Psychology Exp;
Asch's Conformity Study
• Description: Participants guessed line lengths while surrounded by actors who gave intentionally wrong answers.
• Results: Subjects often conformed to the group and gave the wrong answer too.
Bobo Doll Experiment
• Description: Children watched adults interact with an inflatable doll either aggressively or passively.
• Results: Children who saw aggressive behavior copied it, showing evidence of observational learning.
Good Samaritan Experiment
• Description: Seminary students were asked to give a lecture and passed a person in need of help along the way, with some told they were in a rush.
• Results: Students who were not in a rush were much more likely to stop and help.
Milgram's Obedience Studies
• Description: Participants were ordered by an authority figure to deliver escalating electric shocks to a learner for wrong answers.
• Results: Most ordinary participants obeyed the authority figure, even when they believed they were causing harm.
Bystander Apathy
• Description: Participants heard a pre-recorded emergency (someone having a seizure) while alone or in a group.
• Results: People helped less often when others were present, due to a diffusion of responsibility.
Robbers Cave Experiment
• Description: Researchers tested group dynamics by creating competitive in-groups and out-groups, then introducing cooperative tasks.
• Results: Competition caused hostility, but shared common goals successfully brought the groups back together.
Social Judgement Theory Experiment
Description:
Boys were randomly separated into two groups, allegedly according to their preference in painting. For each member of their group they awarded points, points were also awarded to a member of the other group on a sliding scale.
Results:
The boys chose options that would reward their group most and the other least. This demonstrates that people have a natural tendency to identify with their in-group and to ostracize the out group.
The Halo Effect
Description:
The halo effect is our tendency to take one characteristic about a person and to apply it universally. For example, we tend to think an attractive person is also intelligent. Researchers wondered if people were aware that this influenced them. Two groups were shown a film of an interview with a professor. In one, he behaved likably and in the other, he behaved coldly.
Results:
Both groups rated the professor on many different characteristics. Afterward, they could not explain why they rated him on various characteristics that had nothing to do with likability the way they did. This demonstrated that people are not aware that the halo effect influences their perceptions.
Confirmation Bias
Description:
People were given a series of numbers—2, 4, 6—and asked to find the pattern. Most people believed it was even numbers and gave series of even numbers in response. They were always correct, but the pattern was actually increasing numbers.
Results:
People have a tendency to confirm their own hypotheses without looking for other explanations.
Hawthorne Effect
Description:
A study was conducted at Hawthorne Works to see if productivity would improve with increased lighting.
Results:
Researchers realized that when workers were being observed, their behavior changed because they knew they were being observed.
Self Deception
Description:
Some subjects were told that the longer they could keep their arms in cold water following exercise indicated a healthy heart, while others were told that not being able to tolerate the cold water following exercise indicated a healthy heart.
Results:
Participants who were told cold water endurance indicated a healthy heart held their arms in the water for longer, the reverse happened with those who were told the opposite. Participants had deceived themselves into believing they could cause their hearts to be healthier.
The Clark Doll Test
Description:
The Clarks conducted a study on school children from a segregated and an integrated school. The researchers had a black doll and a white doll. The children were asked to identify the good and the bad doll, as well as other positive and negative descriptors.
Results:
The study found that attending a segregated school impacted the self-esteem of African-American children negatively, they were more likely to identify the black doll as "bad."