In 1971, Dr. Phillip Zimbardo conducted a controversial experiment to test humans’ behavioral responses to captivity, i.e. how humans react when placed in varying authoritative and submissive positions within a controlled environment. This experiment became known as “The Stanford Prison Experiment”—the implications of which have both fascinated and frightened the psychiatric community at large for more than three decades. I’ve included the first part of an excellent documentary for you to watch. After viewing this documentary, I’d be curious to know what you think Zimbardo’s experiment teaches us about the human psyche, if any such lesson can be learned within so-called “controlled environments” like Stanford’s make believe prison. Let us know what you think in the comments section. We’ll talk again soon…
Thanks Ryan, this video was really eye opening and scary at the same time! I watched the rest of the programs. Mr. Rushkoff has a few other programs I plan to watch—all seem interesting.
I shared some of the information with my teenager and we had a nice conversation. The new generation is being raised with a weak set of values making them very vulnerable to the marketing by people who don’t care about their well being. The more aware we are of the tricks being played, the more capable we are of resisting and giving them the tools they need at a young age not to be vulnerable to this kind of marketing.
Thanks again for sharing such thought provoking topics.
The insights of cultural/media theorist Douglas Rushkoff are always contemporary and often prescient. He was deciphering the social codes of the virtual psyche, lifestyle, and marketplace before such concepts were formally identified by the so-called “machine.” TheMerchants Of Cool is a brilliant analysis of the incorporation of youth pop-culture that Ruskhoff created while working as a correspondent for PBS Frontline. This is a very entertaining documentary. You’ll learn a lot too. Let me know what you think in the comments section.
I recently read an interesting book called From Difficult To Disturbed. The author, clinical and forensic psychologist Laurence Miller, presents a number of compelling analyses of workplace psychology and the range of personality types, from the narcissistic to the sociopathic, comprising the fragile dynamic of every workplace environment—even yours. As you read this book, you’ll find yourself profiling your colleagues, sometimes laughing out loud and other times changing your lunch partners, but in either case, I think your job will never look quite the same again. Click on the image above to listen to a fascinating podcast interview with Laurence Miller. I encourage you to share your thoughts after listening to this interview.
Thanks to dbking for permission to use this Photo.
It was meant to be a special Halloween night episode of the American radio program, Mercury Theatre on the Air. Directed by 23-year old Orson Welles, the program was an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel The War of the Worlds. The screenplay for the show introduced an unprecedented innovation for American radio: use of a fake newscast to provide listeners with the experience of actually living through an alien invasion.
Broadcast from a studio in New York City on October 30, 1938, the program was presented as an ordinary music program that was frequently interrupted by news bulletins. After first describing strange explosions on Mars (Welles played a prominent astronomer), listeners were then told of the landing of a strange “meteorite” in Grover’s Mills, New Jersey. The meteorite turns out to be a Martian capsule which then destroys hundreds of onlookers with “heat rays”. As the episode continued, more Martian ships land and devastation is unleashed across the entire United States.
Despite military resistance, the Martian invaders prove too strong and unleash terrible weapons including “poison gas” sprayed into the air. New York City is invaded by “great machines” wading across the Hudson River. Coverage of the invasion is provided by a “news reporter” who describes “people dropping like flies” until he is killed by the poison gas himself. The broadcast ends with Welles (in his role as the astronomer) telling listeners about the devastation and how the Martians were destroyed by Earth’s bacteria.
Later reports came out about the”panic” the resulted from the broadcast but there is still debate over how widespread it really was. Although disclaimers that the invasion was fictional were inserted at several points in the program, many listeners were still convinced that the invasion was real . Later estimates placed the number of listeners at six million with 1.2 million believing it to be “genuinely true”. Incidents of actual panic remain scarce although reports of people fleeing their homes or hiding in their cellars to avoid the “poison gas” came out afterward. (more…)
Thanks to Boris Anthony for permission to use this Photo.
