavior

Health, Mind, and Behavior is the twenty-third program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program examines the relationship between mind and body, and some of the ways psychological factors affect our physical health and immune system. It also explores some of the sources and consequences of stress.

Unit 24 Applying Psychology in Life

Applying Psychology in Life is the twenty-fourth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program examines innovative ways psychology is being applied to practical situations and professions. You'll explore various areas of applied research: the effects of sleep deprivation on ability and performance, ergonomics and human factors in space travel, the law and reliability of courtroom testimony, and interpersonal conflict resolution.

Unit 25 Cognitive Neuroscience

Cognitive Neuroscience is the twenty-fifth program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program looks at scientists' attempts to understand how the brain functions in a variety of mental processes. It also examines empirical analysis of brain functioning when a person thinks, reasons, sees, encodes information, and solves problems. Several brain-imaging tools reveal how we measure the brain's response to different stimuli.

Unit 26 Cultural Psychology

Cultural Psychology is the twenty-sixth, and final, program in the Discovering Psychology series. This program explores how cultural psychology integrates cross-cultural research with social psychology, anthropology, and other social sciences. It also examines how cultures contribute to self-identity, the central aspects of cultural values, and emerging issues regarding diversity.

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