Create Your Own "Social Pressures" Experiment

Introduction:

Is it possible to test how social pressure works in the real world? Your task is to design an experiment based on one of the social psychology research questions below. Everyone must design, conduct, and present their experiments. Keep in mind: in order to test your experiment, it must meet ethical standards!

Research Questions:

  1. What factors make conformity more likely to occur? What factors make conformity less likely to occur?
  2. ​What factors allow social norms to be changed without negative consequences? What factors prevent social norms from being changed? 
  3. ​​What factors make people more likely to follow an authority figure? Less likely?
  4. How far will someone follow an authority figure? (When will people stop following an authority figure?)

Design Your Experiment:

Working with your partner or small group, answer the following questions on a google SLIDES presentation:
Before Experiment:
  1. What research question will your experiment try to answer?
  2. Write a simple hypothesis in an "if/then" format. For instance, Milgram's hypothesis would be something like this: "If an authority figure pressures them, people will give lethal shocks to others." (Before going on to the next question, show your hypothesis to Ms. G to verify you on are track!)
  3. ​Choose an experimental group: this is your test subject or test group. 
  4. Describe the experiment procedure you will follow. (Describe the steps that will help you test your hypothesis).
  5. Do you think your experiment is ethical? Why or why not? Click here for help!
  6. Make predictions: What do you think will happen? What do you think the results might teach us about human behavior?

Conduct Your Experiment

During Experiment:
  1. Collect data and write a report. If you are able to collect objective data (for example, recording the number of times you or a test subject did something), please create a table displaying your data. Also, write a descriptive report of what happened when you conducted your experiment.
  2. Describe: What are some challenges you are facing while conducting your experiment? (For instance, are you experiencing anything that could make your results invalid, or, are you doubtful that you will succeed in conditioning your participant's behavior given the assignment constraints? What factors could lower the validity of your data?)
After Experiment:
  1. Describe how your experiment concluded. Did you have moments of notable success or failure? What were the results of your study? 
  2. What conclusions about human behavior can you draw from your study?

Present Your Experiment:

In our NEXT class, everyone will informally present their experiment ideas.
At the end of the unit, you will present the results of your experiment after you are done.