Obedience, Conformity, and Social Roles: Active Learning in a ...

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3. Act out your study for the class. For example, if you plan to do something like Zimbardo’s prison study, you might want to hold up a piece of paper that says “Day 1” and then act out what happened on Day 1; then hold up another piece of paper for “Day 2” and act out big events that you think may have occurred on Day 2, etc. 4. Then, on the board, list for the class at least three variables that will influence how important your concept is (e.g., Under what conditions are people more likely to fall into a social role? Under what conditions are people less likely to obey an authority figure?). Do not write much on the board—keep it brief and to the point. If you can bring these variables into your act, great, but it is not necessary. 5. Remember your task: Make sure the other students in the class know what they need to know about your topic. Go! You have 25 min. Students could divide their third of the class in whatever fashion they chose. Students were familiar with working in small groups in the class, and most students worked in a traditional group size of 4 or 5 people. One student, however, led a group of 11 people in a very successful demonstration of employee obedience. Group Work Although my students were accustomed to completing brief activities and generally seemed to enjoy them, they showed an impressive amount of interest in this activity. For the 25 min during which students worked, I made a conscious effort not to peek over shoulders and instead offered advice only if a group requested my assistance. When 25 min had elapsed, various groups volunteered to present. Skits were very brief, averaging 2 to 3 min in length. Due to time constraints, 6 of 10 groups demonstrated their study. Although the remaining 4 groups did not present at all, students turned their materials in to me at the end of class and received credit for participating. Two examples of group skits may illustrate students’ creativity and insight in completing the activity. Skit 1 Students in one group performed a demonstration of social roles. While one student held up signs displaying to the audience the day of each event, the other two students acted as employees in an office building. On Day 1, the two employees, Mark and John, chatted about their weekends as they worked side by side. On Day 2, John was promoted to position of vice president of the company. On Day 3, John asked Mark to bring him a cup of coffee, and Mark did so begrudgingly. Mark began to tell John about an experience he had had the night before, but John interrupted him with a request for the morning paper. The skit skipped to Day 5, when Mark brought John his coffee and paper without complaining—it was a routine now. On Day 8, Mark handed John his morning coffee, and John handed Mark some of his clothes to be taken to the dry cleaner. On Day 10, John requested that Mark call him Mr. Stone instead of John. Mark cringed but complied. The skit ended with Mark saying, “Do you need me to work overtime this weekend, Mr. Stone?” The students discussed three variables that may have altered the effect of social roles: (a) age, such that if Mark had been older than John he may have been more resistant to his newroleasJohn’shelper;(b)personality,suchthatifMarkhad been more assertive and confident he would have been more resistant to his new role; and (c) sex, such that if both employees had been women, the transformation from employee to employer may not have been so rapid because the women may have been concerned about destroying their friendship. Skit 2 Students in one of the conformity groups played the roles of witnesses to a mugging. In Part 1 of the skit, several men and women were casually observing as a woman was mugged. In the mugging, a man ran into the woman and they tussled briefly over her purse. The mugger grabbed the purse as he pushed the woman to the floor, and then ran off. In Part 2 of the skit, the witnesses to the mugging were being questioned, as a group, by a police officer who had arrived at the scene. The police officer asked the witnesses what happened, and one male witness described the mugging in detail, but left out the part about the purse being stolen. One of the women spoke up and said, “Yeah, and he took her purse!” The witnesses debated for a short time—no one else saw the mugger take a purse. The woman defended her story for a little while and then folded, unsure of her own recollection of the event. The students who designed the skit discussed three variables that may have impacted conformity: (a) individual versus group questioning, such that the woman would have been less likely to conform had she been questioned individually; (b) presence or absence of a partner, such that the woman would have been less likely to conform if just one other person had supported her story; and (c) relatedness to victim, such that if the woman had been related to the victim she may have been less likely to doubt what she saw. After each skit was over, I led the class in a brief discussion. For example, after Skit 2, I asked whether the woman’s behavior illustrated normative or informational conformity. Then I asked students to describe how they would test the presenting group’s predictions. Thus, through these group demonstrations, students applied their knowledge of all topics, not just their own. Evaluation and Discussion Students evaluated the activity during the final 5 min of class. The results appear in Table 1. On a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree)to4(neutral)to 7(strongly agree), 78% agreed or strongly agreed that the activity was useful in accomplishing its objectives. Eighty percent disagreedorstronglydisagreedwiththestatement,“Theactivity was a waste of time.” Sixty percent disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement, “I would have preferred to have a Vol. 28, No. 4, 2001 261
