T.C.
ANKARA BİLİM ÜNİVERSİTESİ
SOCİAL PRESSURE: BEHAVİOUR AND ATTİTUDES
İlayda KARASEKİ 200302021
Instructor Name Dr. Tuğba GÖRGÜLÜ
March, 2022 Ankara
İNTRODUCTİON
One of the most important topics of social psychology is social influence, some authors;
They argue that social psychology is almost synonymous with the concept of social influence.
(Levy, Collins & Nail, 1998; Vaughan & Hogg, 2005). Social psychology is expressed as the study of how an individual is affected by the presence of others. (Allport, 1924) This
definition leads to ignoring indirect and group-level phenomena, creating an individual concept of social psychology and social influence. (Ng, 2001) For this reason, it has been underlined that all interpersonal behaviors involve mutual interaction processes and can be functional due to the sharing of forms of social influence. (Forgas & Williams,2001) Most of the psychological research is contrary to this view; focused on narrower phenomena within the framework of the concept of social impact, and nevertheless; Social psychology textbooks typically discuss conformity and obedience studies under the social influence section. (Fischer
& Vauclair, 2011)
Phillip Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment
One of these studies, Phillip Zimbardo's Prison Experiment, is a random assignment of a group of psychologically healthy, normal students to the roles of "guard" and "prisoner" in conditions similar to the prison environment; It was carried out to show the power of roles, rules and expectations that an experimenter and authority can behave in pathological ways if not exposed to external pressure. University students assigned to the experiment as mock prisoners; have experienced emotional breakdowns, irrational thoughts, and behaved self- destructively. The majority of the participants in the experiment did not act as the researchers envisioned, and the experiment took a dramatic and painful form; The planned two-week experience had to be interrupted after six days. (Le Texier,2019)
Evaluation: “A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison”
At the beginning of the article titled “A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison”, before the authors evaluate and explain the details of the Philip Zimbardo
experiment; They expressed the sad state of the penal system and its inhumane repercussions on prisoners and guards in a general definition called the “dispositional hypothesis”. The state of the prison institution; It has been claimed that it stems from the nature of the people who rule it and the people living there, and the situation that causes inhumane behavior towards
concluded that prisoners, who are assumed to be unable to function satisfactorily in the
"normal" structure of society, cannot do so in prison conditions. However, it has been argued that the “disapositional hypothesis” cannot be directly critically evaluated through observation in prison conditions, due to the fact that natural observations confuse the sensitive effects of the environment with the chronic characteristics of prisoners and guards. In the continuation, in order not to confuse prison conditions with effects arising from a priori, dispositions a comparable proposal is presented in the basic social-psychological environment with existing prison systems.
Uniforms
In another part of the article, it was stated that the subjects were given uniforms in order to instill a sense of "anonymity". Such hardware in the experiment developed the "group identity"; on the other hand, it has been instrumental in reducing the “individual uniqueness”
between prisoners and guards.
Results Overview
Emphasizing that the deep psychological effects make the results more important; They suggested that it is necessary to show the conscious limits of the roles shaped by the
“stereotypes” and “prejudices” of the existing participants in the experiment, and their awareness of artificiality and limited prison time.
Pathology of Power
By researchers to examine the uses of force by guards and their effects in shaping the mentality of prisoners; It has been underlined that the illusion of imprisonment is important for us to better analyze its reality. Firstly; After the first day of the experiment, the guards began to redefine almost all prisoners' rights as "privileges".The “reward” later became the approval of prisoners for their basic needs. It was emphasized that subjects in such
deprivation conditions tended towards the conceptual nature of “positive reinforcement”. As a model for the change of behavior; Attention was drawn to alternatives in prisons where there was no element of violence. Another compelling statement by the researchers is that everyone in the world has learned to ignore the lack of power in each other and in themselves.
According to the researchers; Prisoners learn to appreciate power for its "own good," so power becomes the ultimate reward. In addition, researchers; when the prisoners are released
from prison, they do not want to feel as weak as in their prison experiences; They envisaged that they could act in order to create a sense of power.
