Stanford prison experiment

Do you know the Stanford prison experiment? I bet you do. It is famous, also because it has been depicted in several films. Have you seen the movie "Das Experiment"? Let me tell you about it.

Cookie cutters

In a book called "Great Scientific Experiments: 20 Experiments that Changed Our View of the World," there’s one about cookie cutters. Are you curious?

Anthony reads the post:

Do you feel guilty? Not at all!

Reflecting upon my last two posts it seems evident that human beings do not always act according to moral standards. In psychology, we use the expression “mechanisms of moral disengagement”, there are justifications that allow us to abandon moral standards (so that we can have unkind or reprehensible behaviour) without feel guilty. The psychologist Albert Bandura classified 8 mechanisms. Would you like to see them?

Anthony reads the post:

Shoot out! Yes, sir

Do you do everything that you are told to do? Do you do everything that your boss asks of you? These are two similar questions, but probably with different answers. Why is it different if the order is given by someone representing authority? Let’s see why you end up saying yes to your boss.

Anthony reads the post:

Can you help me? Eh... maybe

Helping a stranger is not a man’s instinctive behaviour. We help someone we don’t know if we know that he or she depends on us. Helpful behaviour in Psychology is called altruistic behaviour. Let us try together to understand why it is not so spontaneous to help others.

Anthony reads the post:

I read that research of the University of...

How many times have you read or heard that the researchers from a specific University discovered that... and then followed news that appeared useless. As an example, consider the relationship between how you hang toilet paper and your personality! Here there is a problem of scientific dissemination (as well as use of public money), to explain scientific facts to people who may have little or no knowledge about a subject. 

Cathy reads the post:

Freud. Psychology or Psychoanalysis?

I bet if I said the word Psychology, one of the first three words that you would think of, would be the name "Freud". What if I told you that Freud hadn't ever dealt with Psychology? What would be your reaction? Let’s take it step by step. Freud was a neurologist and, starting from the works of other authors, (Charcot and Janet) he developed an unconscious mind theory. Freud’s unconscious mind theory provides an explanation of behaviours that we are not aware of.

Anthony reads the post:

Schizophrenia symptoms

How do I talk about schizophrenia in a simple way? Let’s try this.
Idea: A schizophrenia diagnosis can be made when at least two psychotic symptoms occur for at least six months. So at least two symptoms for a period not less than six months. Okay, but what are the psychotic symptoms? They are delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, grossly disorganized behaviour, and negative symptoms. Let’s look at them.

Anthony reads the post:

How much do you look like your dog?

Charles Darwin. Do you know the name? If not, have you ever heard about evolution theory? We can summarize it in this way: what we are as a human species is the result of a series of adaptations to the environment. This is valid for all species including animals and plants. Throughout the ages, species have acquired and lost physical and behavioural characteristics to overcome the challenges that the environment gave them. Sounds cool. But what does psychology have to do with this?

Christine reads the post:

How do you behave with your pen?

If I mention the term “behaviour”, what do you think of? Perhaps of the time that you said or thought "I don’t like his behaviour", or, less frequently: "He is a nice person, I admire the way he behaves when angry or stressed". Many of us think of behaviour as something that comes out of a relationship with another person. In the field of psychology, behaviour is also something else.

Andrew reads the post: