Social Psychology Chapter One - Social Psychology Blog

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Comments: 2

• #1

  Chris B. (Monday, 30 January 2012 19:13)

  Quite simply, Philip Zimbardo broke "Evil" down into six major components. They are 1). the exercise Of powers to, 2). intentionally 3). harm (i.e., psychologically), 4). hurt (i.e., physically), 5). Destroy (i.e., morality), and 6). to commit a rather violent criminal offense(s) toward all of humanity. As a social psychologist, I would personally divide the concept of "Evil" into three separate categories. Namely from 1). an internal perspective (e.g., any possible underlying
  psychological conditions), 2). an external perspective (e.g., an individual's very own socioeconomic status), and 3). how these two particular factors are in relation to each other. When concerning all of the specific matters that would pertain to the vast cultural differences of "Evil," I feel as though while certain societies may encourage such violence to acquire some form of social identity, others will often intervene in the hopes of preventing any human loss and/or suffering. However, there are those particular societies that will simply turn a "blind-eye" to "Evil" actions that occur on a regular basis. In light of this, most individuals would prefer not to be drawn into a situation in which they may truly believe that their lives could posssibly be in great
  jeopardy.

• #2

  Benjamin D (Wednesday, 01 February 2012 14:30)

  1.) There are many ways one could define evil. Zimbardo’s definition of evil, however, is the use of power to harm another living thing. He believes that everybody is capable of evil, using examples such as his Stantford Prison Experiment, where he took a group of healthy and mentally stable young men, separated them into prisoners and guards, and gave the guards unrestricted power over the prisoners, which led to the guards abusing and torturing the prisoners, and the Milgram Experiment, where everyday people were pushed to ‘shock’ another human being with increasing voltage when the researchers told them to do so. All it takes for people to do evil, he states, is to give them unrestricted power. He also states that evil doesn’t always come from the individual. He says that evil can be separated into three categories: Dispositional, which comes from inside the individuals, Situational, which comes from external factors (The Abu Ghraib prison scandal being an example), and Systematic, where broad influences, such as political, economic, and legal power, are the causes of evil.
  
  2.) As a social psychologist, the three ways I would study evil by examining the motives behind it, classifying them as 1.) When people use the law, power, and privilege to commit evil (mafia, corrupt businessmen/politicians), 2.) People who use evil acts to accomplish their own goals (Bank robbers, killing somebody to get ahead/eliminate competition, terrorism, etc.), and 3.) people who commit evil just to commit evil (Mentally ill, serial killers, etc.).
  
  3.) Every different culture has its own way of defining evil. There are some evils that are universally considered evil (murder, rape, etc.) and then there are evils that are subjective. For example, most of our world’s religions consider certain things to be evil that most of society does not (dancing, consumption of alcohol, premarital sex, etc.) These are considered ‘sins’ that are punishable by their gods. There are are forms of evil that are unarguably evil not matter what, but is considered a good thing by a certain culture. Take suicide bombers for example. What they do is pure evil, taking the lives of innocent people, but they don’t do it to be evil or even consider them to be evil acts. They are becoming martyrs for their religion or cause.
  
  

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