(Updates added 4/30/2017)
Phil Zimbardo and colleagues' Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE), though conducted and reported in the early 1970s, continues to stimulate vigorous discussion to this day. Here are some areas in which the SPE comes up today:
1. It is often discussed in conjunction with the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal (2003-04) in Iraq.
2. The SPE sometimes serves as a focal point in larger debates over the person and the situation.
3. Empirical studies on specific aspects of the SPE itself continue to be conducted (e.g., the nature of individuals who would volunteer for a prison study as opposed to an ordinary study; Carnahan & McFarland, 2007).
4. A feature film, "The Stanford Prison Experiment," was released in 2015.
To honor the staying power of the SPE, I've written the following lyrics...
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Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," Lennon/McCartney)
It was back ’round 1970,
Phil Zimbardo did a test to see,
What kind of conduct would prevail,
From a made-up college-student jail,
Inmates and guards, a random split,
So real, they didn’t know what hit,
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Exper’ment,
(Fanfare)
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Exper’ment,
Life simulated in the hole*,
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Exper’ment,
What happens when you play a role,
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison, ’Bardo’s Stanford Prison,
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Exper’ment,
The guards seemed to be normal,
They passed their pre-screening,
But once they got their billy clubs,
Their treatment became demeaning,
The study careening,
Chaos soon took over like a storm,
Conflict heightened and rebellions formed,
Guards struggled for the upper hand,
Pressure many inmates could not stand…
Back in the news with Abu Ghraib,
The study’s relevance has stayed,
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Exper’ment…
*The term "the hole" appears to be slang specifically for solitary confinement, as opposed to prison in general. The word "hole" fits in so nicely with the rhyme scheme, so I hope everyone will extend me some artistic license.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The song basically presents the conventional situationist account of the SPE. College-student volunteers who "seemed to be normal" were assigned via "random split" to be either prisoners or guards. Prisoners and guards alike, upon assumption of their statuses ("what happens when you play a role" and, on the guards' part, "once they got their billy clubs"), then took on extreme and pathological forms of behavior. The guards, of course, became sadistic, and some of the prisoners experienced nervous breakdowns.
Further Reading
Carnahan, T. & McFarland, S. (2007). Revisiting the Stanford Prison Experiment: Could participant self-selection have led to the cruelty? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 603-614.
Haslam, S.A. & Reicher, S. (2007). Beyond the Banality of Evil: Three dynamics of an interactionist social psychology of tyranny. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33, 615-622.
[Discussion of these two articles on Psychology and Crime News.]
Stanford Prison Experiment website.
The Situationist blog. Discussion by Zimbardo and others on person X situation interaction, see postings from late July and early August 2007.
Zimbardo, P. (2007). The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil.New York: Random House. (Website)
Zimbardo, P.G., Maslach, C, & Haney, C. (2000). Reflections on the Stanford Prison Experiment: Genesis, transformations, consequences. In T. Blass (Ed.), Obedience to authority: Current perspectives on the Milgram paradigm (pp. 193-237). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. (Chapter in manuscript form)
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Sunday, September 9, 2007
"Group Identities"
(Updated April 25, 2015)
One of the things that makes social psychology "social" is the fact that individuals are members of numerous groups, whether by default (e.g., a member of one's family) or by actively joining (e.g., a trade union or university alumni association). For nearly 40 years (1969-2008), Dick McGlynn was the resident groups researcher on the Texas Tech faculty, before his retirement. Today, Zach Hohman, carries that banner. The followimg song alludes to several aspects of group- and social-identity research and is dedicated to Dick and Zach.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Group Identities
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Bare Necessities,” Terry Gilkyson, popularized in the movie, The Jungle Book)
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
The ways to harsh conflict, are easy to pave,
That’s what Sherif did, with Robbers Cave,
But, groups need not, even be real,
To give opponents, a raw deal,
When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,
And, think of a few,
[Brief interlude]
Your group identities, are important, to you,
They're part of you,
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
For kids unsure, of their identities,
"Cool" groups will attract them, the "cliques" that be,
But, cool groups, may be unhealthy,
Their behaviors, so risky,
When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,
And, think of a few,
[Brief interlude]
Your group identities, are important, to you,
They're part of you,
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
[Improvisations...]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The song alludes to five lines of research (intentionally, at least)...
1. The word "entities" in the first part is a subtle reference to the concept of entitativity, a nearly 50-year-old idea that has been getting a lot of attention from social psychologists in recent years. This vigorous activity can be seen in the list of abstracts for a British conference on “Groups, Politics, and Organizations.” Quoting from the symposium abstract by Lowell Gaertner:
…Donald Campbell (1958) coined the concept of entitativity to convey that social groups vary in the extent to which they are perceived as being an entity or a cohesive whole.
