A variety of psychological experiments, scientists began to conduct in the middle of the 19th century. Those who are convinced that the role of guinea pigs in such studies is assigned exclusively to animals are mistaken. People often become participants, and sometimes victims of experiments. Which of the experiments became known to millions, went down in history forever? Consider a list of the most notorious.
Psychological Experiments: Albert and the Rat
One of the most scandalous experiments of the last century was carried out in 1920. This professor is credited with founding the behavioral direction in psychology, he devoted a lot of time to studying the nature of phobias. The psychological experiments that Watson conducted were mostly related to the observation of the emotions of infants.
Once, an orphan boy Albert, who at the time of the start of the experiment was only 9 months old, became a participant in his study. Using his example, the professor tried to prove that many phobias appear in people in early age. His goal was to make Albert feel fear at the sight of a white rat, with which the kid enjoyed playing.
Like many psychological experiments, working with Albert took a long time. For two months, the child was shown a white rat, and then they were shown objects visually similar to it (cotton wool, a white rabbit, an artificial beard). The infant was then allowed to return to his games with the rat. Initially, Albert did not feel fear, calmly interacted with her. The situation changed when Watson, during his games with the animal, began to hit a metal product with a hammer, causing a loud knock behind the orphan's back.
As a result, Albert became afraid to touch the rat, the fear did not disappear even after he was separated from the animal for a week. When the old friend was again shown to him, he burst into tears. The child showed a similar reaction when he saw objects that looked like animals. Watson managed to prove his theory, but the phobia remained with Albert for life.
Fight against racism
Of course, Albert is far from the only child who was subjected to cruel psychological experiments. Examples (with children) are easy to cite, say, an experiment conducted in 1970 by Jane Elliott, called "Blue and Brown Eyes." A schoolteacher, under the impression of the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., decided to show her wards the horrors in practice. Her test subjects were third-grade students.
She divided the class into groups whose members were selected based on eye color (brown, blue, green), after which she suggested treating brown-eyed children as representatives of an inferior race who did not deserve respect. Of course, the experiment cost the teacher her job, the public was outraged. In angry letters addressed to the former teacher, people asked how she could treat white children so ruthlessly.
Artificial prison
It is curious that not all known cruel psychological experiments on people were originally conceived as such. Among them, a special place is occupied by a study of employees called "artificial prison". Scientists did not even imagine how destructive the “innocent” experiment, set in 1971, authored by Philip Zimbardo, would be for the psyche of the experimental subjects.
The psychologist intended through his research to understand social norms people who have lost their freedom. To do this, he selected a group of student volunteers, consisting of 24 participants, then locked them in the basement of the psychological faculty, which was supposed to serve as a kind of prison. Half of the volunteers took on the role of prisoners, the rest acted as guards.
Surprisingly, it took the “prisoners” quite a bit of time to feel like real prisoners. The same participants in the experiment, who got the role of guards, began to demonstrate real sadistic inclinations, coming up with more and more bullying over their wards. The experiment had to be interrupted ahead of schedule in order to avoid psychological trauma. In total, people stayed in the “prison” for just over a week.
Boy or girl
Psychological experiments on people often end tragically. Proof of this is the sad story of a boy named David Reimer. Even in infancy, he underwent an unsuccessful circumcision operation, as a result of which the child almost lost his penis. This was taken advantage of by psychologist John Money, who dreamed of proving that children are not born boys and girls, but become such as a result of upbringing. He persuaded the parents to consent to the surgical sex change of the child, and then treat him like a daughter.
Little David received the name Brenda, until the age of 14 he was not informed that he was a male. In adolescence, the boy was given estrogen to drink, the hormone was supposed to activate breast growth. After learning the truth, he took the name Bruce, refused to act like a girl. Already in adulthood, Bruce underwent several operations, the purpose of which was to restore the physical signs of sex.
Like many other famous psychological experiments, this one had dire consequences. For some time, Bruce tried to improve his life, even got married and adopted his wife's children. However, psychological trauma from childhood did not go unnoticed. After several unsuccessful suicide attempts, the man still managed to lay hands on himself, he died at the age of 38. The life of his parents, who suffered from what is happening in the family, turned out to be destroyed. Father turned into also committed suicide.
The nature of stuttering
The list of psychological experiments in which children became participants is worth continuing. In 1939, Professor Johnson, with the support of a graduate student, Maria, decided to conduct an interesting study. The scientist set himself the goal of proving that parents are primarily to blame for stuttering in children, who “convince” their children that they are stutterers.
To conduct the study, Johnson assembled a group of more than twenty children from orphanages. The participants in the experiment were told that they had problems with speech, which were absent in reality. As a result, almost all the guys withdrew into themselves, began to avoid communication with others, they really developed a stutter. Of course, after the end of the study, children were helped to get rid of speech problems.
Many years later, some of the members of the group most affected by Professor Johnson's actions received a large monetary settlement from the State of Iowa. It was proved that the cruel experiment became a source of serious psychological trauma for them.
The Milgram Experience
Other interesting psychological experiments were carried out on people. The list can not be enriched with the famous study, which was carried out in the last century by Stanley Milgram. The psychologist tried to study the features of the functioning of the mechanism of submission to authority. The scientist tried to understand whether a person is really capable of performing acts unusual for him, if a person who is his boss insists on this.
Participants made his own students who treated him with respect. One of the group members (the student) must answer the questions of the others, who alternately act as teachers. If the student was wrong, the teacher had to give him an electric shock, this continued until the questions ended. At the same time, an actor acted as a student, only playing the suffering from receiving current discharges, which was not told to other participants in the experiment.
