Thursday, February 28, 2013

Experiments of a Psychological Nature Part 1: The Dawning of the Age of Experiments

Last week was a hectic one, what with final preparations and performances of the latest CUPS (Clark University Players Society) play, Sarah Ruhl's "Melancholy Play." It was a rousing success and every performance was more fun than a barrel full of monkeys (a thing which isn't very much fun at all, but is, in fact, rather depressing).

Today I've just turned in homework for PSYC 108 -- Research Methods, which involved the planning of an experiment on the nature of perception of personality. Some original research on the subject, which piqued my interest, was conducted by Solomon Asch, whom I would recommend reading. Asch's most famous experiments were conducted on conformity, as you may be aware. If you're not aware, please allow me to inform you. First conducted in 1951, the Asch experiments took average people, put them in a room of strangers, and made those people change their opinions. How interesting, I hear you cry. But what if I told you the experiments were conducted with lines on paper? That's right: lines. Interested now? ... I'm not explaining this very well, so I'll consult my Social Psychology textbook: "The experimenter shows everyone two cards, one with a single line on it, the other with three lines labeled 1, 2, and 3. He asks each of you to judge and then announce out loud which of the three lines on the second card is closest in length to the line on the first card" (Aronson, et. al. 2013). The experimenter presents another set and then another of the same style. Eventually, the other people in the room blatantly give incorrect answers. Because the participant is at the end of the line, he answers last, and frequently was induced by NORMATIVE SOCIAL INFLUENCE to choose the same incorrect line. If you guessed that everyone except one participant in the room were confederates, you're correct. Bravo.

Another sort of normative social influence is exhibited at the end of George Orwell's "1984," but most people would argue that it's an example of conditioning. I say it's both, so there. "1984" is all about social influences. And politics, and English, and stuff. It's a pretty great book. One of my top 10 books.

This is not what my class experiment is about. That experiment is on perception, not conformity. Unfortunately I can't say much about it because it would compromise its integrity. In fact, I may have said too much already. This blog post will self destruct in 10 seconds...
It's a pretty simple study though; participants will read a story and answer some questions, which'll enable the measurement of perceptions of personality. Just vague enough to work.
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Speaking of psychology, I've got a midterm exam in Social Psychology tomorrow. It's going to be on such amazing topics as "what is Social Psychology?" "How does Social Psychology differ from Developmental/Cultural/Clinical Psychology?" and "What do we mean by an overconfidence barrier?" Let's just say that my passing this exam will be my leaping an overconfidence barrier... or something... Maybe, I'm gonna take down that overconfidence barrier... The joke is that an overconfidence barrier refers to peoples' usually having too much confidence in the accuracy of their judgements... I don't know where to go from here... I'll just move on...

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And lastly, that paper I have to write for my French Cinema class. That wasn't a sentence, but you know what? (What?) This next sentence will be a sentence: It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.
That, let it be known, will not help me write the paper.
The subject of the essay will be something like "Describe the place of the unlikely hero in some of the films we watched," or, "French film is an art. What's up with that?" or, "Yo, dude, what's up with all the war movies?"* I haven't really thought about it, but it'll be great when I do.
*I must note that, though the institution which I attend is liberal and progressive, and all that, it still has some standards which I believe would bar the asking of this sort of question. Not all French movies are about The War.

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Spring break begins for me after 1:15pm tomorrow, and after I've finished that essay. Enjoy the weather. Or don't. Whatever. Free country. Home of the brave. America. Free association. Woo.

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