Any psychologists here ?

[kentuck]

I am thinking specifically of a text I had read in one of my old college psychology classes where "subjects" were given different amounts of electricity by other students in the test to see how much torture would be applied to other humans when one had complete control over the other. Does anyone remember that experiment?

I mention that because I think it relates directly to Abu Graib and Quantanamo. These prisoners were helpless. Their guards were in complete control. There were no media, no press, and no Red Cross. There was no one to oversee their actions. Can we expect that something akin to the psychology experiment happened in these places because it is part of human nature, according to some of these studies?

[dogday]

1. Most of The Students would continue to administer shock even

when they saw it was hurting the other person. They did what they were told to do even though they were inflicting great pain.

Very few would quit because they could not continue to hear people suffer...

[librechik]

2. here it is--The Milgram experiment

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[kentuck]

5. thanks!

I think this is important information in this discussion.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Dr. Stanley Milgram

Here ya go! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment

[H2O Man]

4. I'm not.

But I agree with your basic premise. I think that the general public would be surprised at the amount of torture that occures in the jails and prisons of America. Even in a rural county jail, things can get mighty weird. I am retired now, but my years as a psychiatric social worker included a good bit of forensic work. I saw some unsettling things.

I believe that Jackpine Radical is a psychologist. He might have some interesting things to add to this.

[noamnety]

6. Also see the Stanford Prison Experiment

from 1971.

<snip>
"Our planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students who participated. In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress."
<snip>

The slide show is chilling.

http://www.prisonexp.org/

[H2O Man]

7. "The Society of Captives"

by Princeton University social scientist Gresham M. Sykes, is worth reading. It is his 1958 study of Trenton State Prison. One quote for this discussion: "Centers of opposition in the inmate population -- in the form of men recognized as leaders by fellow prisoners -- can be neutralized through the use of solitary confinement or exile to other state institutions. Just as the Deep South served as a dumping-ground for particularly troublesome slaves before the Civil War, so too can the ... mental hospital serve as a dumping-ground for the maximum security prison."

[Ladyhawk]

17. Correctional Officers in training should have to study this.

Somehow, I doubt they do. :(

[nytemare]

8. Peter Gabriel had a song about it

"We Do What We're Told"

[applegrove]

9. A certain percentage would never shock too much. They were

deemed to be educated or spiritual or social justice oriented or had some such personalities that they didn't deem any scientist standing over them to be an expert on what they should and should not do.

In other words many people will give up their adulthood and hand it over to a paternal expert if the pressure is on. Some will not. They tended to be people who saw no higher authority than their own dam selves... in other words incorruptible adults.

Scary how many people will hand over responsibility for their actions to someone who demands it. Is how the freepers work. They know a certain percentage will follow blindly if put in the right situation. The same thing as adolescence. Patriotism is used as the master for freepers.

Seems to be failing though. Notice how Bush propaganda didn't work on the educated or the very devout or the social justice folk? The only highly educated who buy into the whole Bush thing are the neocons and their followers who see themselves as the experts or the exploiter freepers who see propaganda and patriotism as a chance to take advantage of others and fill up their empty self-esteem. And of course the ones who are very, very involved in the fight over abortion and see that as a horrible evil.

[fla nocount]

10. Heyzeus! you people are as old as me.

Was everybody here a Psych major? Remember when the field had it's own glossy trade magazine, Psycholgy Today?

Milgrams bullies at recess, thanks Kentuck, I had forgotten.

[DemBones DemBones]

11. I was never a psych major but did take an intro course; I think

most people did. My psych professor was really into behaviorism. :eyes:

[Tux]

12. BS in Psych

I do have a question: what is the cheapest way to keep up with psych? With no jobs here, I couldn't get a job after college since psych jobs were dying off, turning clinical instead of experiemtnal, and I just realized that I am forgetting all that I learned 7 years ago and have none of my textbooks. Just what books I got in the past 3 years and not much of that. I just want to keep up enough to get by. I like it but the fire died when clinical took over and research seemed to die with the jobs.

[fla nocount]

14. I remember well. I ended with a BSW.

I'm in construction management now. You'd be surprised how much applies.

There is no keeping up or staying current. The field as you've noticed is trendy. I made my living working for researchers around the country in the 70's and what was true then is true now. Get your masters and work in schools and hospitals or get your Ph.D and teach or publish. There's no longer any research money for research or publishing so one must resort to being a YEECH, clinician with all the touchy, feelie, unobservable motivations that you must somehow interpret as they manifest without coming off as some kind of witch doctor. It's an art now, there's no science.

[Tux]

16. My reaction

:wtf: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

Oh well. I have been considering UU ministry but that is very risky yet I could expand on career choices. Jobs in KY are limited though. I have to keep trying. Thanks for the advice.

[fla nocount]

18. My Unity minister is a Jungian/Adlerian psychologist.

Earned his masters I believe and functioned as a school counselor before turning the corner to ministry. He does well, seems happy and functions with little stress.

[shockra]

13. I've been thinking about that study recently, too.

Except in regards to the Taser stories.

[ElectroPrincess]

15. Masters Lever Puke Here, One Each :P

Specialize in Addiction Treatment.