Like other psychological experiments on humans listed in this article, the experience provided amazing results. The study involved 40 students. Only 16 of them succumbed to the pleas of the actor, who asked to stop shocking him for mistakes, the rest successfully continued to discharge discharges, obeying Milgram's order. When they were asked what caused them to inflict pain on a stranger, not suspecting that he was not really in pain, the students did not find what to answer. In fact, the experiment demonstrated the dark side of human nature.
Landis research
Psychological experiments similar to Milgram's experience were also carried out on people. Examples of such studies are quite numerous, but the most famous was the work of Carney Landis, dating back to 1924. The psychologist was interested in human emotions, he set up a series of experiments, trying to identify common features in the expression of certain emotions in different people.
Voluntary participants in the experiment were mostly students, whose faces were painted with black lines, allowing you to better see the movement of the facial muscles. Students were shown pornographic materials, they were forced to sniff substances endowed with a repulsive odor, to dip their hands into a vessel filled with frogs.
The most difficult stage of the experiment is the killing of rats, which the participants were ordered to decapitate with their own hands. The experience gave amazing results, like many other psychological experiments on people, examples of which you are now reading. Approximately half of the volunteers flatly refused to carry out the professor's order, while the rest coped with the task. Ordinary people, who had never before shown a craving for torturing animals, obeying the order of the teacher, cut off the heads of living rats. The study did not allow us to determine the universal facial movements inherent in all people, however, it demonstrated the dark side of human nature.
The fight against homosexuality
The list of the most famous psychological experiments would not be complete without a cruel experiment staged in 1966. In the 60s, the fight against homosexuality gained immense popularity, it is no secret to anyone that people in those days were treated forcibly from interest in members of their own sex.
The 1966 experiment was set up on a group of people who were suspected of having homosexual tendencies. Participants in the experiment were forced to view homosexual pornography while being punished for it with electric shocks. It was assumed that such actions should develop in people an aversion to intimate contact with persons of the same sex. Of course, all members of the group received psychological trauma, one of them even died, unable to withstand numerous. It was not possible to find out whether the experience had an effect on the orientation of homosexuals.
Teenagers and gadgets
Psychological experiments on people at home are often done, but only a few of these experiments become known. A study was published several years ago, in which ordinary teenagers became voluntary participants. Schoolchildren were asked to give up all modern gadgets for 8 hours, including a mobile phone, laptop, TV. At the same time, they were not forbidden to go for a walk, read, draw.
Other psychological studies have not impressed the public as much as this study. The results of the experiment showed that only three of its participants managed to withstand the 8-hour "torture". The remaining 65 “broke down”, they had thoughts of dying, they faced panic attacks. The children also complained of symptoms such as dizziness and nausea.
bystander effect
Interestingly, high-profile crimes can also become an incentive for scientists who conduct psychological experiments. It is easy to recall real examples, for example, the “Effect of the Witness” experiment, staged in 1968 by two professors. John and Bibb were amazed at the behavior of the numerous witnesses who watched the murder of the girl Kitty Genovese. The crime was committed in front of dozens of people, but no one made an attempt to stop the killer.
John and Bibb invited volunteers to spend some time in the audience, with the assurance that their job was to fill out paperwork. A few minutes later, the room was filled with harmless smoke. Then the same experiment was carried out with a group of people gathered in the same room. Further, instead of smoke, records with cries for help were used.
Other psychological experiments, examples of which are given in the article, were much more cruel, but the experience of the "Effect of the witness" along with them went down in history. Scientists have been able to establish that a person who is alone is much faster to seek help or provide it than a group of people, even if it has only two or three participants.
Be like everyone else
In our country, even during the existence Soviet Union curious psychological experiments were carried out on people. The USSR is a state in which for long years It was customary not to stand out from the crowd. It is not surprising that many experiments of that time were devoted to the study of the desire of the average person to be like everyone else.
Exciting psychological research there were children of different ages. For example, a group of 5 children was asked to try rice porridge, which was positively treated by all members of the team. Four children were fed sweet porridge, then it was the turn of the fifth participant, who received a portion of the tasteless salty porridge. When these guys were asked if they liked the dish, most of them gave an affirmative answer. This happened because before that all their comrades praised porridge, and the children wanted to be like everyone else.
Other classic psychological experiments were also performed on children. For example, a group of several participants was asked to name a black pyramid white. Only one child was not warned in advance, he was the last to be asked about the color of the toy. After listening to the answers of their comrades, most of the unwarned kids assured that the black pyramid was white, thus following the crowd.
Experiments with animals
Of course, classical psychological experiments are not only performed on people. The list of high-profile studies that have gone down in history will not be complete without mentioning the experiment on monkeys conducted in 1960. The experiment was called "The Source of Despair", its author was Harry Harlow.
The scientist was interested in the problem of social isolation of a person, he was looking for ways to protect himself from it. In his research, Harlow did not use people, but monkeys, or rather the young of these animals. Babies were taken away from their mothers, locked up alone in cages. The participants in the experiment were only animals whose emotional connection with their parents was not in doubt.
At the behest of a cruel professor, the monkey cubs spent a whole year in a cage without receiving the slightest “portion” of communication. As a result, most of these prisoners developed obvious psychical deviations. The scientist was able to confirm his theory that even a happy childhood does not save from depression. IN currently the results of the experiment were considered insignificant. In the 60s, the professor received many letters from animal advocates, unwittingly made the movement of fighters for the rights of our smaller brothers more popular.
