For more information about social psychology (such as how to be trained as one, what a social psychologist does, etc.), check out the Social Psychology Network.
The Anti-Defamation League's site. This answers some questions about issues of free speech, why one has difficulites getting rid of hate language, etc.
*EXERCISE 1 - Stanley
Milgram studies
Use the Stanley Milgram Basics and Little Known Facts about Milgram
(and the book) to answer the following questions
1. What was the Milgram experiment(s)?
2. What percentage of people shocked the test subject? Why did they
do it?
3. Where there gender differences?
4. Could that many people actually do that today?
*EXERCISE 2 - Propaganda
Look up one from Word Games, False Connections, and Special Appeals
- how do people use these in propaganda to sway people to their side?
Underneath the Wartime Propaganda - look under demons, atrocities,
and lies. How did the CPI convince people that this was a needed war? What
was the Committee on Public Information?
*EXERCISE 3 - Factors that cause conflict and ways to fix the
problem.
In this article,
the author discusses theories of how conflict arises - Realistic group
conflict, Social Identification theory, Psychodynamic theory, Size and
Perceived threat, and Cognitive factors. The article continues and discusses
how these theories might be used to resolve conflict. Use 3 of the listed
theories and describe what they are and how they might be used to resolve
conflict.
*EXERCISE 4 - Break a social norm
In this exercise, you are to break a social norm (make sure that it
is LEGAL and SAFE - that is, don't wander around naked or shout racist
comments to a bunch of football players).
1. What is a social norm?
2. What social norm did you break?
3. What happened? What did people do? How did you feel?