Unit 14 Important People // AP Psychology

Solomon Asch

- 1955 - performed conformity experiments in which he asked participants to compare lines - a confederate was placed anonymously, to purposely give a wrong answer, which becomes a domino effect of students going against their gut answer to go along with the group and avoid noncomformity

Fritz Heider

- 1958 - proposed attribution theory; noted that people usually attribute others' behavior either to their internal dispositions or to their external situations

Stanley Milgram

- 1963, 1974 - performed experiments in which participants were asked to "shock" someone when they answered questions incorrectly, and voltages gradually got higher (slight shock-extreme shock) - however, the experimenter and the "learner" were both actors (no actual shocking) - Milgram found that a large majority of people were more obedient than moral in the high-stakes situation, despite obvious stress - raised controversy over ethics concerning human test subjects

John Darley

- 1968 - alongside Latané, simulated physical emergency by an actor making sounds as though he were having an epileptic seizure on discussion intercom with other participants - found that those who believed they were the only one who could hear the victim, felt they bore total responsibility for him, and usually went to his aid - however, when more people shared responsibility for helping, single listeners were less likely to help; called diffusion of responsibility

Philip Zimbardo

- 1972 - male college students volunteered to spend time in a simulated prison; some randomly assigned guard positions, and others as prisoners - guards were given uniforms, billy clubs, and whistles; prisoners were locked in barren cells and given humiliating outfits - most guards developed cruel and degrading routines and attitudes - one by one, prisoners broke down, rebelled. or became passively resigned - Zimbardo was forced to call off the study after only six days; his experiment terrifyingly proved cognitive dissonance theory

David Napolitan / George Goethals

- 1979 - illustrated fundamental attribution error phenomenon - performed experiment on Williams College students by having them talk with a young woman who either acted aloof/critical or warm/friendly - half the students were told beforehand that the woman's behavior was spontaneous, the other half was told that she was acting as they instructed - prior information had no effect; students disregarded information and attributed her behavior to personal disposition even when told her behavior was situational

Bibb Latané

- 1981 - describes diminished effort in group settings as social loafing - experimented with blindfolded people seated in a group clapped/shouted as loud as they could while listening through headphones to the sound of loud clapping/shouting - when told they were doing it with other participants, people produced about 1/3 less noise than when they thought their individual efforts were identifiable

Irving Janis

- 1982 - studied decision-making procedures that led to chaos in historical fiascos - coined the term groupthink to describe the distortion of important decisions due to group interaction - found that groupthink was fed by overconfidence, conformity, self-justification, and group polarization

Robert Baron

- 1996 - performed an experiment with University of Iowa students asking visual questions varying in difficulty - found that when accuracy of judgements seemed important, people rarely conformed; when accuracy of judgments seemed less important, people are more likely to conform

Tonya Chartrand / John Bargh

- 1999 - proposed chameleon effect - demonstrated by having students work in a room alongside a confederate - when the confederate rubbed his face, students rubbed their face; when the confederate tapped his foot, students tapped their foot

Leon Festinger

proposed cognitive dissonance theory