TAKING SIDES: Clashing Views in Social Psychology, Second Edition
PART 1. Ethical Issues in Social Psychology
ISSUE 1. Is Deception of Human Participants Ethical?
YES: Alan C. Elms, from “Keeping Deception Honest: Justifying Conditions for Social Scientific Research Strategems,” Ethical Issues in Social Science Research (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982)
NO: Diana Baumrind, from “Research Using Intentional Deception,” American Psychologist (vol. 40, 1985)
Social psychologist Alan Elms argues that deception is usually justified when the benefits of research outweigh the ethical costs of the deception. Psychologist Diana Baumrind believes that deception is never ethically acceptable. The costs of deception seem to be greater than most social psychologists believe.
ISSUE 2. Should Social Psychologists Try to Solve Social Problems?
YES: Arthur Aron and Elaine Aron, from “Chutzpah: Social Psychology Takes on the Big Issues,” The Heart of Social Psychology (Lexington Books, 1989)
NO: David Kipnis, from “Accounting for the Use of Behavior Technologies in Social Psychology,” American Psychology (vol. 49, 1994)
Arthur and Elaine Aron believe that social psychologists are passionately devoted to promoting positive social change. David Kipnis argues that social psychological research benefits those with power and serves to perpetuate the status quo. PART 2. Social Cognition
ISSUE 3. Are Our Social Perceptions Often Inaccurate?
YES: Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett, from Perspectives of Social Psychology (McGraw-Hill, 1991)
NO: David C. Funder, from “Errors and Mistakes: Evaluating the Accuracy of Social Judgment,” Psychological Bulletin (vol. 101, 1987)
Social psychologists Lee Ross and Richard Nisbett believe that people’s perceptions of others are often inaccurate because of the dispositionalist bias—the tendency for people to mistakenly believe that the behavior of others is due largely to their personality or disposition. David C. Funder, a personality psychologist, believes that the artificial laboratory experiments cited by Ross and Nisbett do not necessarily indicate that people’s perceptions in the real world are often mistaken. In the real world, people’s behavior is often due to their disposition.
ISSUE 4. Does Cognitive Dissonance Explain Why Behavior Can Change Attitudes?
YES: Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith, from “Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance,” The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (vol. 58, 1959)
NO: Daryl J. Bem, from “Self-Perception: An Alternative Interpretation of Cognitive Dissonance Phenomena,” Psychological Review (vol. 57, 1967)
Social psychologists Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith propose their theory of cognitive dissonance to explain why people’s attitudes may change after they have acted in a way that is inconsistent with their true attitudes. Social psychologist Daryl J. Bem proposes a theory of self-perception, which he believes can explain Festinger and Carlsmith’s results better than cognitive dissonance theory.
New! ISSUE 5. Applying Social Psychology: Are Self-Esteem Programs Misguided?
New! YES: Roy F. Baumeister, Jennifer D. Campbell, Joachim I. Krueger, and Kathleen D. Vohs, from “Exploding the Self-Esteem Myth,” Scientific American (January 2005)
NO: David L. DuBois and Heather D. Tevendale, from “Self-Esteem in Childhood and Adolescence: Vaccine or Epiphenomenon?” Applied & Preventative Psychology (1999)
Social psychologist Roy Baumeister and his colleagues argue that self-esteem generally has little or no influence on most important outcomes and that excessively high self-esteem can sometimes have negative consequences. Psychologists David DuBois and Heather Tevendale argue that self-esteem is an important factor in adolescent development. Although some advocates of self-esteem improvement programs have overstated the importance of having a positive self-image, programs designed to raise self-esteem still appear to have beneficial effects.
ISSUE 6. Do Positive Illusions Lead to Healthy Behavior?
YES: Shelley E. Taylor and Jonathon D. Brown, from “Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health,” Psychological Bulletin (vol. 103, 1988)
NO: C. Randall Colvin, Jack Block, and David C. Funder, from “Overly Positive Self-Evaluations and Personality: Negative Implications for Mental Health,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 68, 1995)
Shelley Taylor and Jonathon Brown argue that people have unrealistically positive views of themselves. These "positive illusions" promote psychological well-being. C. Randall Colvin, Jack Block, and David Funder agree that many people have positive views of themselves. However, these positive self-views should not necessarily be considered illusory.
ISSUE 7. Can People Accurately Detect Lies?
