Table 18.1 Overview of Social Psychological Experiments
Brief Description
Experimenter(s) of Experiment Results Key Concept
Milgram Teacher to apply electric 66% of subjects Obedience to
shocks when learner delivered what they Authority
does not answer thought to be a
questions correctly maximum of 450 volts
Asch Select the line in a triad Subjects conformed 1/3 Conformity
that matches the stimulus of the time when the Normative Influence
line confederates voted Social Influence
unanimously
Festinger Gave two different groups $1 group changed their Cognitive
either $1 or $20 to lie perception of the task Dissonance
about a boring task to from boring to
future subjects interesting
Latané and Darley Emergency situation People help when they Diffusion of
created to test people’s think they are alone, Responsibility
helping behavior but the larger the group Bystander
present, the less likely Intervention
anyone is to act
Sherif Boys’ camp study where Two previously Contact Theory
an emergency situation competitive groups Superordinate Goal
required group worked together to
cooperation solve problem
Aronson and Devised a teaching Raised self-efficacy of Jigsaw Classroom
Gonzales strategy making Anglo minority children and
and Hispanic kids reduced prejudice on
interdependent upon part of Anglo children
each other
Rosenthal and Teachers were told prior Teacher expectations Self-fulfilling
Jacobsen to school year to expect did come true— Prophecy
certain kids to “bloom” bloomers did prove
academically during the more successful than
year nonbloomers
Zimbardo Simulate a prison setting Simulation cut off in Social Roles
at Stanford U and assign 6 days because of
roles of “prisoners” and sadistic guards and
“guards” to students ethical violations
Triplett Looked at the effect of an Well-learned tasks were Social Facilitation
audience when learners had enhanced by audience and Social Impairment
learned task well or were just newly learned tasks were
beginning to learn it impaired when audience
was present
Social Psychology 255Aggression—the intention to do harm to others. Types of aggression include:- Instrumental aggression—to achieve some goal.
- Hostile aggression—to inflict pain upon someone else.
Though Freud and Lorenz believed that aggression is innate, the fact that different cul-
tures display differing levels of aggression supports the belief that aggression is learned.