Psychology 15 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Illusory Contours, Kurt Lewin, Gestalt Psychology

• School: Harvard University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 15
• Professor: Christopher Greene

Document Summary

Social psychology: the scientific study of the feelings, thoughts and behaviors of individuals in social situations. Abu ghraib prison near baghdad, iraq: american atrocities against iraqi prisoners. Explaining situations: social psychologists seek to understand how individuals act in relation to others in social situations and why. Influence government policy: brown v board of education social psychology research that indicting that segregated schools were inherently unequal in their effects (thus unconstitutional) Personality psychology: stressed individual differences in behavior rather than the social situation. Cognitive psychology: the study of how people perceive, think about, and remember, aspects of the world. Sociology: the study of people in the aggregate. (institutions, subgroups, bureaucracies, mass movements) Hannah arendt: any one of us is capable of performing acts or brutality. Darley and batson (1973): the mundane fact of being in a hurry is such a powerful situational factor that it overrides people"s helpful tendencies.