The Power of the Situation Video with Phillip Zimbardo as Host Video BF 121.D57 2001 Tape 19 01:43 - 21:19
The situation is often more powerful than individual personalities. The social situation significantly controls behavior. There are times when the social context works against us (e.g., Hitler's Germany). He exerted total control over the German people. How could a dictator transform rational people into blind obedience?
As a result of Hitler's Germany, Kurt Lewin studied leadership styles (1939). This research began modern social psychology. His research compared the effects of autocratic leaders (boys worked only when observed and were more aggressive), laissez-faire, and democratic (highest motivation, greatest originality, and the most praise). It was not the personality. It was the situation. This is the theme of social psychology: The power of the situation.
The Asch conformity studies (277-278)
The Milgram studies of destructive obedience (264-266)
1.	Forty experts predicted before the study that no one would administer more than 150 volts.
2.	In fact, two-thirds of the subjects administered the maximum 450 volts to the learner. C. P. Snow has argued that more harm is done by obedience than by rebellion.
3.	Fundamental attribution error (270-271)
The Zimbardo Prison Study (266-267)
1.	The Prison Study shows what happens when you put "good people in a bad situation." The boundary between roles and the real person were blurred. Some psychologists feel that the obedience and prison studies violated ethical guidelines and should never have been done. The Prison study was planed for two weeks but called off after six days because of the change in the behavior of the prisoners and guards. Now institutional review board evaluate every experiment and would not allow the obedience and prison studies to be conducted.
2.	What are two reasons that we cannot attribute the abusive behavior of guards to their personalities?
The power of the situation can lead to good as well. A brief segment was shown from an experiment in which just asking strangers to guard one's belongings led to responsible behavior.