Psychology Week 1 Discussion Board 1-2

Written by P. A. Owens on August 22, 2018

Psychology Week 1 Discussion Board 1-2

Week 1 Discussion Board 1

1. What contemporary form of psychology was the focus?

After watching the video, I think that the form of Psychology in focus was behavioral. Because the main point of the experiment was to observe the behavioral responses of both prisoners and guards in their surrounding and conditions within the prison.

1. Choose a psychologist from the text; what would be their individual interest in the study based upon their perspective?

I have chosen William James as my psychologist from the text. I think from his perspective and interest in psychology, he would be interested in the experiment because he was the person who named functionalism. He was someone who was "interested in how one could physically and mentally react to and survive certain situations". (1)

1. Do you feel this was a valid study?  Was it ethical?  Why or why not? 

A) No, I think this experiment could have been avoided, only because we already have documents of some of this same stuff that went on during the Holocaust, for example. During the Holocaust we have already seen the damage one human can be forced to do upon another, and the mental, and physical, effects it leaves with both of the subjects.  

B) Considering the definition of ethical, “pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct”, (2) I do not think it was ethical at all. I think the Professor could have given more details as to how much possible mental stress and how bad the physical conditions could lead up to.

C) Because the people were treated as experiments and labeled as numbers, not people. The people knew they were going to be part of a scientific experiment, but they were not given enough information about what they had gotten themselves into. Nor were they told about possible risks involved in the experiment. Neither were the participants told the full details of the study. Not to mention, the data did not remain confidential.

Week 1 Discussion Board 2

Problem: will any of the viewers notice any of the changes going on throughout the video.

Hypothesis: viewers will most likely not notice any of the changes going on because they will be so focused on the card trick.

Experiment: do the card trick and change things around the room and see if anyone noticed what was going on while they were focused on the card trick.

Data: no one noticed what was going on around the room due to being so focused on the card trick.

Conclusion: because the focus in our minds was on the card trick, no one noticed or realized all of the changed going on around the room.

Works Cited:

DB 1:

Standford Prison Experiment: http://youtu.be/XsRQVRoIPWE

1. Ciccarelli, Saundra K., & J. Noland White.  Psychology (REVEL with e-text/access code), 5^th Edition.  Person 2017.  ISBN:  978-0134715305

2. dictionary.com

DB 2:

http://youtu.be/v3iPrBrGSJM