Five years from now when I look back on my first year of college and think about my first psychology class the topic that will stand out most to me is social psychology. Not only did I think of chapter 13 as the most interesting one in the book, its toughest competitors being chapters 14 and 15, but the lecturer for this section, Professor Gonzales, is also pretty memorable as well. This chapter explained so many horrific happenings of history that it has ingrained itself into my mind. I never understood how people could walk past or ignore someone being attacked, or how Hitler could have formed such a large following and have his soldiers obey every command, or how a cult could be lead to suicide by their eccentric leader, but social psychology really shed some light on all of these topics and how, from a psychological view, they ever could have happened and could end up happening again. Social psychology looks at the bigger picture not concentrating on the individual human body, brain, or personality but how the operating of individuals in society can create a population that becomes an entity all on its own. Besides that the chapter provides a kind of defense mechanism by providing enough information about the topics, like mass hysteria, groupthink, even obedience if it's necessary, that someone who understands the information can figure out how to avoid them.
Memorable Psychology Topic
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These chapters were the most memorable for me as well. The experiment by Asch was one I will remember for a long time because it is so easy for me to relate to. I can easily see myself falling under pressure of the group and conforming very quickly. Great job!
I definitely agree that social psychology is extremely interesting. I especially loved learning about conformity and obedience. I like that you wrote about social psychology as looking at the bigger picture because I never thought about it that way, but I agree that it does because a lot of the other chapters we've read have been about a specific topic such as personality. It's amazing how much society can influence an individual to act a certain way or a higher authority. Well, not so much amazing, but scary really. I hope that with increased awareness about these very important topics will decrease the chances of something horrific (Hitler) to happen again (although it isn't known if obedience or conformity was the cause). Great post!
I like how you wrote used examples that were applicable to our lives and were observed in history. I always thought it was insane how something such as the Holocaust happened, but through studies that have been done on conformity, people would continue to agree to things they knew were blatantly wrong. Also in another study that showed people will deliver lethal shocks to another individual as long as a man in a white lab coat continued to tell them to do so. It's insane the lengths people will go to conform and not stand out in the crowd.
I never really thought of social psychology like that. It is interesting about how you compare it to the big picture rather than on an individual basis. I also really liked the examples you provided because they show how a group can act and force people to act in many unusual ways.
A well written article, your views were posed well, and the Orwell reference to Groupthink is well applied. The issue is in regards to adjustment of social behaviour to accommodate what we are told vs what we actually observe/experience. These situations can be both positive or negative with the corresponding effect taking place on our future behaviour. For example, someone sexually assaulted in a back alley would likely afford back alleys in the future, which is probably good. Someone telling you to never leave your house cause it's a bad world out there, then the subject never venturing out due to the direction of others without researching it themselves first...bad.
I write a bit about identity monitor practice to help prevent negative causality from social anomalies on my blog. You can check it out if you like, you might be interested...
Blog URL: http://IdentityMonitor.us
Basically it outlines the effects that are presented to a person's identity when they are presented with a negatively influenced event.
Take care!
Darren
I agree, social psychology is an incredibly memorable topic. I found Asch's studies on conformity very interesting as well. It is fascinating (and sometimes scary) how deindividuation can cause people to behave in ways that they never would if they were standing alone, instead of in a crowd.