Learned helplessness
Of course, other high-profile psychological experiments were carried out on animals. For example, in 1966, a scandalous experience was staged, called "Acquired Helplessness." Psychologists Mark and Steve used dogs in their research. Animals were locked in cages, then they were hurt with electric shocks that they received suddenly. Gradually, the dogs developed symptoms of "acquired helplessness", which resulted in clinical depression. Even after they were moved to open cages, they did not flee from the continued shocks. Animals preferred to endure pain, convinced of its inevitability.
Scientists have found that the behavior of dogs is in many ways similar to the behavior of people who have experienced failure several times in a particular business. They are also helpless, ready to accept their bad luck.
In 1965, an eight-month-old boy, Bruce Reimer, who was born in Winnipeg, Canada, underwent a circumcision on the advice of doctors. However, due to a mistake by the surgeon who performed the operation, the boy's penis was completely damaged.
1. The boy who was raised like a girl (1965-2004)
Psychologist John Money from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (USA), to whom the parents of the child turned for advice, advised them on a “simple” way out of a difficult situation: to change the sex of the child and raise him as a girl until he grew up and began to experience complexes according to about his male incompetence.
No sooner said than done: soon Bruce became Brenda. The unfortunate parents had no idea that their child was the victim of a cruel experiment: John Money had long been looking for an opportunity to prove that gender is due not to nature, but to upbringing, and Bruce became the ideal object of observation.
The boy's testicles were removed, and then for several years Mani published in scientific journals reports on the "successful" development of their test subject. “It is quite understandable that the child behaves like an active little girl and her behavior is strikingly different from the male behavior of her twin brother,” the scientist assured. However, both at home and teachers at school noted typical boy behavior and shifted perceptions in the child.
Worst of all, the parents, who hid the truth from their son-daughter, experienced great emotional stress. As a result, the mother was observed to have suicidal tendencies, the father became an alcoholic, and the twin brother was constantly depressed.
When Bruce-Brenda reached adolescence, he was given estrogen to stimulate breast growth, and then Mani began to insist on a new operation, during which Brandy would have to form the female genitals. But then Bruce-Brenda rebelled. He flatly refused to do the operation and stopped coming to see Mani.
Three suicide attempts followed one after the other. The last of these ended in a coma for him, but he recovered and began the struggle to return to a normal existence - as a person. He changed his name to David, cut his hair and started wearing men's clothing. In 1997, he went through a series of reconstructive surgeries to restore physical signs of sex. He also married a woman and adopted her three children. However, the happy ending did not work out: in May 2004, after breaking up with his wife, David Reimer committed suicide at the age of 38.
2. "Source of Despair" (1960)
Harry Harlow conducted his cruel experiments on monkeys. Investigating the issue of social isolation of the individual and methods of protection against it, Harlow took the child of the monkey from its mother and placed it in a cage all alone, and chose those cubs in which the connection with the mother was the strongest.
The monkey was kept in a cage for a year, after which it was released. Most individuals showed various mental abnormalities. The scientist made the following conclusions: even a happy childhood is not a defense against depression.
The results, to put it mildly, are not impressive: such a conclusion could be made without conducting cruel experiments on animals. However, the animal rights movement began after the publication of the results of this experiment.
3. Milgram experiment (1974)
Stanley Milgram's experiment from Yale University is described by the author in the book Submission to Authority: pilot study».
The experiment involved the experimenter, the subject, and an actor who played the role of another subject. At the beginning of the experiment, the roles of “teacher” and “student” were distributed between the subject and the actor. In fact, the test subjects were always given the role of "teacher", and the hired actor was always the "student".
Before the start of the experiment, the "teacher" was explained that the purpose of the experiment was supposedly to reveal new methods of memorizing information. However, the experimenter investigated the behavior of a person who receives instructions from an authoritative source that are at odds with his internal behavioral norms.
The “apprentice” was tied to a chair to which a stun gun was attached. Both the “student” and the “teacher” received a “demonstration” electric shock of 45 volts. Then the "teacher" went to another room and had to give the "student" simple tasks for memorization. Each time the student made a mistake, the subject had to press a button, and the student received a 45-volt electric shock. In fact, the actor who played the role of the student only pretended to receive electric shocks. Then, after each mistake, the teacher had to increase the voltage by 15 volts.
At some point, the actor began to demand to stop the experiment. The “teacher” began to doubt, and the experimenter replied: “The experiment requires you to continue. Please continue." The more the current increased, the more discomfort the actor showed. Then he howled in great pain and finally broke into a scream.
The experiment continued up to a voltage of 450 volts. If the "teacher" hesitated, the experimenter assured him that he took full responsibility for the experiment and for the safety of the "student" and that the experiment should be continued.
The results were shocking: 65% of the "teachers" gave a shock of 450 volts, knowing that the "student" was in terrible pain. Contrary to all the preliminary predictions of the experimenters, most of the experimental subjects obeyed the instructions of the scientist who led the experiment and punished the “student” with an electric shock, and in a series of experiments out of forty experimental subjects, not one stopped at a level of 300 volts, five refused to obey only after this level, and 26 “teachers » out of 40 reached the end of the scale.
Critics said that the subjects were hypnotized by the authority of Yale University. In response to this criticism, Milgram repeated the experiment, renting a meager office in the town of Bridgeport, Connecticut, under the banner of the Bridgeport Research Association. The results did not change qualitatively: 48% of the subjects agreed to reach the end of the scale. In 2002, the summary results of all similar experiments showed that from 61% to 66% of "teachers" reach the end of the scale, regardless of the time and place of the experiment.