Table 1. Student Evaluations of the Social Influence Class Activity Statement M SD Mode 1. The group activity helped me to better understand obedience and variables that influence obedience. 5.65 1.37 6.00 2. The group activity helped me to better understand conformity and variables that influence conformity. 5.82 1.33 6.00 3. The group activity helped me to better understand social roles and variables that influence social roles. 5.48 1.31 6.00 4. The activity increased my awareness of how obedience may occur in my daily life. 5.65 1.35 6.00 5. The activity increased my awareness of how conformity may occur in my daily life. 5.79 1.40 6.00 6. The activity increased my awareness of how the influence of social roles may occur in my daily life. 5.51 1.38 6.00 7. Overall, the activity was useful in accomplishing its objectives. 5.94 1.52 7.00 8. The activity was a waste of time. 2.14 1.87 1.00 9. The activity would have been better conducted as a written assignment. 2.71 2.02 1.00 10. Presenting the information orally in front of the class was a good idea. 5.25 1.66 7.00 11. The activity was enjoyable. 5.63 1.66 7.00 12. The activity was challenging. 4.83 1.71 5.00 13. I would have preferred to receive a lecture on the information. 2.91 2.15 1.00 14. I would recommend using the activity again in other introductory psychology classes. 5.85 1.70 7.00 Note. Ratings were based on a scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (neutral) to 7 (strongly agree). lecture on the information.” Finally, 74% agreed or strongly agreed that they would recommend using the activity again in other introductory psychology classes. These self-report data, however, do not directly assess student learning. Future studies of this technique could include two groups, one that completes this activity and another that receives a lecture, and then assess group differences in exam performance. The evaluations are encouraging, for at least two reasons. First, 65 students completed the activity in one class session. Although 65 is not as large as some classes, small-group work and class presentations are often difficult to accomplish with more than 30 or 35 students. Second, students at large universities such as the University of Texas are accustomed to classes in which active learning is not a primary component of their education. Students often expect to be passive recipients of new information and are generally not required to apply the information they receive until they have an exam in hand. I find it encouraging that, in addition to completing the activity in a mature and creative manner, the majority of the students enjoyed the activity. The success I had with this activity illustrates that active learning strategies—specifically, small-group activities—can be effective even at large institutions and in relatively large classes. In larger classes and in 50-min sections, instructors might ask students to read the material before coming to class. Instructors might also choose at random two or three groups to present, thereby saving time and possibly increasing students’ perceived accountability for learning the material. Instructors can implement this technique with other topics such as stages of cognitive development, classical conditioning, and positive and negative reinforcement—topics that can be relatively difficult for students to master. If the activity is brief and structured and students perceive it as necessary for thorough comprehension of the material, then students can be active participants in their education and thus be more effective learners, even in large classrooms. References Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 70, 1–69. Balch, W. R. (1983). The use of role-playing in a classroom demonstration of client-centered therapy. Teaching of Psychology, 10, 173–174. Brothen, T. (Consulting Ed.), & Spalding, B. A. (Director). (1992). Psychology classics [Film]. (Available from McGraw-Hill, New York) Gray, P. (1991). Psychology. New York: Worth. Hamilton, S. B., & Knox, T. A. (1985). The colossal neuron: Acting out physiological psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 12, 153–156. Haney, C., Banks, C., & Zimbardo, P. (1973). Interpersonal dynamics in a simulated prison. International Journal of Criminology & Penology, 1, 69–97. Kalat, J. W. (1996). Introduction to psychology (4th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. McKeachie, W. J. (1994). Teaching tips (9th ed.). Lexington, MA: Heath. Milgram, S. (1963). Behavioral study of obedience. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67, 371–378. Milgram, S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental review. New York: Harper & Row. Myers, D. G. (1996). Exploring psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Worth. Schallert, D. L., Reed, J. H., Turner, J. E., & McCann, E. J. (1997, April). Engagement in long-term academic tasks: The fluctuating, complementary role of involvement and volition. Paper presented at the meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago. Wann, D. L. (1993). Performing experiments in undergraduate social psychology classes. Teaching of Psychology, 20, 235–236. Westen, D. (1999). Psychology: Mind, brain, and culture (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley. Zimbardo, P. G. (1973). On the ethics of intervention in human psychological research: With special reference to the Stanford prison experiment. Cognition, 2, 243–256. Notes 1. I thank Traci Giuliano, JoyLynn Reed, and Wendy Domjan for their helpful suggestions on an earlier version of this article. 2. Send correspondence to April L. Bleske-Rechek, Vanderbilt University, Department of Psychology and Human Development, Box 512 Peabody Station, Nashville, TN 37203; e-mail: april.bleske@vanderbilt.edu. 262 Teaching of Psychology
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