Human vulnerability to Social Pressure (response to Bec)

Firstly: I would like to say quickly that I realise its only the end of the first week of uni and I might have jumped the gun a bit here as many people may not see this because they won’t check till later in the semester. If so I may bring these posts back later on to reopen discussion, but if we can get the discussion going now well all the better! :)

Secondly: I have started this as a new post because I think the topic is broad enough to warrant it. I also commented on the other post, which I would like to keep as more specifically about the Blue Eye Brown Eye Experiment.

So this is in response to Bec’s comment on damaging the children: :)

I agree Bec,
It’s a terrible thing to see people change their behaviour so readily and dramatically.

I had a similar thought in the learning class taught by Simon Hawkins. It occurred to me, when we were doing operant conditioning and classical conditioning experiments, that people are fundamentally very easy to manipulate and will in certain circumstances do thing that may seem vulgar to them at other times. It raises for me a whole bunch of questions about moral and ethical behaviour.

As you pointed out Jane acknowledges that it is easy to “damage” a child, meaning in this case “damage” a child’s behaviour and moral senses, through nothing more than social pressure. It demonstrates that mores or taboos are things that grow and build themselves and all it takes is one person in authority to start it off.

Interesting and relevant social psych stuff. Comments anyone?

I would also like to ask the question “what are the practical effects of this vulnerability that humans seems to have to social pressure”. I ask this in both the reactive and proactive way.

Should we simply study the phenomenon and be aware of it, to better equip society against misuse of this vulnerability? Surely knowing the problem will aid an individual in facing potential manipulation; OR

Should government through education be proactive in using this vulnerability to “manipulate” individuals into a more universally acceptable moral spectrum? Obviously if a child can be taught to discriminate, they can be taught not to using the same method. What moral issues does this raise in itself?

Metaphysical question I know, but with serious practical effects when placed in the context of the Murdoch dominate media or Government approved curriculum etc.

Let the discussion begin!
-*-WP-*-

Jane Elliott's Blue Eye Brown Eye Experiment

Howsit everybody,
I found the Blue Eye Brown Eye Experiment on youtube and have linked it here. You can now watch it by simply clicking on the clips to the left. Unfortunately they are not in order from top to bottom, but the top one is number one and there is only one other episode (number 5) not listed here, but you can find it easily here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXcO0Ah64rM

First time I watched this program was in year 11 at Canberra College in sociology and found it as interesting and disturbing then as I do now. Whether or not you agree with her method she certainly makes stark some thought-provoking issues and demonstrates quiet disturbingly the influence that the social setting or situation can have on cognition.

Enjoy,-*-WP-*-

Lets get going, all for the credit yeah!

Good morning/afternoon/whatever everyone,
Perhaps it is just me but this whole thing is new to me and somewhat frustrating, but at the same time interesting. At first it seems to be coercion into structured social interaction that some people might just not want to engage in for personal reasons (But you can see the advantage to the Psych Society for example). Putting aside the obvious anonymity of the internet and the confidence that tends to give people, shyness or reservation of comment should in my view not have a 25% impact in our academic pursuit. As morally ambiguous as this may be I do appreciate the usefulness of encouraging a "learning space", as it was put in the first lecture, that demonstrates and forces students into social observation/interaction. If we are studying the premises that all human behaviour can be seen in a social context then creating one obviously helps.

Another point would be – how does encouraging students to view each others drafts of essays and exchanging ideas sit with the universities plagiarism policy? Especially for the first Blog in which we are all drawing from the same pool of questions. I found it interesting the comment about referencing each other’s Blogs! What a concept. Worth discussion? Perhaps. And here we are in the perfect "space" to do so.

That all being said, I say hip hip hooray to anything that allows me to criticise the unit and get credit for it, in such a simple and direct way. So bring on the posts, bring on the discussion. I intend to have my Social Psychology say. ;) Student driven education... what an interesting thought I guess we’ll see if it works.

TTFN
-*-WP-*-

P.S. I am assuming that this is what we are supposed to use this space for, at least until we get into full essay mode and I am planning to raise questions about some general psychology issues I would love to hear other students opinions on. Cheers,
WP.

Opening Test Post

OK so here we go, just trying to get some words down and workout if this is working. We'll see I guess. A post coming soon about how weird I think this whole coercion into the cyber world through 25% of our assessment is... but for now, testing… testing one… two ;).