Famous Psychological Experiments
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Did you know that the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo in 1971 aimed to study the effects of power dynamics in a simulated prison environment? The study had to be terminated prematurely due to the extreme behavior exhibited by participants who were assigned as guards and prisoners.
Another well-known experiment is the Milgram Experiment, conducted by Dr. Stanley Milgram in 1961, which investigated obedience to authority figures. Participants were instructed to administer electric shocks to a person in another room, with the shocks increasing in severity. Despite hearing cries of pain, a shocking 65% of participants continued to administer the shocks to the highest level.
The Little Albert Experiment, conducted by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920, demonstrated classical conditioning by conditioning a child to fear a white rat by pairing its presence with a loud noise. The fear response generalized to other furry objects, illustrating the concept of stimulus generalization.
These famous psychological experiments continue to be studied and discussed in the field of psychology, shedding light on human behavior, ethics in research, and the power of authority figures.