2. The second part refers, a little more explicitly, to research on collective self-esteem. As studied by Luhtanen, Crocker, and colleagues (see References below), individuals can experience high or low esteem as a result of the groups they're in and their evaluations of these groups.
3. The next section cites two classic lines of research. First is the "Robbers Cave" study by Sherif and colleagues, in which the situation was manipulated so that two groups of boy campers formed a rivalry with each other, but then overcame their animosity to cooperate on a task.
4. The other line of research mentioned in that section is Tajfel's "minimal groups paradigm," in which groups are created on arbitrary bases and tested for ingroup favoritism in allocations of rewards. Quoting from Tajfel and colleagues (1971):
…in a situation devoid of the usual trappings of ingroup membership and of all the vagaries of interacting with an outgroup, the [subjects] still act in terms of their ingroup membership and of an intergroup categorization. Their actions are unambiguously directed at favouring the members of their ingroup as against the members of the outgroup (p. 172).
5. Hogg, Siegel, and Hohman (2011) develop a theoretical account of why adolescents engage in so much risky behavior (e.g., substance use). Adolescents uncertain of their identity may be attracted to "cool" cliques (also see Brown, Eicher, & Petrie, 1986), the problem being that such cliques tend to engage in unhealthy behaviors.
Further Reading
Brown, B. B., Eicher, S. A., & Petrie, S. (1986). The importance of peer group (‘‘crowd’’) affiliation in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 9, 73–96.
Foer, F. (2004). How soccer explains the world. New York: HarperCollins.
Hogg, M.A. (2006). Social Identity Theory. In P.J. Burke (Ed.), Contemporary social psychological theories (pp. 111-136). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hogg, M. A., Siegel, J. T., & Hohman, Z. P. (2011). Groups can jeopardize your health: Identifying with un-healthy groups to reduce self-uncertainty. Self and Identity, 10, 326-335.
Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one's social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318. (LINK to the Collective Self-Esteem Scale and other measures.)
Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict and co-operation: The Robbers Cave experiment. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange. (Available online at Psychology Classics website.)
Social Identity Theory (Online Summary)
Tajfel, H., Billig, M.G., Bundy, R.P., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 149-178.
One of the things that makes social psychology "social" is the fact that individuals are members of numerous groups, whether by default (e.g., a member of one's family) or by actively joining (e.g., a trade union or university alumni association). For nearly 40 years (1969-2008), Dick McGlynn was the resident groups researcher on the Texas Tech faculty, before his retirement. Today, Zach Hohman, carries that banner. The followimg song alludes to several aspects of group- and social-identity research and is dedicated to Dick and Zach.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Group Identities
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Bare Necessities,” Terry Gilkyson, popularized in the movie, The Jungle Book)
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
The ways to harsh conflict, are easy to pave,
That’s what Sherif did, with Robbers Cave,
But, groups need not, even be real,
To give opponents, a raw deal,
When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,
And, think of a few,
[Brief interlude]
Your group identities, are important, to you,
They're part of you,
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
For kids unsure, of their identities,
"Cool" groups will attract them, the "cliques" that be,
But, cool groups, may be unhealthy,
Their behaviors, so risky,
When you think of, all the groups you're in,
And how you feel, when they lose and win,
And, think of a few,
[Brief interlude]
They're part of you,
We have our group identities,
Fairly stable entities,
They tell us whom we like, and whom we don’t,
Some groups, we join electively,
And get esteem collectively,
They say whom we’ll befriend, and whom we won’t,
[Improvisations...]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The song alludes to five lines of research (intentionally, at least)...
1. The word "entities" in the first part is a subtle reference to the concept of entitativity, a nearly 50-year-old idea that has been getting a lot of attention from social psychologists in recent years. This vigorous activity can be seen in the list of abstracts for a British conference on “Groups, Politics, and Organizations.” Quoting from the symposium abstract by Lowell Gaertner:
…Donald Campbell (1958) coined the concept of entitativity to convey that social groups vary in the extent to which they are perceived as being an entity or a cohesive whole.
2. The second part refers, a little more explicitly, to research on collective self-esteem. As studied by Luhtanen, Crocker, and colleagues (see References below), individuals can experience high or low esteem as a result of the groups they're in and their evaluations of these groups.
3. The next section cites two classic lines of research. First is the "Robbers Cave" study by Sherif and colleagues, in which the situation was manipulated so that two groups of boy campers formed a rivalry with each other, but then overcame their animosity to cooperate on a task.
