Learning’s of the Stanford Prison Experiment to Promote Positive Altruistic Behavior
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Altruism is a core belief where individuals are concerned about another person’s welfare and well-being. In society, altruism is viewed as an innate characteristic even though it is not commonly displayed. Additionally, the concept of altruism may vary greatly when you consider different beliefs and cultures. Ultimately, altruism is a selfless act where an individual will make sacrifices without an expectation for compensation. Regarding the Stanford Prison Experiment, many participants displayed negative and harmful behaviors rather than positive altruistic individual behaviors. The core practices for producing an altruistic environment where individuals display positive behaviors will be defined and analyzed using the results of The Stanford Experiment.
The results of The Stanford Prison Experiment clearly demonstrated that participants readily abandoned their own judgment and beliefs. In fact, participants who normally displayed decent behaviors begin to behave negatively due to the influences of the circumstances. Several influences that impacted participant behavior were social influences, authority figure, expectations of the role, etc. The researchers of The Stanford Prison Experiment utilized assessments to ensure participants did not possess sadistic characteristics. Thus, it is reasonable to assume that social influences had the largest impact on an individual’s behavior rather than personality. This indicates that an altruistic environment where individuals display positive behaviors is achievable. Prison guards in The Stanford Prison Experiment displayed negative behaviors because they lacked altruistic concepts such as self-awareness, understanding of another individual’s perspective, and regulation of emotional reactions. Nevertheless, altruistic concepts can be instilled in individuals and implemented within an institutional environment. In order to create an altruistic environment, individuals must possess empathy (Bereczkei, Birkas, & Kerekes, 2010).
The Essay on Explain the Impact of the Stanford Prison Experiment on Psychology and Behaviour
The Stanford prison experiment ,led by professor Philip Zimbardo, was aimed at seeing the effect on people on becoming prisoners or prison guards. The idea was to see what happens to people when they are put in relatively ‘evil’ places. Do the people themselves become evil or is there no net effect? The results indicated that in fact people adapt to their role exceptionally well. It was observed ...
Ideally, children should learn empathy from their parents, which will allow them to display empathy. However, in an institutional environment empathy can be taught to individuals in a variety of ways.
Individuals can learn empathy by understanding how to meet the emotional needs of others. This can involve understanding and identifying physical and emotional support requirements. When an individual understands emotional needs, they will be able to not only recognize negative emotions but also offer support and comfort (Batson & Powell, 2003).
In an institutional setting, it is critical that individuals understand that they have their own mind and judgment. Additionally, it is important that individuals understand how emotions can impact behavior. This is useful for demonstrating the impact emotions have on one’s mental state and actions. Perhaps one of the most vital components for creating an altruistic institutional setting will be the modeling of altruistic actions. Principally, individuals will learn how to display altruistic behaviors through watching others. For example, an authority figure’s empathic response will allow individuals to identify situations that require altruism. Situations that require altruism should be identified to allow individuals to reproduce the behavior. Altruism can be achieved when individuals are able to recognize similarities within other people (Batson & Powell, 2003).
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Introduction Diversity refers to the presence of individual human characteristics that make people different from one another (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, 2005). Among these individual human characteristics are demographic differences, such as age, gender, sexual-orientation, , race and ethnicity, and religion. Diversity and demographic differences can impact individual behavior by creating ...
Therefore, individuals should learn to connect with others and identify similarities. Not only does this humanize people but it allows an individual to enhance their altruistic response. Developing altruistic behaviors entails being able to understand another person’s perspective. For instance, prison guards in The Stanford Prison Experiment may have displayed positive behaviors if they were able to experience the prisoner’s perspective. Understanding another person’s perspective is useful for offering insight into how they feel and their emotions. Ultimately, being aware of different perspectives will create a more understanding and altruistic environment.
A core component of altruism is morality and ethics. Individuals should possess morality that is based on self-discipline instead of compensation. Individuals can develop morality by understanding ethical consequences for their actions along with a rational justification as to why positive behaviors are ideal (Fehr & Fischbacher, 2003).
The stated suggestions for teaching the concepts of altruism will encourage individuals to display empathy and allow them to comprehend the emotional needs and perspectives of another individual. Increasing awareness and understanding of altruism concepts establishes guidelines where the institutional environment is based on altruism norms. In order to reinforce altruism norms, authority figures in the institution must serve as an example for displaying altruistic behaviors. Additionally, real models of altruistic behaviors will motivate and encourage other individuals to adhere to high moral standards. Encouraging altruistic behaviors will also expose individuals to a magnitude of individual differences. Thus, individuals develop cultural awareness and enhance their potential to display positive behaviors. Furthermore, individuals will learn how to mitigate obstacles and challenges that may be encountered. Altruism in the institutional setting must be established based on the principle that helping other will benefit the self, person, and community. This basis will create an environment where individuals have a social responsibility to display positive behaviors (Snyder & Lopez, 2009).
The Essay on Genetic Altruism Altruistic Behaviour
Altruism is thought of as being behaviour exhibited by one individual to benefit another, with no direct gain but at some cost for that first individual. Apparent altruism is the idea that although behaviour may seem to be fully altruistic (i. e. non-selfish) behaviour there is actually a gain for that individual. Genetically this gain tends to refer to the fitness of the individual i. e. their ...
The results of The Stanford Prison Experiment illustrates that individuals are more likely to display negative behaviors under extreme social conditions. These findings revealed that a decent individual will abandon their own judgment and beliefs, even when harm is evident. Most psychologists agree that a person is not born good or bad. Thus, it is possible to teach individuals altruistic behaviors and create an altruistic institutional environment. In order to achieve an altruistic environment, individuals must understand and display empathy, compassion, and self-awareness. Additionally, individuals must be able to understand the perspectives and emotional needs of others.
References
Batson, D., & Powell, A. (2003).
Altruism and Prosocial Behavior. Handbook of Psychology, 3(19), 463-484. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/0471264385.wei0519/abstract?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false
Bereczkei, T., Birkas, B., & Kerekes, Z. (2010).
Altruism Towards Strangers in Need: Sostly Signaling in an Industrial Society. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(2), 95-103. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.07.004
Fehr, E., & Fischbacher, U. (2003).
The Nature Of Human Altruism. Nature, 425(6960), 785-791. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02043
Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (2009).
Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved September 25, 2014, from http://books.google.com
