PSYC 215 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Naturalistic Fallacy, Fraternities And Sororities, Construals

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 215
• Professor: John Lydon

Document Summary

Social psychology: scientific study of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals in social situations. April 2004 cbs revealed pictures of american guards acting violent and inhuman towards war prisoners in iraq. People assumed these guards were the american and army"s rotten apples. 30 years earlier philip zimbardo conducted the stanford experiment. The study involved 24 undergraduate men to simulate a prison in the basement of the psychology department. The chose them based on good mental health and character. A coin was flipped to determine who was a guard and who was a prisoner. Zimbardo: balance of power in prisons is so unequal that they tend to be brutal places unless heavy constraints are applied to curb the guard"s worst impulses. It is not that we put bad apples in a good barrel. We put good apples in a bad barrel that corrupts them.