4. The other line of research mentioned in that section is Tajfel's "minimal groups paradigm," in which groups are created on arbitrary bases and tested for ingroup favoritism in allocations of rewards. Quoting from Tajfel and colleagues (1971):
…in a situation devoid of the usual trappings of ingroup membership and of all the vagaries of interacting with an outgroup, the [subjects] still act in terms of their ingroup membership and of an intergroup categorization. Their actions are unambiguously directed at favouring the members of their ingroup as against the members of the outgroup (p. 172).
5. Hogg, Siegel, and Hohman (2011) develop a theoretical account of why adolescents engage in so much risky behavior (e.g., substance use). Adolescents uncertain of their identity may be attracted to "cool" cliques (also see Brown, Eicher, & Petrie, 1986), the problem being that such cliques tend to engage in unhealthy behaviors.
Further Reading
Brown, B. B., Eicher, S. A., & Petrie, S. (1986). The importance of peer group (‘‘crowd’’) affiliation in adolescence. Journal of Adolescence, 9, 73–96.
Foer, F. (2004). How soccer explains the world. New York: HarperCollins.
Hogg, M.A. (2006). Social Identity Theory. In P.J. Burke (Ed.), Contemporary social psychological theories (pp. 111-136). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
Hogg, M. A., Siegel, J. T., & Hohman, Z. P. (2011). Groups can jeopardize your health: Identifying with un-healthy groups to reduce self-uncertainty. Self and Identity, 10, 326-335.
Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one's social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318. (LINK to the Collective Self-Esteem Scale and other measures.)
Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961). Intergroup conflict and co-operation: The Robbers Cave experiment. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange. (Available online at Psychology Classics website.)
Social Identity Theory (Online Summary)
Tajfel, H., Billig, M.G., Bundy, R.P., & Flament, C. (1971). Social categorization and intergroup behaviour. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 149-178.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
"Central Route Persuasion"
In the 1980s, Rich Petty and John Cacioppo developed a framework, known as the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), for understanding different types of persuasion processes.
Their key distrinction was between central and peripheral routes to persuasion. The former pertains to logical, rational forms of communication, the arguments of which can stand up to close scrutiny. The latter pertains to factors extraneous to message content, such as the attractiveness of the speaker. The full ELM delineates conditions under which message recipients will or will not attend carefully to persuasive communications and thus, ultimately, what kinds of messages will be successful under what circumstances.
This PowerPoint slide show from Phillip Clampitt at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay describes the ELM in greater detail.
I dedicate this song to Rich Petty, Russ Fazio, and the gang at Ohio State's Group for Attitudes and Persuasion, who've been so friendly to me on my biennial visits to campus.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Route Persuasion
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” James/Vale/Gray)
You study attitudes, in psychology,
There’s the ELM theory, Cacioppo ’n Petty,
Multiple ways to convince, and speakers are ranging,
There’s one approach called, Central route persuasion,
Does the receiver, pay close attention?
Oh, does she have a high, Need for Cognition?
If the answers are “yes,” now, then what you will find,
Is attitude change, of the rational kind,
(Instrumental build-up)
Central route persuasion,
It’s the strength, of argu-men-ta-tion,
Central route persuasion,
To guide, experimentation,
Peripheral cues, are outside message content,
They may sway a listener, who focuses on,
The looks of the speaker, or if the room has a scent,
Not the logical kind, to hit your mind, not…
Central route persuasion,
(Instrumental)
Central route persuasion,
It’s the strength, of argu-men-ta-tion,
Central route persuasion,
To guide, experimentation,
Central route persuasion…
(Fade out)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading
Petty, R.E., & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press.
Petty, R.E., & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer/Verlag.
Petty, R.E., Rucker, D., Bizer, G., & Cacioppo, J.T. (2004). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In J. S. Seiter & G. H. Gass (Eds.), Perspectives on persuasion, social influence and compliance gaining (pp. 65-89). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
[See also Chaiken and Eagly's Heuristic-Systematic Persuasion Model, which has some similarity to the ELM.]
Their key distrinction was between central and peripheral routes to persuasion. The former pertains to logical, rational forms of communication, the arguments of which can stand up to close scrutiny. The latter pertains to factors extraneous to message content, such as the attractiveness of the speaker. The full ELM delineates conditions under which message recipients will or will not attend carefully to persuasive communications and thus, ultimately, what kinds of messages will be successful under what circumstances.
This PowerPoint slide show from Phillip Clampitt at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay describes the ELM in greater detail.
I dedicate this song to Rich Petty, Russ Fazio, and the gang at Ohio State's Group for Attitudes and Persuasion, who've been so friendly to me on my biennial visits to campus.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Route Persuasion
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Crystal Blue Persuasion,” James/Vale/Gray)
You study attitudes, in psychology,
There’s the ELM theory, Cacioppo ’n Petty,
Multiple ways to convince, and speakers are ranging,
There’s one approach called, Central route persuasion,
Does the receiver, pay close attention?
