Social Psychology HW
To be Typed
Just you name and period on top of the page.
Answer all of the following questions using the information learned both in class and in the text to support your answers. Try to think critically, use your imagination and if you get confused, take a break and try again. Do not be afraid to ask me for help. Good Luck!!!
If you get REALLY frustrated just click
Question 1
Firsthand experience is a hard but effective way to develop an understanding of the devastating effects that prejudice can have on people and how easily members of the ingroup can become prejudiced toward others. In a dramatic demonstration of these points, Jane Elliot conducted a study with a group of third-grade children. The experiment began when the teacher announced that brown-eyed people were more intelligent and generally superior to blue-eyed people. Several classroom rules were established. Blue-eyed children had to sit at the back of the classroom and wait at the end of the line for recess, lunch, and other activities. The brown-eyed children were given virtually all classroom privileges. At first some of the children resisted, because many intergroup friendships existed. But the members of each group quickly became socialized to the new group norms. The brown-eyed children began to act as if they were superior; some became quite vicious and nasty in their interactions with their blue-eyed classmates. The blue-eyed children also adopted roles. They began to do poorly in their lessons and refer to themselves with negative terms such as "bad" and "stupid." Intergroup friendships were broken and replaced with hatred.
After three very unpleasant days, the experiment was terminated when the teacher announced to the class what she had done. Most of the children were relieved to be able to drop their brown- or blue-eyed roles and to be reassured that all of them were, in fact, equal.
Elliot’s study effectively demonstrates the extent to which a number of social and cognitive factors influence prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination. Based on your study of Social Psychology, can you identify these factors? Are there any examples of these phenomena at Harrison High School? How might they be counteracted?
Question 2
Most of you will be going to college within the next year or so. All of you will need to form new friendships and many of you will form romantic relationships. Based upon what you now know about attraction, form a profile of both your future friends and mates and how or where you might go about meeting them (be sure to take into account ALL of the factors of attraction in your analysis).
Question 3
Give me one example of group polarization, one example of deindividuation and one example of groupthink that you have seen so far during your experience at Harrison High School. How did you feel when witnessing or participating in these phenomena? What are some things we can do to decrease these group behaviors from occurring in the future?