Social Roles: The Stanford Prison Experiment

• Guard responses–Justified action through need to maintain order–Uniform provided power and deindividuation

• Prisoner responses–Dehumanized–Isolated–Learned to be helpless

• Ethical concerns

The Situation Can Also Be Manipulated for Good

Helping -- Personality doesn’t matter as much as situational factors

• How the help is asked for• Whether the helper is in a hurry• The mood and previous situation of the helper• Characteristics of the victim• Whether there is room for diffusion of

responsibility

Construal: Determining

Social Reality

Culture: Changing our Construal of Self and Society

• Independent vs. Interdependent Views of the Self– Defining the self – Attending to actors vs. situations– Forming preferences for figures and pens– Forming social goals

• Cultural Variation within the United States

Construal and Attitudes

• Perceiving Social Reality– Hastorf & Cantril “They Saw a Game”

• Cognitive Dissonance– Festinger & Carlsmith (1959)

• Self-Fulfilling Prophesies– Rosenthal & Jacobson (1968)– Snyder (1978)

Forming and Overcoming Prejudice

• Sherif “Robber’s Cave” Study

• Aronson’s Jigsaw Classroom

• More on stereotyping tomorrow . . .