Terrible conclusions followed from the experiment: the unknown dark side of human nature tends not only to thoughtlessly obey authority and carry out unthinkable instructions, but also to justify its own behavior by the received “order”. Many participants in the experiment experienced an advantage over the "student" and, by pressing the button, were sure that he was getting what he deserved.
In general, the results of the experiment showed that the need to obey authority was so deeply rooted in our minds that the subjects continued to follow instructions, despite moral suffering and strong internal conflict.
4 Learned Helplessness (1966)
In 1966, psychologists Mark Seligman and Steve Mayer conducted a series of experiments on dogs. Animals were placed in cages, previously divided into three groups. The control group was released after some time without causing any harm, the second group of animals were subjected to repeated shocks that could be stopped by pressing a lever from the inside, and the animals of the third group were subjected to sudden shocks that could not be prevented in any way.
As a result, dogs have developed what is known as “acquired helplessness,” a reaction to unpleasant stimuli based on the belief that they are helpless in the face of the outside world. Soon, the animals began to show signs of clinical depression.
After some time, the dogs from the third group were released from their cages and placed in open enclosures from which it was easy to escape. Dogs re-exposed electric current However, none of them even thought about running away. Instead, they reacted passively to pain, accepting it as inevitable. Dogs learned for themselves from the previous negative experience that escape was impossible and made no further attempts to escape from the cage.
Scientists have suggested that the human response to stress is much like a dog's: people become helpless after several failures, going one after another. It is only unclear whether such a banal conclusion was worth the suffering of the unfortunate animals.
5. Baby Albert (1920)
John Watson, the founder of the behavioral trend in psychology, was engaged in research on the nature of fears and phobias. Studying the emotions of children, Watson, among other things, became interested in the possibility of forming a fear reaction to objects that had not previously caused it.
The scientist tested the possibility of forming an emotional reaction of fear of a white rat in a 9-month-old boy Albert, who was not afraid of rats at all and even liked to play with them. During the experiment, for two months, an orphan child from an orphanage was shown a tame white rat, a white rabbit, cotton wool, a Santa Claus mask with a beard, etc. After two months, the child was placed on a rug in the middle of the room and allowed to play with the rat. At first, the child was not at all afraid of her and calmly played with her. After a while, Watson began to beat with an iron hammer on a metal plate behind the child's back every time Albert touched the rat. After repeated blows, Albert began to avoid contact with the rat. A week later, the experiment was repeated - this time the plate was hit five times, simply by launching the rat into the cradle. The child cried when he saw the white rat.
After another five days, Watson decided to test whether the child would be afraid of similar objects. The boy was afraid of the white rabbit, cotton wool, the mask of Santa Claus. Since scientists did not make loud noises when showing objects, Watson concluded that fear reactions were transferred. He suggested that many of the fears, dislikes and anxiety states of adults are formed in early childhood.
Alas, Watson did not manage to deprive Albert of fear for no reason, which was fixed for life.
6 Landis Experiments: Spontaneous Facial Expressions and Subordination (1924)
In 1924 Karin Landis of the University of Minnesota began studying human facial expressions. The experiment, conceived by the scientist, was intended to reveal general patterns the work of groups of facial muscles responsible for the expression of individual emotional states, and find facial expressions typical of fear, confusion or other emotions (if we consider typical facial expressions characteristic of most people).
His students were the test subjects. To make facial expressions more expressive, he drew lines on the faces of the experimental subjects with cork soot, after which he showed them something that could cause powerful emotions: forced them to sniff ammonia, listen to jazz, look at pornographic pictures and put their hands in buckets of frogs. At the moment of expressing emotions, students were photographed.
The latest test that Landis prepared for students outraged a wide circle of psychologists. Landis asked each subject to cut off the head of a white rat. All participants in the experiment initially refused to do this, many cried and screamed, but later most of them agreed. Worst of all, most of the participants in the experiment in life did not offend a fly and had absolutely no idea how to carry out the experimenter's order. As a result, the animals suffered a lot.
The consequences of the experiment turned out to be much more important than the experiment itself. Scientists failed to find any regularity in facial expressions, however, psychologists received evidence of how easily people are ready to obey authority and do what is normal. life situation would not have done.
7. Study of the effect of drugs on the body (1969)
Admittedly, some experiments conducted on animals help scientists invent drugs that could later save tens of thousands. human lives. However, some studies cross all the boundaries of ethics.
An example is an experiment designed to help scientists understand the speed and extent of human addiction to drugs. The experiment was carried out on rats and monkeys as animals that are physiologically closest to humans. Animals were trained to inject themselves with a dose of a certain drug: morphine, cocaine, codeine, amphetamine, etc. As soon as the animals learned to "inject" themselves, the experimenters left them a large number of drugs and started monitoring.
The animals were so confused that some of them even tried to escape, and, being under the influence of drugs, they were crippled and did not feel pain. The monkeys who took cocaine began to suffer from convulsions and hallucinations: the unfortunate animals pulled out their knuckles. The monkeys, who were "sitting" on amphetamine, pulled out all the hair from themselves. Animals-"drugs", which preferred "cocktail" of cocaine and morphine, died within 2 weeks after starting the drugs.
While the purpose of the experiment was to understand and evaluate the effects of drugs on the human body with the intent to further develop effective drug addiction treatment, the way the results are achieved is hardly humane.