Oh, does she have a high, Need for Cognition?
If the answers are “yes,” now, then what you will find,
Is attitude change, of the rational kind,
(Instrumental build-up)
Central route persuasion,
It’s the strength, of argu-men-ta-tion,
Central route persuasion,
To guide, experimentation,
Peripheral cues, are outside message content,
They may sway a listener, who focuses on,
The looks of the speaker, or if the room has a scent,
Not the logical kind, to hit your mind, not…
Central route persuasion,
(Instrumental)
Central route persuasion,
It’s the strength, of argu-men-ta-tion,
Central route persuasion,
To guide, experimentation,
Central route persuasion…
(Fade out)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading
Petty, R.E., & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). The Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 123-205). New York: Academic Press.
Petty, R.E., & Cacioppo, J.T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer/Verlag.
Petty, R.E., Rucker, D., Bizer, G., & Cacioppo, J.T. (2004). The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion. In J. S. Seiter & G. H. Gass (Eds.), Perspectives on persuasion, social influence and compliance gaining (pp. 65-89). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
[See also Chaiken and Eagly's Heuristic-Systematic Persuasion Model, which has some similarity to the ELM.]
Friday, August 10, 2007
"Excitation" (Theories of Arousal and Emotion)
Today's song integrates two similar, though not identical, theories positing that physiological arousal in the context of situational cues can lead to (or accentuate) individuals' emotional states.
Schachter and Singer's (1962) studies are probably among the best known in social psychology. Aside from those in a control group, participants were given an injection of epinephrine to get them physiologically aroused. Different subgroups of participants were either forewarned of the correct arousal symptoms they would experience (in which case they would have no trouble figuring out why they felt as they did) or not given an accurate warning (either no information or wrong information). The latter two groups would presumably feel aroused, but not know why.
In different versions of the Schachter and Singer study, after the injections and instructions, participants interacted with a confederate (actor hired by the investigators, also known as a "stooge") who role-played a rampage of either anger or euphoria. The hypothesis was that those participants who felt aroused and had no accurate explanation for why they did, would misattribute their arousal to the emotion being exhibited by the confederate and label themselves as experiencing the same emotion as the confederate. Results were largely supportive of the hypothesis.
Zillmann's excitation transfer theory, as noted above, is similar. The most succinct delineation of the differences between the Schachter-Singer and Zillmann conceptualizations, to my mind, comes from Geen (1990):
...Schachter and Singer dealt with arousal that occurs at the same time as some emotionally relevant stimulus which provides the cognition whereby the arousal is labeled. Zillmann (1978) has described a general situation in which two arousing conditions occur in sequence. Autonomic arousal does not dissipate immediately upon termination of eliciting conditions... Given this fact, Zillmann has reasoned that if two arousing events are separated by a short amount of time, some of the arousal caused by the first event may become transferred to the second event and added to the arousal caused by the latter... (pp. 116-117).
Zillmann has used tasks such as having participants ride an exercise bicycle to create arousal. This fact is alluded to in the following song. The rest of the details pertain to the Schachter and Singer studies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excitation
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Good Vibrations,” Wilson/Love for the Beach Boys)
(BEGINS SLOWLY)
Schaaaaaach-ter… and Singer gave ep-i-neph-rine,
While Zillmann had his subjects exercise,
Could the arousal be interpreted,
So the context frames what emotions arise?
(Chorus)
Stooge giving mood manipulation,
Anger condition shows big frustration,
Subjects transferring the excitation,
When given no information,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Parrrrr-adigm (SLOW)… won’t work with true disclosure,
Of effects of the arousing agent,
Key is setting up a contradiction,
With stooge actions, the label’s consistent,
(Chorus)
Stooge giving mood manipulation,
Euphoric shows exhilaration,
Subjects transferring the excitation,
When given misinformation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The various studies by Schachter and Singer, and Zillmann, are obviously pretty elaborate. I hope that my introductory description provides a good starting point for discussion of the studies. In the references below, I suggest further sources for examining the studies.
As a side note, another popular study within the arousal-emotion framework is that by Dutton and Aron (1974; summarized here), in which males' attraction to a female confederate was tested either after a male had crossed a high, shaky, scary bridge or a low, solid bridge. Even though a misattribution mechanism is sometimes invoked to account for the findings, an article by Allen and colleagues (1989) appears to put such an explanation of the bridge study in "troubled waters."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading
Allen, J., Kenrick, D.T., Linder, D.E., & McCall, M. (1989). Arousal and attraction: A response facilitation alternative to misattribution and negative reinforcement models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 261-270.