The Pathological Prisoner Syndrome
Subjected to loss of personal identity and arbitrary control of their lives, prisoners initially believed in the invasion of their private life, in an atmosphere of constant surveillance and oppression. Subsequently, divisive strategies were applied, encouraging distrust among prisoners and using direct force; As a result, the prisoners turned to rebellion. Although they try to work within the system by establishing a selected complaint system; this collective action has given rise to individual interests and social disintegration.
The processes that cause all these reactions are listed in the article as follows:
Loss of Personal İdentity: Identity has been expressed to many people as the social
recognition of one's uniqueness. of the individual; It has been suggested that a situation where his name or background is not known and he is mentioned only by number, as in the
experiment, causes a weakening of self-identity among the prisoners.
Arbitrary Control: With the arbitrary controls of the guards, the experimental environment has become unpredictable; learned assumptions about a "just and orderly world" have ceased to function; as a result, the prisoners displayed an “obedient” attitude. This situation, by the researchers; It has been defined as the functional equivalent of the learned helplessness phenomenon reported by Seligman and Grove. (Seligman & Grove, 1970)
Dependency and Emasculation: Including the daily and mundane functions of prisoners;
Many activities such as reading novels and smoking have been defined as privileged activities that require permission and good behavior beforehand. These low-level dependencies have a regressive orientation in prisoners; It was stated that the format of the prisoner uniforms caused them to be called “ladies” and “girls”.” The individual sign of rebellion has been labeled as an indicator of "incorrigibility" and has resulted in various punishments.
The “Stanford Prison Experiment”, which can be summarized as a struggle between good and evil, stated that prisons humiliated human nature as a means of social control. The things that happen; instead of focusing on concepts such as individual behavior, attitude and will power; Underlining that it is under the control of social forces and environmental possibilities, it is desired to expand the unexplored field of social psychology for this purpose. An attempt has been made to minimize the role of personality and disposition variables, thereby serving various psychological understandings of the nature of social and institutional control.
Considering that psychology can be directed to national problems such as crime and justice, and that this discipline can guide the social and legal changes needed, it is aimed to provide a paradigm and knowledge base for further studies. (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). Researchers, prisoners and guards are in a dynamic and complementary relationship that harms human nature; They also described the guards as prisoners of society. (Haney & Zimbardo,2004) Emphasizing the importance of resisting situational influences, Zimbardo, in other words; the real heroes are not the ones with superpowers; He wanted to underline that there are ordinary people who can struggle with situational effects.
REFERENCES
Allport, G. W. (1924). Social Psychology. Boston, MA: Houghton-Mifflin.
Fischer, R., & Vauclair, C. M. (2011). Social İnfluence and Power. A Psicologia Social Brasileira: Principais Temas e Vertentes, January 2015, 1-35.
Forgas, J. P., & Williams, K. D. (Eds.). (2001). Social influence: Direct and İndirect
Processes. The Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology. New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
Haney, C., Banks, C., & Zimbardo, P. (2001). A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison. Organizational studies: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, 1663-1679.
Haney, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1998). The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-five Years After The Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 53(7), 709–727.
Levy, D. A., Collins, B. E., & Nail, P. R. (1998). A New Model of İnterpersonal İnfluence Characteristics. Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, 13(4), 715.
Le Texier, T. (2019). Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 74(7), 823–839.
Ng, S. H. (2001). Influencing through the power of language. In J. P. Forgas & K. D.
Williams (Eds.), Social influence: Direct and İndirect Processes. The Sydney Symposium of Social Psychology (pp. 185-197). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
Seugman, M. E., & Groves, D. P. (1970). Nontransient Learned Helplessness. Psychonomic Science, 19(3), 191-192.
Vaughan, G. M., & Hogg, H. A. (2005). Introduction to Social Psychology (4th ed.). French Forest NSW, Australia: Pearson Education.
