LECTURE NOTES: Social psychology chapter 12 and 13
CLASS DISCUSSION
Bystander Effect
● The more people around, the less likely to stop because they think that someone else
will stop and take care of it.
● Labeling people as helpful can also strengthen that helpful self self-image and influence
their willingness to be helpful down the road.
Conflict
● It is the incompatibility of actions.
● The prisoner's dilemma has been studied for over 60 years for its insights into political,
military, and economic affairs.
● It tells us that even when the best-case scenario was clear, rational individuals acting in
their self-interest could bring about the worst-case scenario.
○ Imagine two criminals.
■ We'll call them Xavier and Yoshi, who robbed a bank.
■ They got caught
■ As prosecutors, you don't have enough evidence to convict them, so you
need a confession.
● You separate the two, then offer each a deal.
● Xavier and Yoshi can't coordinate with one another.
● If they could, they would certainly cooperate and keep their mouths shut, accepting a
month in jail against the prospect of a decade.
● The best-case scenario is clear: they should both stay silent, but rational considerations
will lead both to turn the other one in, leading to a worst-case scenario.
● The classic real-life example is nuclear deterrence.
● It's better to cooperate and avoid the risk and expense of maintaining giant nuclear
stockpiles.
● Between 1949 and1954, social psychologists Sharon and Carolyn collaborated with
graduate students to hold a series of experiments to test one of Dr.Sheriff's ideas known
as realistic conflict fear.
○ This has to do with intergroup conflict stereotypes and prejudices.
○ The most famous and significant of his experiments took place in 1954 at Rogers
Cave State Park in Oklahoma.
○ His main idea was that conflict arises between groups when they're competing
for limited resources.
○ This hypothesis had important implications as the Second World War had
recently ended.
○ The experiments involved 22 children between the ages of 11 and 12.
○ None of them knew each other previously, and all came from similar
backgrounds, middle class, white, and Protestant.
■ Stages:
CLASS DISCUSSION
Bystander Effect
● The more people around, the less likely to stop because they think that someone else
will stop and take care of it.
● Labeling people as helpful can also strengthen that helpful self self-image and influence
their willingness to be helpful down the road.
Conflict
● It is the incompatibility of actions.
● The prisoner's dilemma has been studied for over 60 years for its insights into political,
military, and economic affairs.
● It tells us that even when the best-case scenario was clear, rational individuals acting in
their self-interest could bring about the worst-case scenario.
○ Imagine two criminals.
■ We'll call them Xavier and Yoshi, who robbed a bank.
■ They got caught
■ As prosecutors, you don't have enough evidence to convict them, so you
need a confession.
● You separate the two, then offer each a deal.
● Xavier and Yoshi can't coordinate with one another.
● If they could, they would certainly cooperate and keep their mouths shut, accepting a
month in jail against the prospect of a decade.
● The best-case scenario is clear: they should both stay silent, but rational considerations
will lead both to turn the other one in, leading to a worst-case scenario.
● The classic real-life example is nuclear deterrence.
● It's better to cooperate and avoid the risk and expense of maintaining giant nuclear
stockpiles.
● Between 1949 and1954, social psychologists Sharon and Carolyn collaborated with
graduate students to hold a series of experiments to test one of Dr.Sheriff's ideas known
as realistic conflict fear.
○ This has to do with intergroup conflict stereotypes and prejudices.
○ The most famous and significant of his experiments took place in 1954 at Rogers
Cave State Park in Oklahoma.
○ His main idea was that conflict arises between groups when they're competing
for limited resources.
○ This hypothesis had important implications as the Second World War had
recently ended.
○ The experiments involved 22 children between the ages of 11 and 12.
○ None of them knew each other previously, and all came from similar
backgrounds, middle class, white, and Protestant.
■ Stages:
