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There’s a nice little two part piece on The Situationist which has Zimbardo commenting on Milgram’s work. Well worth a read.
“Milgram left us with a vital legacy of brilliant ideas that began with those centered on obedience to authority and extended into many new realms—urban psychology, the small-world problem, six degrees of separation, and the Cyrano effect, among others—always using a creative mix of methods. Stanley Milgram was a [...]

At this very moment in time there are 82,813 people in prisons in the UK (weekly updates of prison UK populations) whereas in February 2004 there were only 69,122. We are punishing more-and-more people every year with prison but is it effective (a topic for another post) and does it only punish those who were at fault?

In the first known study of its kind, University of Michigan researchers found [...]

We all know the power of role models and I have written about the effect of role modes on behaviour many times before: from the moving ‘Children See, Children Do’ campaign to talking about the effectiveness of the pictures of death and destruction that now adorn our fag packets.

All these ideas are supported by Bandura and his Social Learning Theory which proposes that children especially learn their behaviours through [...]

Did you struggle teaching the BBC Prison Study?

I did and was annoyed at myself because I knew it was a good addition to the core studies and I believed that my enthusiasm for this new study, and in particular Reicher and Haslam’s critique of the flawed Stanford Prison Experiment, would reach my students.

However, I probably spent far too much time reviewing the SPE with [...]

If you’ve ever seen the Channel 4 comedy Teachers then you might understand why the GTCE is considering implimenting a ‘role model’ code.  But is this really needed or necessary?  Yes, role models are influential, especially in the earlier years of childrens’ development, but shouldn’t they be allowed a private life?

Teachers are  set to get a ‘role model’ code outlining what behaviour is seen as ‘acceptable’ both in and [...]

Recently we have looked at the impressive progression in the ability of fMRI scanners to record brain activity in ‘real time’ but are we over interpreting these results?  Over the last decade-or-two more-and-more researchers have been turning to fMRI scanners to open the ‘black box’ which is the brain. These scanners measure brain activity by measuring the amount of oxygen in the different parts of specific cortical or sub-cortical [...]

As 2008 draws to a close I thought it proper to reflect on what we’ve seen over the year and see what our ‘best bits’ were. It’s been a busy old time in the world of psychology culminating in the publication of a replication of Milgram that many thought would be too ethically dubious to ever get passed by an ethics committee and several guest posts appearing.

January 2008
In January I wrote about [...]

I would just like to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas break. And here’s a present for you – a little festive-frolic – but can you name them all?!

Where ever you are have a fantastic festive feast of fun. Happy Christmas.

- Jamie :)

Edit: I’ve already had a few emails asking for a download of this video – download it here (much higer quality) [22MB]

With the recent announcement of Jerry Berger’s (2009) soon-to-be-published (but available to download here) Replicating Milgram: Would People Still Obey I will be writing a series of articles considering the theories, methods and repercussions of both Berger’s 2009 research and the original that started this journey over 50-years-ago.

Part I: Ethics
Part II: Was it really a replication?
Part III: What does this mean?
Part IV: All evil starts with 15 volts?

Milgram’s experiment [...]

Struggling to think of a present for that special psychologist, psychology student or teacher in your life? Then here you go: a selection of psychology related gifts that will make that person delight (or maybe not).

The Freud Lolly Pop

Looking for something to suck on this Christmas holiday? Then this is your best bet: a Freud lolly pop.

“Once you get over the initial reluctance to put a human head in [...]