8 Stanford Prison Experiment (1971)
The "artificial prison" experiment was not meant to be unethical or harmful to the psyche of the participants, but the results of this study shocked the public.
The famous psychologist Philip Zimbardo decided to study the behavior and social norms of individuals who find themselves in atypical prison conditions and are forced to play the roles of prisoners or guards. To do this, an imitation prison was set up in the basement of the Faculty of Psychology, and student volunteers (24 people) were divided into “prisoners” and “guards”. It was assumed that the "prisoners" were placed in a situation where they would experience personal disorientation and degradation, up to complete depersonalization. The "guards" were not given any special instructions regarding their roles.
At first, the students did not really understand how they should play their roles, but on the second day of the experiment, everything fell into place: the uprising of the "prisoners" was brutally suppressed by the "guards". Since then, the behavior of both sides has changed radically. The "guards" have developed a special system of privileges, designed to separate the "prisoners" and sow distrust in each other - they are not as strong alone as together, which means they are easier to "guard". It began to seem to the "guards" that the "prisoners" were ready to raise a new "uprising" at any moment, and the control system was tightened to the limit: the "prisoners" were not left alone with them even in the toilet.
As a result, the "prisoners" began to experience emotional distress, depression, and helplessness. After some time, the "prison priest" came to visit the "prisoners". When asked what their names were, the “prisoners” most often gave their numbers, not their names, and the question of how they were going to get out of prison baffled them.
It turned out that the “prisoners” completely got used to their roles and began to feel like they were in a real prison, and the “guards” felt real sadistic emotions and intentions regarding the “prisoners”, who had been their good friends a few days before. Both sides seemed to have completely forgotten that this was all just an experiment.
Although the experiment was scheduled for two weeks, it was terminated early after six days for ethical reasons.
9. Project Aversion (1970)
In the South African army, from 1970 to 1989, a secret program was carried out to clean up the military ranks from military personnel of non-traditional sexual orientation. All means were used: from electroshock treatment to chemical castration.
The exact number of victims is unknown, however, according to army doctors, during the "purges" about 1,000 military personnel were subjected to various prohibited experiments on human nature. Army psychiatrists, on behalf of the command, "eradicated" homosexuals with might and main: those who were not subjected to "treatment" were sent to shock therapy, forced to take hormonal drugs, and even forced to undergo sex change operations.
Friends, do you often feel that you can't control the situation? That you are the most unfortunate person on this planet and there is nothing to be done about it, nothing to change? If you think so, then you definitely need to read a publication about one very extraordinary study, which was carried out in 1967 by two psychologists, Mark Seligman and Steve Meyer. Using the example of dogs, they were able to prove that a couple of failures are enough to completely knock out all the desire for resistance.
And so, for starters, in order to better understand what is at stake - not a big quote from Wikipedia, what is learned helplessness:
Learned helplessness(English) learned helplessness), Also acquired or learned helplessness- the state of a person or animal in which the individual does not attempt to improve his condition (does not try to avoid negative incentives or receive positive ones), although he has such an opportunity. It usually appears after several unsuccessful attempts to influence the negative circumstances of the environment (or avoid them) and is characterized by passivity, refusal to act, unwillingness to change the hostile environment or avoid it, even when such an opportunity arises. In people, according to a number of studies, it is accompanied by a loss of a sense of freedom and control, disbelief in the possibility of change and in one's own strength, depression, depression, and even an acceleration of death. The phenomenon is open American psychologist Martin Seligman in 1967.
Part 1. Learned Helplessness, The Dog Experiment.
The experiment consisted in the fact that the dogs were divided into three groups. The first one received a discharge with a current until they took action on their own. The second group could not influence the situation in any way and simply received a shock, and the third control group did not receive a shock. As a result of the experiment, psychologists wanted to find out how this would affect the behavior of dogs and the desire to run away from the electric shock zone? The results were very unexpected.
And so, as I said, during the experiment, all the dogs were divided into three groups in the same boxes. The first group was given the opportunity to avoid pain: by pressing its nose on a special panel, the dog of this group could turn off the power to the system that caused the blow. So she was able to control the situation, her reaction mattered. In the second group, the deactivation of the shock device depended on the actions of the first group. These dogs received the same blow as the dogs of the first group, but their own reaction did not affect the result. The pain effect on the dog of the second group stopped only when the dog of the first group, associated with it, pressed the switch-off panel. The third group of dogs (control) did not receive a blow at all.
During the experiment, the dogs of the first group learned to turn off the system, the second - they realized their helplessness and were forced to endure. The third group - just lived their own ordinary life. After that, all three groups of dogs were placed in a box with a partition, through which any of them could easily jump over, and thus get rid of the electric shock.
And what was the result? Both the dogs of the first group and the control group easily jumped over a low partition, thereby avoiding electric shock. But the dogs of the second group, which could not control the situation during the experiment, rushed around the box, and then lay down on the bottom and, whining, endured electric shocks of more and more force.
Part 2. Subsequent experiments.
During the experiment, it was concluded that troubles in themselves do not affect the psyche. An animal, like a person, becomes helpless precisely from the inability to influence the situation. Seligman later conducted a similar experiment with humans, only instead of current, he used noise. And most people just as quickly became helpless in front of the experimenter and did not try to do anything to change something.
But in fact, not only troubles can deprive us of willpower and make us helpless. This does not require the use of electricity or noise. It is enough just to limit a person in choice. A very illustrative experiment was conducted in 1976 in a nursing home.
