Human Behavior Experiments-Great Social Psychology Video

When in search of great resources for my class, I will often record and digitize shows for my classroom use.  When preparing for today's class, I discovered that one of my favorites was online.

This show is called, "Human Behavior Experiments" and appeared on Court TV in 2006.  It is a great social psychology overview focusing on both the original research of Zimbardo (prison study), Milgram (obedience), and Darley and Latane (bystander intervention and apathy). This includes original footage along with content dealing with real-life examples that are truly unbelievable including the Abu Graib prison situation in Iraq.

Direct link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfddDbWYL8Q



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Bullying as a Rational Choice

This morning I was reading through my Facebook feed--a title really jumped out at me: "Bullying: A Rational Choice."  Having a friend who teaches economics, I hear the term "rational choice" quite a bit, as that is apparently how economists view choices people make for their economic models.

Anyway, I read through the blog post and it stunned me.  There is a compelling argument that is made about the origins of bullying and how it represents a social bonding experience related to conformity (increasing oxytocin), in-groups and out-groups.  Fascinating.  I would imagine that sharing such an article with your kids would yield some insights as well.

BrainBlogger Home Page:  http://brainblogger.com/

Bullying Post:  http://brainblogger.com/2013/02/01/bullying-a-rational-choice/

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Head Games: New Show on Discovery and Science Channels

While I was away at the AP Psych reading, the Discovery Channel began running a short series called, "Head Games," a series of episodes about different aspects of psychology.  Topics include conformity, morality and Pavlov's classical conditioning, perception and mirror neurons.  I accidentally discovered them when doing a Tivo wishlist search.  While the show calls the demonstrations "experiments," the principles I have viewed thus far are pretty indicative of what we attempt to show our students.  At first glance, snippets of the show would be best used in our classes rather than full episodes.  There are also some online activities to illustrate some of the concepts as well.

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/head-games/
http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/head-games/episode-guide.html
http://science.discovery.com/tv/head-games/head-games.html


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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Das Experiment [The Experiment]

Das Experiment is a German film that fictionalizes (but has the standard disclaimer that the film was not based upon real events or people) the Zimbardo Prison Study.  The film focuses upon on subject in the film (Number 77) going from his seeing the newspaper ad for the research study, the preliminary testing, the entrance into the simulation, and the subsequent events (most of which we've all read about or even seen). 




Because the film is fictionalized, they've been able to add a love story and added some events that did not occur in the original (such as the love story and computerized surveillance of the prisoners.  In addition to many elements of social cognition, bigotry, social isolation, conformity, obedience, intentional disobedience, role playing, and other overt and subtle psychological principles, they've added some ethical issues that Zimbardo did not face.  Without spoiling anything, the primary antagonist plays the sadistic guard with particular glee.
Because of the language, nudity and sexuality, it is unlikely that any of us could/would use the film in our classes, it is an excellent one for us to view.  There are some wonderful dynamics among the prisoners and among the guards and between the two groups that those of us in psych would appreciate more than the lay person.

The trailer of the film can be seen here.  For those of you on Netlflix, the film is available on both DVD and via streaming.

Posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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