PSYCH101: Introduction to Psychology

7.2: Social Influence

• 7.2.1: Obedience and Stanley Milgram’s Shock Experiment

  • PsychWiki: "Milgram's Study of Obedience" Page

    Read this article to learn about Stanley Milgram’s controversial yet seminal studies on obedience. As you read this section consider Milgram’s claim that "The social psychology of this century reveals a major lesson: often it is not so much the kind of person a man is as the kind of situation in which he finds himself that determines how he will act."

  • The Noba Project: Jerry M. Burger’s "Conformity and Obedience" Page

    Read this selection and watch the videos, which explain Milgram’s experiments.

• 7.2.2: Group Influences: Social Facilitation, Social Loafing, Deindividuation, Group Polarization, and Groupthink

  • PsychWiki: "Group Influence" Page

    Read this article to learn about the influence of the group on individual action (i.e., social facilitation, social loafing, deindividuation, group polarization, and groupthink).

  • The Noba Project: Donelson R. Forsyth’s "The Psychology of Groups" Page

    Read this selection regarding the psychology of groups. A major controversy (real or alleged) from the last 25 years is the concept of “group think”. Think about examples of how the desire for harmony or conformity in a group could result in irrational or a dysfunctional decision-making outcome.