Marshall McLuhan’s groundbreaking theories on media communications and the psycho-social impact of technological development made him both a very respected and controversial figure beginning in the 1950’s. Seen by many as a prophet of our contemporary media filtered age, McLuhan’s famous “the medium is the message” theory, in which the communications medium itself (microphone, television, computer, letter) is more directly related to the meaning and ultimate impact of a given message than the actual “content” (intellectual/rational meaning) continues to gain depth as the decades pass.
I recently discovered an excellent audio-video archive of McLuhan’s work on the CBC web site. This is a great primer for our psychology students unfamiliar with his work and I strongly encourage you to check this archive out by clicking here. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on McLuhan, a thinker who still truly remains ahead of his time.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program
Thanks to Gaetan Lee for permission to use this Photo.
Renowned as one of the most gifted, original, and charismatic thinkers in the world; V.S. Ramachandran is a neurologist with an almost preternatural understanding of the brain’s deepest mechanisms and the nature of consciousness.
Ramachandran’s insights into such facinating enigmas as phantom limb syndrome, synesthesia, and capgras delusion continue to both inspire and puzzle the psycho-scientific community, while his entertaining presentations always promise to dazzle even the most cynical of audiences. Check out the following video from the TED conference. Lose your mind.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University
The following video features an interview with psychologist Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The Psychology of Success. Carol specializes in analyzing students’ attitudes towards their own “intelligence” and how these attitudes influence whether students will perceive learning as an opportunity for growth or as a potential failure to be feared. The latter attitude negatively contributes to a “fixed” mindset in which students generally become complacent and frustrated with their own lack of performance. These students see their own minds in a static light and gradually end up devaluing their own abilities. The former “growth” oriented attitude, in which students recognize that mistakes are simply part of the learning process, and that one’s ability to learn from those mistakes is integral to achieving higher goals, should be seen by our Ashworth student community as key to advancing through your program studies with confidence.
This might be a good time to take a look at your mindset. Are you more growth than fixed or vice-versa? It’s ok if you presently see yourself as fixed. Remember, you are fully capable of changing your mindset at any time. You just have to be motivated to change. Take comfort in the fact that we’re here to help you reach your potential. Stay focused. Your hard work is going to pay off.
A study in the December 2007 issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry examines the prevalence of psychotic symptoms and schizophrenia in nondemented 95-year-olds over a one-year period. A sample of 338 95-year-olds living in Göteborg, Sweden (individuals with dementia were excluded leaving 163 subjects for this study) received psychiatric and physical examinations as well as cognitive tests and interviews with close informants. The results indicated that the one-year prevalence of any psychotic symptom was 7.4% overall (hallucinations 6.7% and delusions 0.6% ). Four of the study participants met DSM-III-R criteria for schizophrenia (2.4%). No differences in cognitive functioning were found between individuals with psychotic symptoms and individuals without these symptoms. Individuals with hallucinations and paranoid ideation also had an increased frequency of paranoid personality traits. The authors concluded that there was evidence of a higher than expected prevalence of psychotic symptoms, paranoid ideation, and schizophrenia in the very old.
*A man who has lived a fascinating life, Dr. Romeo Vitelli spent fifteen years as a staff psychologist in Millbrook Correctional Centre, a maximum-security prison run by the Ontario government. In 2003, he successfully escaped prison and went into full-time private practice and currently also serves as a Disaster Management volunteer with the Red Cross. He is one of the web’s most respected and trusted sources in matters of psychology. We here in the Ashworth University community are honored to share with Dr. Vitelli’s gifts with our students and would like to express our gratitude to him. Visit Providentia to learn more about the life and work of Dr. Romeo Vitelli.
Most famous for his radical theories on language learning and evolutionary psychology, Steven Pinker is a thinker with a vision that tends to provoke strong emotional responses in anyone who will listen. The reason may be rather simple. Pinker analyzes human intelligence from a zero sum perspective in which he meticulously deconstructs the foundations of what’s been established as scientific fact. The following video presentation was made at Google Headquarters. The Google geniuses always seem to bring in other geniuses to make the room smarter. Afterwards, please share your thoughts with the Ashworth Psychology community. Click on the image above to watch this video. It’s good.
Ryan Rode
Interactive Services Manager
Ashworth University Psychology Program
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