An excellent summary on some of these issues was the Court TV segment called
"The Human Behavior Experiments."  I'll be showing it to my class, although
I decided to eliminate the McDonald's scandal, where workers interrogated
employees because they were "told" to by what turned out to be a sick
person.  The "interrogations" included sexual acts, and I just decided it
was probably not a great thing to be showing in my classroom - just a bit
TMI, as the kids say (too much information).  I will verbally describe it,
but without the rather titillating detail.  One down side to the show is
that they have a rather histrionic walkthrough of the Kitty Genovese murder,
complete with the story of the 38 bystanders who "did nothing," so I'll
remind the students again of the inaccuracy of that part.  They do have Phil
Zimbardo talking about the prison experiment, and showing clips I'd not seen
before.  He compares it to Abu Ghraib.  There's also a segment about the
fraternity brothers who hazed a young man, and he died while they did not
call for help.  Milgram's experiment is shown briefly, with interviews with
Milgram I'd not seen before either.

Beth Benoit
Plymouth State University
Granite State College
New Hampshire

-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 10:11 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: Re: [tips] Article on Kitty Genovese in American Psychologist

Thanks Michael. I've been teaching this story with a lot of hedging thrown
in for several years. I can't remember when or how it was first brought to
my attention but I'd bet it was on tips. 

However, let me also state that I am very careful not to toss the baby out
with the bathwater--I go to great pains to make sure that my students, not a
one of whom has ever heard of the Kitty Genovese case and really could care
less--that the subsequent work by Latane and Darling is quite good and has
demonstrated an important social psychological principle. Replications are a
dime a dozen and very robust.

Annette

 
Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
619-260-4006
[EMAIL PROTECTED]


---- Original message ----
>Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 07:04:37 -0500
>From: "Britt, Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  
>Subject: [tips] Article on Kitty Genovese in American Psychologist  
>To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)"
<[email protected]>
>
>   I just wanted to thank those on the list -
>   especially to Annette Taylor and Blaine Peden - who
>   alerted us to the article in the September issue of
>   American Psychologist which reported not just the
>   facts behind the Kitty Genovese case, but also the
>   implications of this study on the research (or lack
>   thereof) on the influence of groups on individual
>   helping behavior.  In case you're going over this
>   topic now or soon, below is a link to my latest
>   podcast episode in which I review some of the major
>   findings of this article and then talk briefly about
>   the influence of this "parable".  There are also
>   some web links on my site for further research on
>   this topic. 
>    It's probably too late in the semester now, but
>   this article would have made for a great student
>   paper or presentation.  Maybe next semester. 
>   Anyway, thanks again.  Here's the link:
>
http://www.thepsychfiles.com/2007/11/25/episode-36-the-myth-of-the-kitty-gen
ovese-story/
>   Michael
>   Michael Britt
>   Host of The Psych Files
>   www.thepsychfiles.com
>   [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> ---
> To make changes to your subscription contact:
>
> Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])

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