To conduct the study, Langer and Rodin randomly selected two floors of a nursing home, the inhabitants of which became participants in the experiment. Thus, the experimental group included 8 men and 39 women (fourth floor), the control group - 9 men and 35 women (second floor), a total of 91 people.
The experimenters agreed with the administration of the institution on two types of experimental conditions. Briefly, they can be described as follows: residents of the fourth floor were given increased responsibility for themselves and their lifestyle, residents of the second floor were left with the opportunity to lead a normal lifestyle for patients at home, surrounded by the attention and care of staff.
The inhabitants of the second floor at the first meeting were given the standard instruction:
We want your rooms to look as comfortable as possible and will try our best to do so. We want you to feel happy here and we hold ourselves responsible so that you can be proud of our nursing home and be happy here… We will do everything in our power to help you… I would like to take the opportunity and give everyone of you, a gift from Arden House (the employee went around and handed each patient a plant) now these are your plants, they will stand in your room, the nurses will water them and take care of them, you yourself will not need to do anything
The inhabitants of the fourth floor were told the following:
You yourself have to decide how your room will look like, whether you want to leave everything as it is or if you want our employees to help you rearrange the furniture ... You yourself must tell us your wishes, tell us what exactly you would like to change in your life. In addition, I would like to take advantage of our meeting to give each of you a gift from Arden House. If you decide that you want to start a plant, you can choose the one you like from this box. These plants are yours, you must keep them and take care of them as you see fit. We will be screening the film on two evenings next week, Tuesday and Friday. You need to decide on which day you will go to the cinema and whether you want to watch the movie at all.
— Rodin J., Langer E. Long-term effects of a control relevant intervention with the institutionalized aged
Note that in essence, everyone was given the same conditions, but with one difference. Conditions were practically imposed on one, and the right of choice was given to others. However, the results were very different. Thus, the average level of happiness of a negative value of -0.12 in the "second floor group" was contrasted with the average estimate of +0.28 in the "fourth floor group" (according to personal reports of patients). The improvement in the condition of patients, according to nurses, in the experimental group showed +3.97 versus -2.39 in the control group. There was also a significant difference in the time spent communicating with other patients, talking with staff, and passively observing staff (the latter criterion showed -2.14 in the experimental group versus +4.64 in the control group).
Six months after the study, Langer and Rodin returned to Arden House to take another measurement and see if the experimental action was continuing. The nurses' ratings showed that subjects in the increased responsibility group continued to be in better condition: the overall average score for them was 352.33 versus 262.00 for the control group. there were also slight improvements in health in the experimental group and deterioration in the control group. Finally, in the time interval since the first study, 30% of the participants in the control group died, while 15% of the participants in the experimental group died. Based on the results obtained, the administration of Arden House decided to further encourage patients to take control of their own lives.
Part 3. Summary.
What should be the conclusion from all this? I would like to believe that the poor dogs did not suffer in vain and each of you will draw a conclusion that was probably obvious even without their suffering. If you have troubles in your life, it is probably your own fault! Think about it, are you the same dog in a cage that does not want to solve its problems? As it turns out, even old people can perk up if their lives are given meaning, so isn’t it because we sometimes give in to despair that we just need to pull ourselves together a little? I think it's worth thinking about...
The publication belongs to the thematic selection: "Cruel psychology"
Psychology is one of the most unusual sciences, which seems curious and harmless. But not when experts in the field of cruelty get down to business. And in this collection we have collected just such cases ...
An experiment is a powerful mental device that helps to separate the phenomena of the surrounding world from each other and reveal their essence. With the help of experiments, one can better understand and more clearly demonstrate not only the properties of chemical compounds, but also the features of social life - and educational process in particular.
We have collected experiments that are considered classics in social psychology and provoked a great deal of controversy. Their results may surprise you, or they may seem like a confirmation of what you already know very well. (In the latter case, you may have fallen victim to the retrospective distortion effect, popularly known in the form of the saying "hindsight is strong").
1. How to teach helplessness
Misunderstanding of the logic of what is happening + lack of control → passivity and voluntary impotence
The effect of "learned helplessness" was vividly demonstrated by the famous experiments of Martin Saligaman from University of Pennsylvania carried out in the 1960s.
Dogs locked in cages formed a fear response to high-pitched sounds. To do this, as it should be in classical experiments, the animals were beaten with weak discharges of electric current. When the same experiment was repeated with open cages, the dogs, to the surprise of the experimenters, did not run away, but only lay down on the floor and whined.
In another version of the experiment, the dogs were divided into 3 groups: the first ones could turn off the current by pressing the button with their noses, the second ones stopped shocking only when the first ones coped with this task, and the dogs from the third group were generally left alone.
Then all the animals were placed in a box with a partition: electric shocks could be avoided by jumping to the other side.
After several unsuccessful attempts to change the situation, passivity and impotence follow, which persists even if the conditions have changed and what is happening can already be influenced. The reverse is also true: if a dog has experience of overcoming obstacles on its own, it is not so easy to train for helplessness. Therefore, yard dogs in this experiment gave up less often and later than laboratory dogs.
All this applies not only to dogs, but also to people. The scientists divided the inhabitants of the nursing home into two groups: the first were treated helpfully and attentively, but they were relieved of all worries (for example, the staff brought plants to the rooms and took care of them), while the second were pushed in every possible way to make an independent choice - they were motivated to express wishes and furnish rooms of your choice.
All this is directly related to educational environment. The best way to make people passive and irresponsible is to teach them helplessness, depriving them of independent choice and initiative, as is often the case in our schools and universities.
