A social psychology teacher, Tomas Morals, begins his class by telling students there will be no exam, only a final project. He claims to want to measure their solidarity by asking one of them to donate blood, but later reveals this was a test of obedience. He discusses the obedience experiment by Stanley Milgram, where participants administered shocks to others when ordered to do so, and the Stanford prison experiment, which showed how authority can be abused and how people can internalize their roles.
The teacher then introduces the concept of social construction and how reality is perceived. He explains that people's perceptions can be influenced by others and that there is no absolute truth. He cites the example of a psychologist who diagnosed him with an anxiety disorder based on a minor issue, and discusses how people can be convinced of false memories or stories.
The teacher then pretends to be a madman, claiming to have killed his children and asking the students to call the police and an ambulance. However, he reveals that this was all a social experiment to demonstrate how reality is a social construction. He explains that people's perceptions of reality can be influenced by social norms, expectations, and cultural myths.
The class ends with the teacher telling the students that it is their responsibility to draw conclusions from the experiment. The next class will discuss rumors, gossip, and half-truths.
Here are the key facts from the text:
1. Tomas Morals is a social psychology teacher.
2. There will be no exam in the class, but a final project.
3. A mobile unit for blood donation is located at the faculty door.
4. Tomas Morals references an experiment by Stanley Milgram that measured obedience.
5. In the experiment, participants applied fake electric shocks to actors.
6. The Stanford prison experiment was a similar social psychology study.
7. The Hawthorne effect is a phenomenon where workers' performance improves when they are observed.
8. The Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon where people adjust to the expectations of others.
9. A psychologist's diagnosis can be subjective and sometimes incorrect.
10. Reality can be socially constructed, and people's perceptions can be influenced by others.
11. A study showed that people's memories can be false or influenced by others.
12. The DSM-2, a manual of psychiatric disorders, previously classified homosexuality as a mental illness.
13. A study on rats showed that social conditions can affect their behavior and response to morphine.
14. The teacher references a study on false epileptic seizures and how people's reactions can be influenced by social norms.
15. The teacher claims to have killed his children in a bathtub, but this is later revealed to be a social experiment.
16. The teacher's goal was to demonstrate how people can be influenced by social norms and expectations.