Dutton, D.G. and Aron, A.P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 510-517
Geen, R.G. (1990). Human aggression. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
Reisenzein, R. (1983). The Schachter theory of emotion: Two decades later. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 239-264.
Schachter, S. (1964). The interaction of cognitive and physiological determinants of emotional state (pp. 49-79). In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. New York: Academic Press.
Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review, 69, 379-399.
Zillmann, D. (1971). Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 419-434.
Zillmann, D. (1978). Attribution and misattribution of excitatory reactions. In J.H. Harvey, W.J. Ickes, & R.F. Kidd (Eds.), New directions in attribution research (Vol. 2, pp. 335-368). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zillmann, D. (1983). Transfer of excitation in emotional behavior (pp. 215-240). In J.T. Cacioppo & R.E. Petty (Eds.), Social psychophysiology: A sourcebook. Hillsdale, NJ: Guilford.
Schachter and Singer's (1962) studies are probably among the best known in social psychology. Aside from those in a control group, participants were given an injection of epinephrine to get them physiologically aroused. Different subgroups of participants were either forewarned of the correct arousal symptoms they would experience (in which case they would have no trouble figuring out why they felt as they did) or not given an accurate warning (either no information or wrong information). The latter two groups would presumably feel aroused, but not know why.
In different versions of the Schachter and Singer study, after the injections and instructions, participants interacted with a confederate (actor hired by the investigators, also known as a "stooge") who role-played a rampage of either anger or euphoria. The hypothesis was that those participants who felt aroused and had no accurate explanation for why they did, would misattribute their arousal to the emotion being exhibited by the confederate and label themselves as experiencing the same emotion as the confederate. Results were largely supportive of the hypothesis.
Zillmann's excitation transfer theory, as noted above, is similar. The most succinct delineation of the differences between the Schachter-Singer and Zillmann conceptualizations, to my mind, comes from Geen (1990):
...Schachter and Singer dealt with arousal that occurs at the same time as some emotionally relevant stimulus which provides the cognition whereby the arousal is labeled. Zillmann (1978) has described a general situation in which two arousing conditions occur in sequence. Autonomic arousal does not dissipate immediately upon termination of eliciting conditions... Given this fact, Zillmann has reasoned that if two arousing events are separated by a short amount of time, some of the arousal caused by the first event may become transferred to the second event and added to the arousal caused by the latter... (pp. 116-117).
Zillmann has used tasks such as having participants ride an exercise bicycle to create arousal. This fact is alluded to in the following song. The rest of the details pertain to the Schachter and Singer studies.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Excitation
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Good Vibrations,” Wilson/Love for the Beach Boys)
(BEGINS SLOWLY)
Schaaaaaach-ter… and Singer gave ep-i-neph-rine,
While Zillmann had his subjects exercise,
Could the arousal be interpreted,
So the context frames what emotions arise?
(Chorus)
Stooge giving mood manipulation,
Anger condition shows big frustration,
Subjects transferring the excitation,
When given no information,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Parrrrr-adigm (SLOW)… won’t work with true disclosure,
Of effects of the arousing agent,
Key is setting up a contradiction,
With stooge actions, the label’s consistent,
(Chorus)
Stooge giving mood manipulation,
Euphoric shows exhilaration,
Subjects transferring the excitation,
When given misinformation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation,
Ex- Ex- Ex- Excitation...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The various studies by Schachter and Singer, and Zillmann, are obviously pretty elaborate. I hope that my introductory description provides a good starting point for discussion of the studies. In the references below, I suggest further sources for examining the studies.
As a side note, another popular study within the arousal-emotion framework is that by Dutton and Aron (1974; summarized here), in which males' attraction to a female confederate was tested either after a male had crossed a high, shaky, scary bridge or a low, solid bridge. Even though a misattribution mechanism is sometimes invoked to account for the findings, an article by Allen and colleagues (1989) appears to put such an explanation of the bridge study in "troubled waters."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Further Reading
Allen, J., Kenrick, D.T., Linder, D.E., & McCall, M. (1989). Arousal and attraction: A response facilitation alternative to misattribution and negative reinforcement models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 261-270.
Dutton, D.G. and Aron, A.P. (1974). Some evidence for heightened sexual attraction under conditions of high anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30, 510-517
Geen, R.G. (1990). Human aggression. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press.
Reisenzein, R. (1983). The Schachter theory of emotion: Two decades later. Psychological Bulletin, 94, 239-264.
Schachter, S. (1964). The interaction of cognitive and physiological determinants of emotional state (pp. 49-79). In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. New York: Academic Press.
Schachter, S., & Singer, J. (1962). Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. Psychological Review, 69, 379-399.
