Perspective and Theories in Psychology - Essay Sample

Introduction

How people perceive reality is a significant theme in psychology. One of the events that have demonstrated the psychological significance of perception in human interactions is the Stanford Prison Experiment. The experiment aimed to explore the effects of perceived power as manifested in the relationship between the 'prisoners' and the prison guards. The conditions that generally characterize the prison settings were simulated, creating a perfect environment for the researchers to monitor the behaviors of the participants in specific power settings (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). A look at the outcomes of the experiment suggests that how one perceives reality has a significant implication on how such persons related with other people.

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The experiment generated interesting results in psychology and human behavior. A landmark outcome of the research is that the simulated prison turned into 'reality'. Although the participants were examined and medically found fit for the experiment, the lack of balance of power between the 'guards' and 'prisoners' was perceived as a real, making a majority of them behave as though they were real prison settings(Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). For instance, the participants became stressed, and the 'correctional officers' showed a greater tendency to mistreat their colleagues since they saw themselves as bosses (Dailymotion, 2011). Overall, what was an experiment turned into a real experience for both the students who acted as guards and prisoners.

The study implies that people's circumstances significantly affect their mental processes through a change of perception. As situations of people change, their perception of reality is modified to reflect the new conditions. Pain perception is the feeling of an unpleasant experience that affects people physically and psychologically. It can make people take decisions that seek to avoid pain. This occurred as a result of the conditioned learning whereby people learn by making connections between events that occur within a given environment and interpret situations based on the context in which the events take place (Spielman et al., 2014). For instance, the pain perceptions among students in the experiment lead to the withdrawal of some of the participants. What happened is that the participants who acted as prisoners internalized prison settings and behaved as though they were in incarceration while the guards developed behaviors such as teasing and other forms mistreatment of their colleagues (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). This was the case because this is how the students perceived their environment at the time.

Social psychology explores how interactions between people affect behavioral outcomes. The discipline is majorly concerned with the power of situations. The fundamental aspect of social psychology is that their social environment mainly influences the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of an individual. For instance, people change their behaviors depending on they see how others behave (Spielman et al., 2014, p.406). As such, the context in which relations take place is essential in determining why people change their behaviors to suit situations.

The concept of social psychology applies to the Stanford Prison Experiment in that it highlights the power relations as the cause of the change in behaviors of students who otherwise saw each other as equals before the study. Notably, the students changed depending on what they saw in their colleagues. Those who simulated as guards saw themselves as powerful and they had to behave as such while the prisoner students took the role of subjects because that is what the environment at the time dictated. However, the situation may turn to be destructive if the power situations do not reflect any status. According to Fast, Halevy, and Galinsky (2012), power without status demeans others as seen in the guards who began mistreating fellow students after being conferred with power that had no status.

The theory that best describes the events and outcomes of the Stanford experiment is the social-cognitive perspective. The reason for the choice is that the theory not only emphasizes on behavior on situations as the main trigger for people to behave in a certain way but also underscores the significance of thinking in behavioral outcomes. This means that the environment alone does not determine behavioral manifestations. Here, the behavior of an individual, setting, and cognitive processes interact to yield a different behavioral outcome (Spielman et al., 2014). This perspective perfectly befits into the conditioning in which the students underwent through the experiment. For instance, the change of roles to guards and prisoners made the 'guards' to mistreat the 'prisoners' (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). However, there is evidence that some did not mistreat while others did. Besides, there should a mental process which interprets the significance of power in the social relations for the guards to misbehave. The cognitive process involves thinking, learning and reasoning (Spielman et al., 2014). For this reason, the students who acted as guards must have learned and thought about the consequences of having power and how it affects relations before developing behaviors that mistreated others.

The historical study can be used to explain disorders. The experiment subjected the participants to extreme stress and many experienced problems to the extent of quitting the problem. The level of stress experienced can degenerate into depression if the participants failed to exhibit responses that could enable them to deal with the mistreatment. It is like the experience of repeated discrimination and abuse. Depression and feelings of isolation can lead to psychological disorders (Spielman et al., 2014). If the experiment progressed for a long time, it would have had damaging consequences, including depression. Hence, it was informative on how psychological disorders can be treated in that psychologists can learn the factors that predispose people to disorders.

Conclusion

In summary, the Stanford Prison Experiment revealed the role of the social environment on human behavior. It indicated that interpretations of social situations majorly influence people's behaviors. However, how they process information regarding their social environment is vital in determining behavior. Therefore, an understanding of the interplay between the social environment and the cognitive abilities of an individual can help solve problems related to psychological disorders. On the whole, the experiment was valuable to psychology despite the controversy.

References

Dailymotion. (2011). Stanford Prison Experiment - video dailymotion [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2ya1j

Fast, N. J., Halevy, N., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012). The destructive nature of power without status. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(1), 391-394. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2011.07.013

Haney, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1998). The past and future of U.S. prison policy: Twenty-five years after the Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 53(7), 709-727. doi:10.1037/0003-066x.53.7.709

Spielman, R. M., Dumper, K., Jenkins, W. J., Lacombe, A., Lovett, M., & Perlmutter, M. (2014). Psychology. Hong Kong: Samurai Media Limited.