Blog Post #13 - Social Psychology

I thought the Stanford Prison experiment was very cruel. All the prison guards took on this new role and forgot who they were. They forgot about how indecent they were being and never thought about what they were actually doing because it was part of an experiment. In Asch's Conformity experiment I think many people can relate to this experiment and have a better understanding of it. When five people all say the wrong answer and you think the answer is something else but don't want to stand, you are more than likely to conform to the group answer so you do not stand out. I think this experiment can relate to people in school and society in general. This shows how human nature can lack confidence in themselves and sometimes are afraid to stand out and go with how they actually feel. I thought that Milgram's experiment really showed how well some people take to obedience and how far they will actually go. This experiment showed how well some people take to obedience. If I had to take part in this experiment, there is no way I would be able to keep going hearing people "scream" and "have heart attacks." If I knew the indicated pain, there is no way I would be able to continue on.

Social influence has to deal with when the population or a group of people that act a certain way because everyone else is doing it and they would rather not feel like an outcast. Many people conform, or adjust their behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard. The first example is in school when a teacher asks a question and takes a vote, if the majority of the students raise their hand and one student questions what to say. That student is more than likely going to go with the group decision. The second example is clothing trends. Many people buy clothes from the same stores and wear the same types of clothes. Clothing is a social influence and even if people say they are branching out with their own style, usually it is relatively the same as everyone else.

The most interesting thing I learned was the different cultures and how they affect people and how they look at other people. Many people have different culture influences that vary depending on where you live and how many different cultures are around. A culture is the behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values, and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next. Many cultures differ in languages, money, sports, food, transportation, and mannerisms. Each cultures has their norms, which is an understood rule for accepted and expected behavior. For example, in Arab societies a kiss is often a greeting from one person to another. In other cultures, this is not acceptable and crosses many people's personal space. When exploring a different culture, a person must know the accepted behaviors of another culture. Human nature manifests human diversity.