Zillmann, D. (1971). Excitation transfer in communication-mediated aggressive behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 7, 419-434.
Zillmann, D. (1978). Attribution and misattribution of excitatory reactions. In J.H. Harvey, W.J. Ickes, & R.F. Kidd (Eds.), New directions in attribution research (Vol. 2, pp. 335-368). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zillmann, D. (1983). Transfer of excitation in emotional behavior (pp. 215-240). In J.T. Cacioppo & R.E. Petty (Eds.), Social psychophysiology: A sourcebook. Hillsdale, NJ: Guilford.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Songs by Joseph McGrath on Group Dynamics
I recently discovered via Don Forsyth's Group Dynamics website that the late Joseph McGrath had written lyrics for roughly a dozen songs pertaining to the study of groups. These include "The Good Old Paradigm" (to "In the Good Old Summertime") and "Adaptive Structuration" (to "Surry with a Fringe on Top"). I am pleased to be able to bring a little more attention to this aspect of McGrath's career, but am sorry I did not learn about this earlier.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
"Feeling Good" (Affective Forecasting)
Most of the lyrics I've written thus far, for the previous songs posted below and for several that have not yet been posted, pertain to programs of research that go back 40 years or more. I definitely want to incorporate some contemporary topics, and I will do so with the present posting.
Today's lyrics attempt to tell the story of "affective forecasting," a line of research developed by Daniel Gilbert of Harvard and Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia. They have demonstrated that people don't seem to be as good as might be expected, at predicting how some event (e.g., a win or loss by a favorite sports team or political candidate) will make them feel over time.
Gilbert and Wilson's general paradigm is to ask participants how they expect they would feel after a positive or negative outcome to some event. Then, perhaps a few weeks later, after the outcome of the event is known, participants are re-contacted and asked how happy or sad they are. Their actual emotional responses to the event can then be compared to how they predicted they would react under those circumstances.
Events that we think will devastate us don't necessarily do so, nor do we tend to feel as ecstatic as we might have expected, after the occurrence of something good. In this interview about his book Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert gives some background on affective forecasting.
Maestro...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feeling Good
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “I’m Into Something Good,” Goffin/King, popularized by Herman’s Hermits)
(Back-up vocals in parentheses)
You think we’d know, what makes us happy,
But Gilbert and Wilson say, we can’t see,
What our emotions will be, out in futurehood,
(What our emotions will be in futurehood)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
Events you think, will make you feel fine,
May end up just being a waste of time,
’Cause we don’t imagine details, as much as we could,
(We don’t imagine details, as much as we could)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
(Bridge)
Oh, Dan and Tim, and their scholarly crew,
Did their studies, and published a slew,
But Gilbert's book, with its style and wit,
Brought the research, to a mass public,
Brought it to a mass public,
Think you can predict, to that you’ll vow,
But forecasts are colored by what’s happenin’ now,
We can’t see the future as well, as you think we should,
(…can’t see the future as well as we should)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
(Fade out)
[Lyrics revised on December 4, 2007]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The lyrics should be, for the most part, pretty straightforward. Some of the specific points allude to mechanisms discussed by Gilbert in his book, for how our predictions of future emotional states can go awry.
Gilbert notes, for example, that when we look at a distant object such as a building or mountain, we cannot see the fine details and we know we can't. Our imagination of a temporally distant event similarly lacks fine detail, but in this context, we aren't aware of the deficiency of our perception. We thus imagine the parts of our upcoming vacation in which we are eating in restaurants and engaging in recreational pursuits that we expect to give us pleasure. What we don't mentally rehearse are the missed flight connections, delays in getting our luggage, etc.
The other mechanism cited in the song is what Gilbert calls "presentism," or the power of the present situation to sway our impressions of the future. He gives the example of overeating at Thanksgiving and, thinking his discomfort will persist forever, vows to never eat again.
Further Reading
Gilbert, D.T. (2006). Stumbling on happiness. New York: Knopf.
Gilbert, D.T., Gill, M.J., & WIlson, T.D. (2002). The future is now: Temporal correction in affective forecasting. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 88, 430-444.
Gilbert, D.T., Lieberman, M.D., Morewedge, C.K., & Wilson, T.D. (2004). The peculiar longevity of things not so bad. Psychological Science, 15, 14-19.
Gilbert, D.T., Morewedge, C.K., Risen, J.L., & Wilson, T.D. (2004). Looking forward to looking backward: The misprediction of regret. Psychological Science, 15, 346-350.
Gilbert, D.T., Pinel, E.C., Wilson, T.D., Blumberg, S.J., & Wheatley, T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617-638.
