Part of the Series : Understanding Psychology

Length: 39 minutes

ORDER CODE: BVL40125

ISBN: 978-1-60825-475-0

Copyright date: ©2007

Closed Captioned


Description
This program brings to life five of psychology’s most significant studies: Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment, 1961; Milgram’s Study of Obedience, 1963; Ainsworth’s Strange Situation Experiment, 1971 and 1978; Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment, 1973; and Loftus’s Eyewitness Testimony Experiment, 1974. Footage from the original experiments and from contemporary reconstructions is featured throughout, along with expert commentary and analysis. Viewable/printable educational resources are available online. A part of the series Understanding Psychology. (38 minutes)

Contents

Understanding Attachment (01:14)
Attachment is a central concept in developmental psychology.

The Strange Situation (02:47)
Researcher Mary Ainsworth developed an experiment to assess attachment in babies and toddlers, and defined secure and insecure attachments.

Types of Attachment (02:40)
Ainsworth recognized three types of attachment: Secure attachment, insecure avoidant, insecure resistant. Subsequent researchers recognized a fourth - insecure disorganized attachment.

The Parent's Role (01:08)
Ainsworth suggested parenting style plays a role in how these different levels of attachments occur.

Bobo Doll Experiment (01:53)
The Bobo Doll Experiment conducted by Albert Bandura, studied the patterns of behavior associated with aggression.

Meeting Bobo (02:03)
The experiment was to expose young children to aggressive and non-aggressive adult role models using a blow-up doll and note how they respond.

The Results (02:15)
Bandura's results showed that children observing the aggressive behavior mimicked the aggression whereas the children who were not exposed did not display aggressive behavior.

Remembering Violence (01:40)
The Bobo Doll experiment showed that children learn aggressive responses from observing others, either personally or through the media and environment.

Eyewitness Testimony Experiment (02:17)
Elizabeth Loftus’s Eyewitness Testimony experiment revealed that memory can be radically altered by the way an eyewitness is questioned after the fact.

Remembering the Facts (02:45)
Loftus argued that leading questions can change memories and even create false memories.

Influencing the Court (01:12)
Over 200 studies have been done to validate Loftus's findings on memory and the unreliability of an eyewitness testimony.

Justification? (01:56)
Trying to understand the justifications for the acts of genocide offered by those accused at the World War II, Nuremberg War Crimes, Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience.

Milgram's Study of Obedience (02:17)
The focus of the experiment was the subject's responses to the situation.

The Results (01:59)
Milgram was shocked to find those who questioned authority were in the minority. Sixty-five percent of the teachers were willing to progress to the maximum voltage level.

Milgram's Conclusion (01:07)
Milgram concluded people obey either out of fear or out of a desire to appear cooperative--even when acting against their own better judgment and desires.

Stanford Prison Experiment (02:23)
Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment was a controversial psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life.

Rebellion (03:07)
The experiment quickly grew out of hand. Prisoners suffered — and accepted — sadistic and humiliating treatment from the guards.

The Results (02:35)
The experiment revealed how much circumstances can distort individual personalities--and how anyone, when given complete control over others, can abuse power.