- Later, Martin Seligman began to study the phenomenon of conscious optimism and became a representative of the so-called. "positive psychology". For example, his books How to Learn Optimism and The Optimistic Child have been published in Russian.
2. One now or two later?
The ability to delay gratification → success in life
The famous "marshmallow test" (marshmallow experiment), first conducted in the late 1960s by Walter Mischel of Stanford University.
A group of children 4-6 years old were given a choice - eat marshmallows right now or wait 15 minutes and get twice as much. Children reacted to the situation in different ways (mostly depending on their age and environment), but about a third waited for the arrival of the experimenter and received a well-deserved bonus.
But the most important thing came out later. Children who were able to pass the 15 minutes of the marshmallow test scored better on the SAT (a standardized college-applicant cognitive test) at 14 years of age, and their parents considered them more competent and self-reliant.
In 2011, adult participants in the same experiment were shoved into a CT scanner. It turned out that the prefrontal cortex - the zone responsible for rational decision-making - interacts differently with the ventral striatum (the area that is associated with the formation of addictions). Apparently, the rational part of the brain somehow competes with the area that seeks pleasure here and now.
Additional research has found that the ability to delay gratification is a trait that is strongly correlated with lifelong success. But this does not mean that it cannot be developed in oneself.
- Do not eat marshmallows right away and develop self-control will help the book "Development of Willpower", which was written by Walter Mischel himself.
3. What leads to strict discipline and the power of authority
Discipline + renunciation of freedom and own opinion→ controllability and discrimination
1967 experiment conducted school teacher Ron Jones in the 10th grade of an ordinary American high school.
The experiment began with a question from one of the students as they world war: how could ordinary Germans live, knowing about the massacres and extermination of Jews? Jones decided to devote the next seven days to this problem.
He told the students about the beauty of discipline, taught them to stand at attention and answer questions clearly; showed the power of community - introduced a special welcome gesture and joint chanting; handed out membership cards and accustomed to strictly defined rules of the schedule. As a result, denunciation spread in the group - violations were readily reported even by those students who were not required to do so.
Volunteers joined the class, so by Thursday, about 80 teenagers were members of the “third wave”. Jones then explained that their organization was part of a nationwide youth program for the benefit of the people. Its branches are already open throughout the country, and their leader will appear on TV on Friday.
About 200 people gathered for this speech in the class, and then Jones finally announced that there was no third wave, the students became objects of manipulation and behaved much like the Germans during the Third Reich. The experiment was a heavy blow not only for many students, but also for the teacher himself.
The history of this experiment remained unknown for a long time, but now several full-length films are devoted to it, not to mention numerous publications.
Another famous teacher experiment was about discrimination. teacher elementary school Jane Elliott divided the class into brown-eyed and blue-eyed, explaining that the former were superior to others in their natural abilities, and granted them some privileges. A day later, the group of "chosen ones" became more cruel, and the blue-eyed ones, who were in the minority, became quieter and more passive.
- To learn more about the "Third Wave" will help the book of the same name by the author of this experiment.
Psychology is famous for its unusual and sometimes monstrous experiences. This is not physics, where you need to roll balls on the table, and not biology with its microscopes and cells. Here the objects of research are dogs, monkeys and people. Paul Kleinman described the most famous and controversial experiments in his new work "Psychology". AiF.ru publishes the most notable experiments described in the book.
prison experiment
Philip Zimbardo conducted a curious experiment, which is called the Stanford Prison Experiment. Scheduled for two weeks, it was terminated after 6 days. The psychologist wanted to understand what happens when a person's individuality and dignity are taken away - as happens in prison.
Zimbardo hired 24 men, whom he divided into two equal groups and distributed the roles - prisoners and guards, and he himself became the "head of the prison." The entourage was appropriate: the guards wore uniforms, and each had a baton, but the “criminals”, as befits people in this position, were dressed in poor overalls, they were not given underwear, and an iron chain was tied to their leg - as a reminder about the prison. There was no furniture in the cells, only mattresses. The food wasn't outstanding either. In general, everything is real.
The prisoners were kept in cells designed for three people, around the clock. The guards could go home at night and generally do whatever they wanted with the prisoners (except for corporal punishment).
The very next day after the start of the experiment, the prisoners barricaded the door in one of the cells, and the guards poured foam on them from a fire extinguisher. A little later, a VIP cell was created for those who behaved well. Very soon, the guards began to have fun: they forced the prisoners to do push-ups, strip naked and clean the latrines with their hands. As punishment for rebellions (which, by the way, the prisoners regularly organized), mattresses were taken away from them. Later, a normal toilet became a privilege: those who rebelled were not allowed out of the cell - they only brought a bucket.
Approximately 30% of the guards showed sadistic tendencies. Interestingly, the prisoners also got used to their role. At first they were promised to give 15 dollars daily. However, even after Zimbardo announced that he would not pay the money, no one expressed a desire to go free. People voluntarily decided to continue!
On the seventh day, a graduate student visited the prison: she was going to conduct a survey among the experimental subjects. The picture simply shocked the girl - she was shocked by what she saw. After looking at the reaction of an outsider, Zimbardo realized that things had gone too far, and decided to stop the experiment ahead of schedule. The American Psychological Association strictly forbade it ever being repeated on ethical grounds. The ban is still in effect.
invisible gorilla
Perceptual blindness is a phenomenon when a person is so overloaded with impressions that he does not notice anything around him. Attention is completely absorbed by only one object. All of us suffer from this kind of visual blindness from time to time.
