Hock Reading Notes - Summary Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations Into the History of Psychological Research PDF

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Hock summaries for a few of the chapters in the book...

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Psych 111 Hock Reading Notes Reading 40: Obey At Any Cost?- Milgram pg 308-317 ● Introduction ○ Idea came from his desire to investigate scientifically how people could be capable of carrying out great harm on other just because they were told to do so ● Theoretical Propositions ○ Humans have a tendency to obey other people who are in a position of authority over them even if they violate their personal codes of moral behavior ● Method ○ Designed a shock generator, and had labels throughout ○ Participants were 40 males between the ages of 20-50 ■ Range of professional and unskilled workers ○ Paid only for coming to the lab, it was clear they could leave anytime ○ The learner was an actor and was taken into the other room to be set up in front of the other ○ Same sequence for all participants of the learner being correct or incorrect ○ Experimented orders were in order of varying degree and used the same exact language ○ A measure of obedience was obtained by recording the level of shock at which participants refused to deliver shocks ● Results ○ Most only stopped at intense shock or extreme intensity shock with a huge number, 26, stopping at the most amount of shocks of 450 volts ○ 14 participants defied orders and broke off ○ 65% made it all the way to the end ● Discussion ○ Surprising strength of one’s tendency to obey ○ Extreme tension and anxiety manifested by the participants as they obeyed the commands ● Significance of the Findings ○ Discoevered that physical distance of authority affected their ability to obey and the presence of the person who was getting hurt ○ When choosing their own shocks, no one ever pressed a switch higher than 45 volts ● Criticisms ○ Lasting negative effects upon the individuals ○ Distrust of pschologists in the future ● Recent Applications ○ Thomas Blass has found more universal support of Milgram’s findings ○ People questions whether gender would have played a role in such experiment ● Conclusion

○ We learned just how powerful this tendency to obey is through the experiment Reading 37: A Prisoner By Another Name- Zimbardo pg 287-294 ● Theoretical Proposition ○ Zimbardo testes that the environment around you often determines how you behave more strongly than who you are, and that is your dispositional nature ○ Powerful situations can overcome those natural tendencies and engage behaviors different from our usual selves ○ No specific hypotheses, just that the situation exerts strong effects over our behavior ● Method ○ Setting: Brought in an ex convict to be the consultant to stimulate a real prison experience. Used the basement of a psychology building with boarded up corridors and cell doors. There was a prison yard in a hallway and a small closet for prisoner punishment and confinement. The guards would move around the prisoners blindfolded to limit their knowledge on their whereabouts. ○ Participants: They were paid $15 and all college aged students. 24 men were selected and they were selected to be as identical as possible. ○ Procedure: ■ Prisoners: recieved a knock on the door from a real officer, “arrested” for armed robberies, and taken to the prison where they were handcuffed, booker, and fingerprinted. They were then transported to the jail. The prisoners were then stripped, searched, and deloused by thei guards. They were given an inmate uniform and a number signifying their name. Prisoners assigned three to a cell. ■ Guards: worked 8 hour shifts, three men to a shift, and lived normal lives when off duty. They wore reflective sunglasses. ● Results ○ The true identities of the prisoners and guards vanished rapidly. Human values were suspended, self-concepts were challenged, and a scary side of human nature surfaced. The students forgot about their free will. 5 prisoners became depressed and stopped eating. Some guards took to tormenting the prisoners and enjoyed their powerful positions. ○ Guards: used demeaning language, used push ups as punishment, shot a fire extinguisher at prisoners, made the bathroom a privelage, gave privelages to better prisoners, stripped the prisoners ○ Prisoners: became docile, begged to be paroled, agreed to forfeit all payment for freedom, uncontrollable crying and rage, planned and staged a rebellion, designed an escape plan, every-man for himself attitude, became dehumanized after 6 days\ ● Recent Applications ○ Major effects on prison reform

○ Prisons are failed experiments and use punishment in a bad model ○ Anyone can engage in the sadistic treatment of others ○ Normal people can turn sadistic in a powerful position ● Conclusion ○ It was terminated due to the escalating level of violence and degredation by the guards ○ Zimbardo had turned into a prison superintendent, walking more rigidly to others and acting so fiercely to protect “his prison” Reading __: One Brain or Two?- Gazzaniga pg 1-11 ● Left side controls our ability to use language and right side controls ability to create spatial relationship ● Method ○ Created three types of tests: visual, tactile (touch), auditory ● Results ○ The patients initially seemed to be completely normal ○ Visual Abilities ■ Right side of the brain was blind ■ Using the pointing method, all lights that flashed were recognized by the patients ■ They could not simply say things that they had seen with the right side of their brain, the object must be seen by the left to say something about it ○ Tactile Abilities ■ Objects were placed in their hands behind their back and they had to identify what the objects were. When placed in the left hand, they couldn't name or describe the objects but instead could still identify them from a picture of objects given to them- this proved verbal ability to the left side of the brain ○ Visual plus Tactile tests were then given ■ Same findings from the past were confirmed ● Discussion ○ The findings concluded that there are two separate brains associated with the cranium ○ Significance of Findings ■ Allowed us to treat patients with these problems in better ways, and perform more studies on more serious of notes and decision-making processes to confirm their findings ○ Criticisms ■ Have rarely been disputed ■ Others argue that each brain does not work independently and that they thrive off of eachother