Wilson, T.D., Centerbar, D.B., Kermer, D.A., & Gilbert, D.T. (2005). The pleasures of uncertainty: Prolonging positive moods in ways people do not anticipate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 5-21.
Today's lyrics attempt to tell the story of "affective forecasting," a line of research developed by Daniel Gilbert of Harvard and Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia. They have demonstrated that people don't seem to be as good as might be expected, at predicting how some event (e.g., a win or loss by a favorite sports team or political candidate) will make them feel over time.
Gilbert and Wilson's general paradigm is to ask participants how they expect they would feel after a positive or negative outcome to some event. Then, perhaps a few weeks later, after the outcome of the event is known, participants are re-contacted and asked how happy or sad they are. Their actual emotional responses to the event can then be compared to how they predicted they would react under those circumstances.
Events that we think will devastate us don't necessarily do so, nor do we tend to feel as ecstatic as we might have expected, after the occurrence of something good. In this interview about his book Stumbling on Happiness, Gilbert gives some background on affective forecasting.
Maestro...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Feeling Good
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “I’m Into Something Good,” Goffin/King, popularized by Herman’s Hermits)
(Back-up vocals in parentheses)
You think we’d know, what makes us happy,
But Gilbert and Wilson say, we can’t see,
What our emotions will be, out in futurehood,
(What our emotions will be in futurehood)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
Events you think, will make you feel fine,
May end up just being a waste of time,
’Cause we don’t imagine details, as much as we could,
(We don’t imagine details, as much as we could)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
(Bridge)
Oh, Dan and Tim, and their scholarly crew,
Did their studies, and published a slew,
But Gilbert's book, with its style and wit,
Brought the research, to a mass public,
Brought it to a mass public,
Think you can predict, to that you’ll vow,
But forecasts are colored by what’s happenin’ now,
We can’t see the future as well, as you think we should,
(…can’t see the future as well as we should)
Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?
(Can we foresee when we’ll be feeling good?)
(Fade out)
[Lyrics revised on December 4, 2007]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The lyrics should be, for the most part, pretty straightforward. Some of the specific points allude to mechanisms discussed by Gilbert in his book, for how our predictions of future emotional states can go awry.
Gilbert notes, for example, that when we look at a distant object such as a building or mountain, we cannot see the fine details and we know we can't. Our imagination of a temporally distant event similarly lacks fine detail, but in this context, we aren't aware of the deficiency of our perception. We thus imagine the parts of our upcoming vacation in which we are eating in restaurants and engaging in recreational pursuits that we expect to give us pleasure. What we don't mentally rehearse are the missed flight connections, delays in getting our luggage, etc.
The other mechanism cited in the song is what Gilbert calls "presentism," or the power of the present situation to sway our impressions of the future. He gives the example of overeating at Thanksgiving and, thinking his discomfort will persist forever, vows to never eat again.
Further Reading
Gilbert, D.T. (2006). Stumbling on happiness. New York: Knopf.
Gilbert, D.T., Gill, M.J., & WIlson, T.D. (2002). The future is now: Temporal correction in affective forecasting. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 88, 430-444.
Gilbert, D.T., Lieberman, M.D., Morewedge, C.K., & Wilson, T.D. (2004). The peculiar longevity of things not so bad. Psychological Science, 15, 14-19.
Gilbert, D.T., Morewedge, C.K., Risen, J.L., & Wilson, T.D. (2004). Looking forward to looking backward: The misprediction of regret. Psychological Science, 15, 346-350.
Gilbert, D.T., Pinel, E.C., Wilson, T.D., Blumberg, S.J., & Wheatley, T. (1998). Immune neglect: A source of durability bias in affective forecasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 617-638.
Wilson, T.D., Centerbar, D.B., Kermer, D.A., & Gilbert, D.T. (2005). The pleasures of uncertainty: Prolonging positive moods in ways people do not anticipate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 5-21.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
"Stanley" (A Tribute to Milgram)
Few, if any, social psychologists are better known -- by his studies, if not by his name -- than Stanley Milgram (1933-1984).
What's so interesting is that he is best known in one discipline for one line of research (the obedience studies, within social psychology), whereas his fame in another discipline derives from an entirely different line of research (the small-world/six-degrees-of-separation study, within social-network research). Both of these lines of research have inspired dramatic portrayals, such as movies and plays, and they continue to be analyzed and debated today.
Milgram conducted a number of other clever, off-beat studies that never failed to offer some type of insight into human nature in our social world. One of my favorites, to which one of the verses in the song alludes, is his study of gawking up at tall buildings. The more confederates Milgram and his colleagues stationed at the building and had stare up at the top, the more likely passersby were to start looking up, too (see Item 4 in the following lecture outline).
