Antisocial Behavior

Attribution Theory

• Studies why someone does something

  • Situation

  • Or

  • “Disposition” (personality)

  • Both possible explanations but we as humans tend to attribute disposition more

Fundamental Attribution Error

• overestimate the influence of personality and underestimate the influence of situations

  • For others, other way for self

Dispositional attribution

• attribution of an event to one’s disposition or personality

Situational attribution

• attribution of an event to one’s situation

Role definition

• A set of behaviors expected of an individuals in a specific position within a group of social setting.

Zimbardo

• worked at the Standford

• Lead researcher and prison superintendent of the Stanford Prison Experiment

Stanford Prison Experiment

• lead by Zimbardo

• Compiled of college volunteers randomly assigned as “prisoners” or “guards”

  • Gets rid of pre-existing differences

Details of the Zimbardo Prison Experiment

• guards implemented control tactics and physiological manipulation

  • Told prisoners they couldn’t leave

• Prisoners lost control and individuality

  • Had emotional breakdowns

Lack of ethics in Stanford Prison Experiment

• informed consent

  • Not told they can leave

  • Not told of possible torture

• Limitation of risk

  • Experiment kept going despite abuse

Role-playing

• taking up a role changes social responsibility/accountability

• Leads to feelings of simply caring out the role, distancing oneself from the action

  • Ex. Stanford Prison Experiment

Christina Maslach

• research assistant (grad Assistent)

• Brought up to Zimbardo the horrors of the Stanford prison experiment

  • Led the experiment to end

• Investigated institutional burnout later on

Deindividuation

• loss of self-awareness and self restraint occurs in group situations, especially in ones that foster arousal and anonymity

  • Personal accountability and responsibility goes down

Results of Obedience Milgram Shock Experiment

• most participants blindly obey orders to shock

  • Despite hesitation, keep going

  • Very stresses and under duress

Ethical concerns of Obedience Milgram Shock Experiment

• put participants in stressful situations (not limiting psychological risk to patients)

Obedience Milgram Shock Experiment details

• Milgram wanted to study the blind obedience of people in a group and how Germans could allow the persecution of the Jews

• Use confederates, actors that act as a participants being shocked (deception)

  • Participant to shock in increasing voltages up to 450 Mr

  • Participants are males 20-50

Findings in Obedience

• obedience is highest when

  • Person giving orders is close/legit authority

    • Obey someone in lab coat

  • Credibility led to obedience

    • Likely to obey due to affiliation with Yale, prestigious instituting

  • More likely to obey due to distance

    • Victim depersonalized at a distance

Foot in the door phenomenon

• tendency for people who have first agreed to a small request to comply later on to a larger request

Foot in the door phenomenon connection to Obedience

• once one violates human dignity by calling people numbers, small requests of abuse, it’s easy to continue to violate human dignity in bigger ways

Door-in-the-face Phenomenon

• When leading with a larger request and get denied, ask for something smaller

Cognitive Dissonance Theory

• Describes how we act to reduce the discomfort when 2 of our thoughts are inconsistent

  • Change attitude to reduce dissonance

Milgram Experiment Explanation

• by Zimbardo

• Representative study, all ordinary people of all professionals

• Psychologists expected % to use 450 V, but actually all did

  • Fundamental Attribution Error

• 91% of those that saw people go to 450 V did so too.