YES: James Geary, from “How to Spot a Liar,” Time Europe (March 13, 2000)
NO: Bella M. DePaulo, from “Spotting Lies: Can Humans Learn to Do Better?” Current Directions in Psychological Science (June 1994)
Journalist James Geary discusses research that has examined the effectiveness of various lie detection schemes. Although the average person is not very adept at detecting lies, according to the research of psychologist Paul Ekman, people can be trained to detect the cues to deceit and become quite good at detecting lies. Social psychologist Bella M. DePaulo agrees that the average person is not a very reliable lie detector. However, DePaulo believes that improving people’s lie detection skills is not as straightforward as it may seem.
ISSUE 8. Are Repressed Memories Real?
YES: Richard P. Kluft, from “The Argument for the Reality of Delayed Recall of Trauma,” in Paul S. Applebaum, Lisa A. Uyehara, and Mark R. Elin, eds., Trauma and Memory: Clinical and Legal Controversies (Oxford University Press, 1997)
NO: Elizabeth F. Loftus, from “Creating False Memories,” Scientific American (September 1997)
Psychiatrist Richard Kluft believes that repressed and recovered memories are real, and often reflect real instances of trauma and abuse. Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus argues that false memories can be created with surprising ease. As a result, many repressed and recovered memories may not reflect real traumatic or abusive events. PART 3. Social Influence
New! ISSUE 9. Can Social Psychological Research Help Explain the Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal?
New! YES: Claudia Wallis et al., from “Why Did They Do It? Are Those Charged With Abuse a Few Bad Apples, or Are They Just Like the Rest of Us?” Time (May 17, 2004)
New! NO: William Saletan, from “Situationist Ethics: The Stanford Prison Experiment Doesn’t Explain Abu Ghraib,” Slate.com (May 12, 2004)
Claudia Wallis describes the results of social psychology experiments that suggest that psychologically normal individuals can engage in acts of cruelty when placed in an environment like the Abu Ghraib prison. William Saletan argues that blaming the situation, rather than holding the individuals who committed the abuse accountable, is a ploy used by those who perpetrated the acts to evade responsibility for their actions.
ISSUE 10. Do Milgram’s Obedience Experiments Help Explain the Nature of the Holocaust?
YES: John P. Sabini and Maury Silver, from Survivors, Victims and Perpetrators: Essays on the Nazi Holocaust (November 1999)
NO: Florence R. Miale and Michael Selzer, from The Nuremberg Mind (Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1975)
Social psychologists John P. Sabini and Maury Silver believe that the Obedience Experiments captured the most important psychological aspects of the Holocaust, by demonstrating that normal people can be made to harm others with alarming ease. Psychotherapist Florence R. Miale and political scientist Michael Selzer believe that Milgram’s results are not as convincing as is often believed. They contend that the findings of these controversial experiments can be explained by individual differences in participants’ willingness to inflict pain on others.
ISSUE 11. Does the Stanford Prison Experiment Help Explain the Effects of Imprisonment?
YES: Craig Haney and Philip Zimbardo, from “The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-Five Years After the Stanford Prison Experiment,” American Psychologist (June 1998)
NO: David T. Lykken, from “Psychology and the Criminal Justice System: A Reply to Haney and Zimbardo,” The General Psychologist (Spring 2000)
Social psychologists Craig Haney and Philip Zimbardo believe that the results of the Stanford Prison Experiment should inform U.S. prison policy. Behavioral geneticist David T. Lykken argues that the experiment was not realistic enough to say anything meaningful about real prison life and that personality factors are more important in determining the behavior of prisoners.
ISSUE 12. Is Subliminal Persuasion a Myth?
YES: Anthony R. Pratkanis, from “The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion,” Skeptical Inquirer (vol. 16, 1992)
NO: Nicholas Epley, Kenneth Savitsky, and Robert A. Kachelski, from “What Every Skeptic Should Know About Subliminal Persuasion,” Skeptical Inquirer (September/October 1999)
Social psychologist Anthony Pratkanis argues that research claiming to demonstrate the efficacy of subliminal persuasion is either fraudulent or flawed. Carefully controlled experiments do not demonstrate that subliminal persuasion can have any effect on behavior. Nicholas Epley, Kenneth Savitsky, and Robert Kachelski agree that much of the research examining subliminal persuasion is flawed. However, more recent research using better methodologies has demonstrated that subliminal stimuli can influence behavior.
ISSUE 13. Can People Really Be Brainwashed?