Milgram also has a website devoted to his work, and now he has a song!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanley (A Tribute to Milgram)
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Dandy,” Ray Davies, popularized by The Kinks and Herman’s Hermits)
Stanley, Stanley,
You were so creative,
Oh so innovative,
In the lab and out,
Your studies, without doubt,
Never ceased to surprise,
Oh, they were done by,
Stanley, Stanley,
How people follow orders,
Crossing humane borders,
You did investigate,
A storm did you create,
What we learned did amaze,
And this was done by,
Stanley, Stanley,
Wrote scientific papers,
From gawking at skyscrapers,
Who’d have thought to ascertain,
’Bout something so mundane?
Studies out in the world,
Oh, they were done by,
Stanley, Stanley, Stanley…
(Bridge)
Stanley, your legacy will always last,
The studies, you know their time is never past,
Today we, reflect on, your quirky ideas,
And wonder what else would,
Have come from your creative mind,
The field wants to know,
Will there be any more of your kind?
Stanley, Stanley,
How to forward a letter,
Became a real trend-setter,
Transmission showed such ease,
We talk of six degrees,
’Round the globe or down the hall,
The world is so small,
Stanley, Stanley, Stanley…
Your work we’ll always cite,
We will cite,
We will cite…
(Fade out)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The above song should be pretty straightforward. Each of three lines of research discussed in my introduction is the subject of one of the verses, whereas the other sections offer more general impressions.
Further Reading
Many sources are listed in the References section of the Wikipedia page on Milgram and on this special page created by Milgram biographer Thomas Blass. Also see...
Milgram, S., Bickman, L., & Berkowitz, L. (1969). Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 79-82.
(Note: A friend of mine, Francine Rosselli, used to have her classes conduct replication studies of the gawking-at-buildings study. The most recent e-mail address I can find for her, if anyone wants further information, is: frosselli-navarra@mcc.commnet.edu .)
Watts, D.J. (2003). Six degrees: The science of a connected age. New York: Norton.
What's so interesting is that he is best known in one discipline for one line of research (the obedience studies, within social psychology), whereas his fame in another discipline derives from an entirely different line of research (the small-world/six-degrees-of-separation study, within social-network research). Both of these lines of research have inspired dramatic portrayals, such as movies and plays, and they continue to be analyzed and debated today.
Milgram conducted a number of other clever, off-beat studies that never failed to offer some type of insight into human nature in our social world. One of my favorites, to which one of the verses in the song alludes, is his study of gawking up at tall buildings. The more confederates Milgram and his colleagues stationed at the building and had stare up at the top, the more likely passersby were to start looking up, too (see Item 4 in the following lecture outline).
Milgram also has a website devoted to his work, and now he has a song!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stanley (A Tribute to Milgram)
Lyrics by Alan Reifman
(May be sung to the tune of “Dandy,” Ray Davies, popularized by The Kinks and Herman’s Hermits)
Stanley, Stanley,
You were so creative,
Oh so innovative,
In the lab and out,
Your studies, without doubt,
Never ceased to surprise,
Oh, they were done by,
Stanley, Stanley,
How people follow orders,
Crossing humane borders,
You did investigate,
A storm did you create,
What we learned did amaze,
And this was done by,
Stanley, Stanley,
Wrote scientific papers,
From gawking at skyscrapers,
Who’d have thought to ascertain,
’Bout something so mundane?
Studies out in the world,
Oh, they were done by,
Stanley, Stanley, Stanley…
(Bridge)
Stanley, your legacy will always last,
The studies, you know their time is never past,
Today we, reflect on, your quirky ideas,
And wonder what else would,
Have come from your creative mind,
The field wants to know,
Will there be any more of your kind?
Stanley, Stanley,
How to forward a letter,
Became a real trend-setter,
Transmission showed such ease,
We talk of six degrees,
’Round the globe or down the hall,
The world is so small,
Stanley, Stanley, Stanley…
Your work we’ll always cite,
We will cite,
We will cite…
(Fade out)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Background/Explanation
The above song should be pretty straightforward. Each of three lines of research discussed in my introduction is the subject of one of the verses, whereas the other sections offer more general impressions.
Further Reading
Many sources are listed in the References section of the Wikipedia page on Milgram and on this special page created by Milgram biographer Thomas Blass. Also see...
Milgram, S., Bickman, L., & Berkowitz, L. (1969). Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 79-82.
(Note: A friend of mine, Francine Rosselli, used to have her classes conduct replication studies of the gawking-at-buildings study. The most recent e-mail address I can find for her, if anyone wants further information, is: frosselli-navarra@mcc.commnet.edu .)
Watts, D.J. (2003). Six degrees: The science of a connected age. New York: Norton.
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