○ Conclusions ■ Has been connected to psychological disorders and people with multiple personalities as explanation Reading 2: More Experience= Bigger Brain pg 12-19 ● Questions the idea whether certain experiences produce physical changes in the brain ● Theoretical Propositions ○ It must be acknowledged that rats were used in this study and that this affects the validity of the experiment. Rats were chosen because they’re smaller and inexpensive. As well, inbred rats were produced. ● Method ○ 3 male rats were chosen from each litter and then randomly assigned to one condition. 12 rats were placed in each of these conditions for each of the 16 experiments. ■ Enriched environment ■ Standard laboratory ■ Impoverished environment ○ The rats lived in these conditions for varying amounts of time and then their brain growth was examined ● Results ○ The cerebral cortex of the enriched rats were significantly heavier and thicker. As well, greater activity was found in these brains ○ No changes in # of brain cells, yet the enriched rats produced larger neurons meaning that higher levels of chemical activity was occuring ○ The synapses of enriched rats were 50% larger than those of impoverished rats ● Discussions and Criticisms ○ Some argue that it was not the condition that affected the rats but rather handling or stress that affected behavior ■ Valid as enriched rats were being handled twice a day and the impoverished were not handled ○ One problem was that it was an artificial environment that was produced ○ The most important criticism was regarding its application to humans ● Related Research and Recent Applications ○ Some evidence indicates that experience does alter brain development ○ This has been applied to the process of human intellectual development Reading 3: Are you a “Natural”? pg 19-27 ● They set out to determine which psychological characteristics appear to be determined by genetics and which are molded more by environment ● Theoretical Propositions ○ Identify and locate twins and then separate them and conduct tests on personality

● Method ○ Participants: find sets of twins who were reared apart for most of their lives, and reunited as adults. Twins were tested before the study to ensure credibility. ○ Procedure: Each twin conducted 50 hours of testing ● Discussion and Implications of Findings ○ Genetic factos appear to account for most of the variations in the remarkable variety of human characteristics ■ Genetically identical twins raised in seperate areas grew into adults who were very similar ■ There seems to be little effect of the environment on identical twins who were raised in the same setting ○ Intelligence is primarily determined by genetic factors ○ Human characteristics are determined by some combination of genetic and environmental influences ○ It’s not the environment influencing people’s characteristics, but vice versa. People’s genetic tendencies mold the environment we live in ● Criticisms and Related Research ○ “Equal environment assumption” ○ Some claim that this data was not published fully ● Recent Applications ○ Research in minnesota concludes that 40% of variability in personality is genetically based ○ This has been applied to discussion regarding human cloning and behavioral expectations Reading 4: Watch out for the Visual Cliff- pg 27-34 ● Patient SB received a transplant of the eye and could see however he could not see like the rest of us, he could not perceive depth ● Put them on a table, one with a drop off of glass and the other with glass covering a pattern ● Goal is to learn whether depth perception is learned or innate ● Could not come to a conclusion because the kids were 6 months old meaning they had experience in life but this was chosen due to the locomotive abilities they have at this age ● Chickens similar to goats and sheeps too were tested and never made the mistake of walking over the cliff ● Rats did not visualize the cliff and ignored it completely ○ This was considered due to the fact that they do not use their eyes must for movement as they are nocturnal and rely on their sense of smell mainly ● Concluded that these abilities and inborn ● Younger infants were tested by heart rate and actually had a decrease in heart rate showing a lack of fear

● Applications ○ Testing 16 month olds and their response to bridges if ones were safer or not ○ Virtual reality studies helped determine is autistic kids could in fact coordinate for themselves safely or not ● Still questioning if this is innate or learned

Reading 6: To Sleep, No Doubt to Dream- pg 42-49 ● 1952, Aserinsky began the study of sleep ○ Observed sleeping infants to see if eye movements were associated with dreaming- further continued this with adults ○ Adults were given the chance to sleep casually and were interrupted periodically to see whether they had been dreaming or not ○ There was a connection between eye movements and their dreaming patterns ○ As you approach stage 1 of sleeping, you enter REM which is when you do most of your dreaming and your body is immobilized and paralyzed, this prevents you from moving in your dreams and actually acting them out ● Dement asked the questions of whether dreaming is vital to our existence ● The experimenter interrupted the sleep cycle as soon as they saw that dreaming was occuring ● The # of awakenings rose as the study went on ● Dreaming time drastically increased after they had gone through a period which removed dreaming experiences ● The time lost dreaming was quantitatively made up the next nights without sleep interruption ● All the participants when removed from REM sleep showed signs of anxiety, and bad behavioral symptoms ● He wrote a book and describes Reading 8: Acting as if you are hypnotized pg 56-64 ● Hypnosis- undergoing a trance ● Spanos lead an experiment in which hypnosis is in reality nothing more than an increased degree of motivation to perform certain behaviors and can be explained fully without invoking notions or trances or altered states ○ Hypnotized participants are actually engaging in voluntary behavior behavior designed to produce a desired consequence ● Theoretical propositions ○ Theorized that all the behaviors attributed to a hypnotic trance state are within normal voluntary abilities by humans ○ Their own behavior is consistent with their expectations about being hypnotized ● Results and Discussion ○ 2 key aspects of hypnosis that lead people to perceive it as an altered state of

conscious ■ Participants interpret their behavior during hypnosis caused by something other than the self, making their actions seem involuntary ■ The hypnosis ritual creates expectations in participants which motivate them to do things ○ Voluntary or involuntary is determined by the way the things are worded ● Implications of the findings ○ Whether or not hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness remains a highly controversial issue...