PSYC 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Stanford Prison Experiment, Normative Social Influence, Deindividuation

• School: Irvine Valley College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1
• Professor: taylor

Document Summary

Randomly assigned to be prisoner or guard. Guard not allowed to hit prisoners but can create frustration, boredom etc. How we behave depends largely on situation. Normative social influence theory in the stanford prison study: Influence of other ppl leads us to conform in order to be liked and accepted by them. How does what you saw inform what went on in the abu ghraib: not bad ppl (bad apples) but toxic situation. Everyone was given a role (prisoner/guard) and they conform. They don"t want to break out of their roles. There were expectations for being a good participant. Used a lot of the same psychological tactics as the prison experiment. Take good people and put them in a bad situation can be bad people. Loosening of normal constraints on behaviors when ppl can"t be identified increase in impulsive and deviant acts. Anonymity: guard was in khakis, uniforms, sunglasses, same uniform worked as a group.