Daniel Simons showed the subjects a video where people dressed in black and white T-shirts threw a ball to each other. The task was simple - to count the number of throws. While two groups of people were tossing the ball, a man dressed in a gorilla costume appeared in the center of the sports ground: he pounded his chest with his fists, just like a real monkey, and then calmly walked off the field.
After watching the video, the participants in the experiment were asked if they noticed anything strange on the site. And as many as 50% answered in the negative: half simply did not see a huge gorilla! This is explained not only by the focus on the game, but also by the fact that we are not ready to see something incomprehensible and unexpected in everyday life.
Killer teachers
Stanley Milgram known for his outrageous hair-raising experiment. He decided to study how and why people obey authority. The psychologist was prompted by the trial of a Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was accused of having ordered the extermination of millions of Jews during World War II. Lawyers built a defense based on the claim that he was just a military man and obeyed the orders of commanders.
Milgram advertised in the newspaper and found 40 volunteers ostensibly to study memory and learning abilities. Everyone was told that someone would be the teacher and someone would be the student. And they even held a draw so that people would take what was happening at face value. In fact, everyone got a piece of paper with the word "teacher" on it. In each pair of experimental subjects, the "student" was an actor who acted in concert with the psychologist.
So, what was this shocking experiment?
1. The “student”, whose task was to memorize the words, was tied to a chair and electrodes were connected to the body, after which the “teachers” were asked to go to another room.
2. There was an electric current generator in the "teacher's" room. As soon as the “student” made a mistake while memorizing new words, he had to be punished with a current discharge. The process began with a small discharge of 30 volts, but each time it increased by 15 volts. The maximum point is 450 volts.
So that the "teacher" does not doubt the purity of the experiment, they beat him with an electric shock with a voltage of 30 volts - quite noticeably. And that's the only real one.
3. Then the fun begins. The "student" remembers the words, but soon makes mistakes. Naturally, the experimental "teacher" punishes him, as it should be according to the instructions. With a discharge of 75 volts (of course, fake), the actor groans, then squeals and begs to untie him from the chair. Each time the current increases, the screams only get louder. The actor even complains of pain in the heart!
4. Of course, people were scared and wondered if it was worth continuing. Then they were clearly told not to stop in any case. And the people obeyed. Although some trembled and laughed nervously, many did not dare to disobey.
5. At around 300 volts, the actor furiously pounded the wall with his fists and shouted that he was in a lot of pain and that he could not bear this pain; at 330 volts it was completely quiet. Meanwhile, the “teacher” was told: since the “student” is silent, this is the same as the wrong answer. So, the quiet "student" must be shocked again.
7. The experiment ended when the "teacher" chose the maximum discharge of 450 volts.
The conclusions were terrible: 65% of the participants reached highest point and "draconian" figures of 450 volts - they applied a discharge of such force to a living person! And these are ordinary, “normal” people. But under the pressure of authority, they subjected those around them to suffering.
Milgram's experiment is still criticized for being unethical. After all, the participants did not know that everything was for fun, and experienced serious stress. No matter how you look at it, causing pain to another person turns into a psychological trauma for life.
Heinz dilemma
Psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg studied moral development. He believed that this is a process that continues throughout life. To confirm his guesses, Kohlberg offered the children different ages difficult moral dilemmas.
The psychologist told the children a story about a woman who was dying - she was being killed by cancer. And then, by a lucky chance, one pharmacist allegedly invented a medicine that could help her. However, he asked for a huge price - $ 2,000 per dose (although the cost of manufacturing the drug was only $ 200). The woman's husband—his name was Heinz—borrowed money from friends and raised only half the amount, $1,000.
Arriving at the pharmacist, Heinz asked him to sell the medicine for his dying wife cheaper, or at least on credit. However, he replied, “No! I created a cure and I want to get rich.” Heinz fell into despair. What was to be done? That same night, he secretly entered the pharmacy and stole the medicine. Did Heinz do well?
Such is the dilemma. Interestingly, Kohlberg did not study the answers to the question, but the reasoning of children. As a result, he singled out several stages in the development of morality: starting from the stage when the rules are perceived as absolute truth, and ending with the observance of one's own moral principles - even if they run counter to the laws of society.
For whom the Bell Tolls
Many people know that Ivan Pavlov studied reflexes. But few people know that he was interested in the cardiovascular system and digestion, and he also knew how to insert a catheter into dogs quickly and without anesthesia - in order to track how emotions and drugs affect blood pressure (and whether they affect at all).
Pavlov's famous experiment, when researchers developed new reflexes in dogs, became a grandiose discovery in psychology. Oddly enough, it was he who largely helped to explain why a person develops panic disorders, anxiety, fears and psychoses (acute conditions with hallucinations, delusions, depression, inadequate reactions and confused consciousness).
So how did Pavlov's experiment with dogs go?
1. The scientist noticed that food (an unconditioned stimulus) causes a natural reflex in dogs in the form of saliva. As soon as the dog sees the food, it starts to salivate. But the sound of the metronome is a neutral stimulus, it does not cause anything.
2. Dogs were given a lot of time to listen to the sound of the metronome (which, as we remember, was a neutral stimulus). After that, the animals were fed immediately (they used the unconditioned stimulus).
3. After a while, they began to associate the sound of the metronome with eating.
4. The last phase - formed conditioned reflex. The sound of the metronome was always salivating. And it doesn’t matter if the dogs were given food after it or not. It just became part of the conditioned reflex.
Drawing from the book "Psychology" by Paul Kleinman. Publishing house "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber".
Excerpts courtesy of Mann, Ivanov & Ferber
