I'll go out on a thin limb (what the heck, I've been on a diet) and agree with Gary here.
SPS: nice story woven by a fabulous story-teller. But the study itself was fairly flawed in terms of experimenter expectancy effects and the controversy over whether or not, if at all, the guards received any instructions in how to be guards, leaves me a bit doubtful. Take it a step further, and remember that this was the time frame of the wildly popular movie, Cool Hand Luke--which provided some (distorted?) insights into "how prison guards act." Clearly one CAN make the analogy to Abu Ghraib but there are some clear distinctions there as well, including strong ethnic prejudices. As for groupthink: I agree with Gary that it seems to involve a TON of post-hoc thinking. For example: if there had been large caches of WMDs in Iraq, and we were pretty much out of there, not having mis-anticipated the degree of civil war that would take place following the ouster of a strong leader who kept the kibosh on it all, we would not have had all this hindsight. Just my expanded 2 cents worth of thinking on those two. OTOH: perhaps these are areas deserving of more research: I don't think that Gary clarified his position. I don't think these are widely discussed outside of teaching of psych circles or constrained social psych areas. Heck, I had to learn this stuff all over since my own intro days, once I went into teaching intro! ;) 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: Sun, 17 Feb 2008 10:36:00 -0500 >From: "Gerald Peterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [tips] Psychological theories that are well known but useless and >vice ve... >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > > I see only retrospective analyses, a lack of sound > theory, and no substantive development in the years > since its development. Good for pop-psychologizing > after the fact but very little sound work has come > from it. I don't think it is adequate to the study > of actual group processes. Again, it is more popular > than scientifically respectable---like most of the > stuff in Personality theories texts. Gary > > > Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. > Professor, Psychology > Saginaw Valley State University > University Center, MI 48710 > 989-964-4491 > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > --- > To make changes to your subscription contact: > > Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
