(Maybe I have missed something, but I am surprised that this has not come up on the list before this.)
What follows is an email message I just sent to all of my classes. They have just finished up the classes, and I am working on the grading. I have weekly chat sessions, but since the classes have completed the Finals, we do not have any more chats. What a natural topic for dealing with in the chat sessions, but it came a week too late!! In any case, I spent more time on this than I probably should have. If you find anything of value to pass on to your classes, feel free. **************************** Good People Gone Bad? True, there are other things I should be working on right now (assignments, grades, etc.), but this is just too good an educational opportunity to pass up. By now, you have almost certainly heard, read or seen the news out of Iraq about the abuse of prisoners by US and British guards. With all of the reporting of the events, I would like to think that someone in the media would have the presence of mind to point out that while people may be shocked at the behavior of the guards, we should not be surprised. I would like to think it, but .... (Admittedly, I have not looked at all of the news reporting services, but none that I have seen have made any mention at all of this.) If I were in charge of a news show or the editor of a newspaper, the first thing I would have done (after checking the facts, of course) would have been to dispatch a reporter to look over some of the research material that any educated person should be aware of. Some 23 years ago social psychologist Professor Phil Zimbardo (no, not the Dr. Phil who precedes Oprah) conducted an experiment that showed why we should not be surprised at the behavior of the guards in Iraq (but, don't think for a moment that this sort of thing is not happening in jails and prisons all across America today � we just do not usually hear about it.). If I were in charge of the news organization, I would have already been interviewing Zimbardo and providing links to his Web site so that my readers/listeners/viewers could see for themselves what psychologists have known for all these years (forty-two years, if you count the work done by Milgram, and fifty-four years if you go back to the work by Adorno on "The Authoritarian Personality"). If you want to learn more, you can visit some of these sites. This will NOT be on the next exam. Zimbardo's home page http://www.zimbardo.com/zimbardo.html The "Prison Experiment" site http://www.prisonexp.org/ A Situationist Perspective on the Psychology of Evil: Understanding How Good People Are Transformed into Perpetrators (2003) http://www.zimbardo.com/downloads/2003%20Evil%20Chapter.pdf You might want to take a look at some of the Milgram sites listed on my Famous Figures in Psychology page. http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols/famous.html For an even earlier investigation into the broader area of obedience to authority you might even want to take a look at some of these pages: Online, interactive F Scale from Adorno's work http://www.anesi.com/fscale.htm Characteristics of the Authoritarian Personality http://www.gossamer-wings.com/soc/Notes/race/tsld007.htm Adorno & Milgram http://www.roadtopeace.org/printer_friendly/authoritarian_print.htm Milgram http://www.stanleymilgram.com/milgram.html Now that I have acted on this impulse, I can get back to working on those pesky assignments, grades, etc. -- ----------==========>>>>>>>>>> ��� <<<<<<<<<<==========---------- Sometimes you just have to try something, and see what happens. John W. Nichols, M.A. Assistant Professor of Psychology Tulsa Community College 909 S. Boston Ave., Tulsa, OK 74119 (918) 595-7134 Home: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols MegaPsych: http://www.tulsa.oklahoma.net/~jnichols/megapsych.html --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
