I have used the prison study this past week in my intro class and have found it to be very effective for a number of reasons, including (not listed in order of importance):
1. It sparks the interest of my students and engages them in the course. 2. It introduces them to a study that is part of psychology history. 3. It is a way of connecting course material with current events, thus showing the relevancy of psychology. 4. It helps them to practice their critical thinking skills by analyzing the study. 5. It helps them to understand what makes an experiment an experiment. 6. It gives them a chance to better understand the scientific method when I ask them how they could design a more well-controlled experiment. 7. It gives them a chance to understand research ethics and professionalism when we take their newly-designed experiment and discuss whether or not they should be able to conduct their experiment today. I also love discussing the intercessory prayer articles in class. Discussing bad science is a great way to help students learn good science. The prayer studies offer so many good opportunities for helping students differentiate science from pseudoscience and learn critical thinking skills. ______________________________________________ Roderick D. Hetzel, Ph.D. Department of Psychology LeTourneau University Post Office Box 7001 2100 South Mobberly Avenue Longview, Texas 75607-7001 Office: Education Center 218 Phone: 903-233-3893 Fax: 903-233-3851 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.letu.edu/people/rodhetzel -----Original Message----- From: Ken Steele [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 11:21 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences Subject: Stanford Prison Exp -- A Teacher's "Teaching Moment" The results of the "Stanford Prison Experiment" are being widely applied as an explanation of the events at Abu Graihb. Frankly, I see the basis of this application as only a superficial extension of the standard "power of the situation" argument. Otherwise there are many differences between the two cases. I am not, and have never been, impressed with the Stanford Prison Experiment *as an experiment.* The continued citation of this work seems to violate everything that we try to teach students in research methods classes. The procedure seems replete with the opportunity for subjects to pick up role-playing cues from the experimenters. The dependent measures are very loose and subject to selective attention by the experimenters. There has been no systematic replication and extension of the work by independent researchers. What is the theoretical and practical legacy of this work beyond a "power of the situation" demonstration? Sure there is a great video and lots of attention-capturing anecdotes for sleepy undergrads. But aren't we trying to teach our students to be wary of basing conclusions using this type of information? I invite psychology instructors to skip the textbook descriptions, to read the original article and decide whether its fame is due to good titillation or to good science. Here is a link to the original article in pdf format: http://www.prisonexp.org/pdf/ijcp1973.pdf Ken --------------------------------------------------------------- Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] Professor Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu Appalachian State University Boone, NC 28608 USA --------------------------------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