YES: Trudy Solomon, from “Programming and Deprogramming the Moonies: Social Psychology Applied,” The Brainwashing/Deprogramming Controversy (Edwin Mellen Press, 1983)
NO: James T. Richardson, from “A Social Psychological Critique of ‘Brainwashing’ Claims about Recruitment to New Religions,” The Handbook of Cults and Sects in America (JAI Press, 1993)
Psychologist Trudy Solomon argues that well-known social psychological principles may explain the process by which brainwashing can occur. Also Solomon argues that some religious movements, generally referred to as cults, use these principles to recruit new members. Sociologist James T. Richardson believes that social psychological principles do not necessarily suggest that brainwashing is commonly used in new religious movements. Instead he believes that these organizations use the same recruitment tactics used by many organizations and therefore cannot be considered "brainwashing." PART 4. Social Relations
New! ISSUE 14. Is Stereotyping Inevitable?
YES: Patricia G. Devine, from “Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 56, 1989)
NO: Lorella Lepore and Rupert Brown, from “Category and Stereotype Activation: Is Prejudice Inevitable?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 72, 1997)
Social psychologist Patricia G. Devine argues that some forms of racial stereotyping may be automatic and therefore inevitable. In order to prevent these automatic stereotypes from biasing judgments of others, whites must make a conscious effort to avoid responding in a prejudicial manner. Social psychologists Lorella Lepore and Rupert Brown believe that automatic stereotyping may not be universal among whites. Some whites may be more likely to engage in automatic stereotyping than others, and as a result stereotyping is not necessarily inevitable among all whites.
New! ISSUE 15. Does the Implicit Association Test (IAT) Measure Racial Prejudice?
New! YES: Chris Berdik, from “Invisible Bias,” Boston Globe (December 19, 2004)
New! NO: Amy Wax and Philip E. Tetlock, from “We Are All Racists At Heart,” Wall Street Journal (December 1, 2005)
The performance of most white Americans on the Implicit Association Test reflects hidden or "implicit" racial prejudice. Since implicit prejudice can result in discriminatory behavior toward African-Americans, it is appropriate to consider scores on the Implicit Association Test to be a form of racial prejudice. Most white Americans are aware of the negative stereotypes of African-Americans that exist in American society, even though they may not believe those stereotypes to be true. So the performance of whites on the Implicit Association Test likely reflects their knowledge of these negative stereotypes, rather than true racial prejudice.
New! ISSUE 16. Can Stereotypes Lead to Accurate Perceptions of Others?
New! YES: Lee J. Jussim, Clark R. McCauley, and Yueh-Ting Lee, from “Why Study Stereotype Accuracy and Inaccuracy?” Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences (APA, 1995)
New! NO: Charles Stangor, from “Content and Application Inaccuracy in Social Stereotyping,” Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences (APA, 1995)
Lee Jussim, Clark McCauley, and Yueh-Ting Lee believe that stereotypes have been stereotyped. Stereotypes are not always inaccurate and do not invariably lead to biased judgments of others, as most social psychologists seem to believe. Charles Stangor draws a distinction between the content accuracy and application accuracy in the use of stereotypes. According to Stangor, even if the content of a stereotype is accurate, applying the stereotype to judge an individual within a group is still likely to yield inaccurate perceptions.
ISSUE 17. Does True Altruism Exist?
YES: C. Daniel Batson, Bruce D. Duncan, Paula Ackerman, Terese Buckley and Kimberly Birch, from “Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 40, 1981)
NO: Robert B. Cialdini, Mark Schaller, Donald Houlihan, Kevin Arps, Jim Fultz, and Arthur L. Beaman, from “Empathy-Based Helping: Is It Selflessly or Selfishly Motivated?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (vol. 52, 1987)
Social psychologist C. Daniel Batson and his colleagues believe that people sometimes help for purely altruistic reasons. He proposes that empathy is the key factor responsible for altruism and describes the results of an experiment that supports his position. Social psychologist Robert Cialdini and his colleagues are not convinced that empathy alone can motivate helping. Instead they propose that people often help others in order to make themselves feel better.
ISSUE 18. Does Media Violence Cause Aggression?
YES: Brad J. Bushman and Craig A. Anderson, from “Media Violence and the American Public: Scientific Facts Versus Media Misinformation,” American Psychologist (June/July 2001)
NO: Jonathan L. Freedman, from Media Violence and Aggression (University of Toronto Press, 2002)
Brad Bushman and Craig Anderson contend that an overwhelming amount of research indicates that media violence is a significant cause of violent and aggressive behavior. Despite this overwhelming evidence, media corporations irresponsibly downplay the impact that media violence may have. Jonathon Freedman argues that the evidence linking aggression to media violence is not as strong as it is believed to be. Psychologists who contend that such a link has been proven are misunderstanding or misrepresenting what the data actually indicate.
