Blog Post #13-Social Psychology

I find Asch's Conformity experiment interesting, because it made me stop and think of something I never really thought of before. Would I answer the right answer because I thought it was right or would I just go with the rest of the group? The more I thought about it, and related it to personal experiences, I decided I would go with the rest of the group. It would be kind of like a peer pressure thing. For Milgram's Obedience experiment, I think it was absolutely unnecessary to treat humans in such a cruel and unusal way just for a psychological experiment. I can't even imagine putting another human being in so much pain that they could not stand it, intentionally. I mean, can't people eventually die from being shocked at a really high voltage? Lastly, we have the Stanford Prison Experiment. I think this is an absolutely crazy experiment that never should have taken place. This is even worse than Milgram's experiment, in my opinion. Why would someone intentionally put another in so much pain and anguish, knowing the possible outcomes? To me, this is ridiculous and like I mentioned before, I could never do something to harm another person intentionally-especially just for a psychological experiment. However, it was interesting that psychologists did point out that not every person flipped during these experiments; certain people did remain sane and normal and not totally harmed.



A social influence can be seen in one's conformity (adjusting to one's behavior or thinking to coincide with a group standard), compliance, and group behavior. The book gives examples of normative and informational social influences. Normative include influences resulting from a person's desire to gain approval or avoid disapproval. Informational includes influences resulting from one's willingness to accept others' opinions about reality. I think one instance where I am under "normative" influence would be doing my homework in general, but studying for a test in particular. I do not enjoy settling for anything less than like an A on any school assignments and I sometimes feel as if my parents expect that of me (even though they claim they don't..). If I didn't have my parents as role models, I can definitely say I would slack off more in school and probably wouldn't care all that much. Another example that I can think of being involved with social influences could be when I am voted as a "Team Captain" or "President" of any given club. Normally, I would sit back and watch work being done, give my two sense or help out if asked for it, but remain calm and relaxed. However, when I am awarded a leadership role, I feel it is my obligation to get the work done, and to the best of my ability.

The most interesting thing that I learned in this class is about our personalities as human beings. I find it fascinating that every individual is his or her own person and we all vary in personalities so much that you can never really find two people exactly alike. I definitely think it is a good thing though that we all our separate people. How boring would this world be if we were all alike. I always find a person to be a good person if they are their own person and not afraid of it! Overall though, Psychology has really intrigued me, figuring out how and why we do the things we do as human beings.