Becoming The Next Zimbardo

  Why I chose this person: For this week’s blog, I chose a Social Psychologist to write about. I selected Jennifer Richeson because she is from Baltimore Maryland, which is where I grew up! Baltimore is a diverse area and was one of my favorite places to visit. I wanted to see if growing up in the area influenced Dr. Richeson in any way. Background: Dr. Richeson received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology at Brown University in 1994. Then, she earned her Masters and Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Harvard University in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Since 2016, Dr. Richeson has been a professor at Yale University. Previously, she has worked at Dartmouth College, Stanford University, and Northwestern University. When researching her, I was impressed by the prestige of the institutions Dr. Richeson graduated from and taught at. Additionally, she has received awards such as the Distinguished Scientific Early Career Contributions to Psychology from the APA in 2009 and was recently...

  Have you ever noticed someone frowning and caught yourself thinking, “Wow, that person is a grumpy gus?” Chances are, you are committing the fundamental attribution error (Ross, 1977). This is the tendency that people have when interpreting behavior by making personal attributions (i.e., believing behavior is due to a person’s disposition) and underestimating the importance of the situation (Heider, 1958).   In one study, researchers assigned participants to read pro and anti-Fidel Castro essays that were either written by choice or were assigned an opinion (Jones & Harris, 1967). This study found that participants still rated the beliefs of the authors of pro-Castro essays as more favorable of Castro, even when they were told their opinion was assigned (Jones & Harris, 1967). This study demonstrates the fundamental attribution error because participants attribute personal beliefs to the essay’s author (i.e., personal attribution ) and underestimate the impact of a...

  Today, I will discuss the perseverance effect , which is when someone continues to believe something after it has been proven to be false (Ross et al., 1975). In one study, researchers tasked participants to examine suicide notes to find out which ones were real and which ones were written by the researchers (Ross et al., 1975). Obviously, all the notes were fake because it is unethical to collect real suicide notes (Ross et al., 1975). After reading the notes, half of the participants were given positive feedback, saying they did well at detecting the real notes, and half were given negative feedback, saying they did poorly (Ross et al., 1975). Ross et al. (1975) found that even after debriefing participants, those in the positive feedback condition still believed they could tell a real suicide note from a fake one in reality, whereas those in the negative feedback condition believed they would do poorly.   I have an uncle (whom I love dearly) who deeply enjoys being co...

                According to Swann (1990), the theory of self-verification explains that people seek consistency in how they view themselves and how others view them. Swann (1990) also describes the two levels of self-verification ; interpersonal and intrapersonal. Interpersonal self-verification theorizes that people do not want others to have unrealistic expectations of them, whereas intrapersonal self-verification theorizes that people feel worse if others perceive them differently than they perceive themselves (Swann, 1990). Therefore, if someone perceives themselves negatively, they would be more romantically committed to a partner who also perceives them negatively rather than positively (Swann et al., 1992). I believe this theory explains why some partners stay in toxic and degrading relationships.               Personally, self-verification ...