Illusions of Reality A History of Deception in Social Psychology
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N/A Hardcover - 204 pages |
Release Date: March 1997 |
ISBN10: 0-7914-3307-2 ISBN13: 978-0-7914-3307-2
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Price: $32.95 Paperback - 204 pages |
Release Date: March 1997 |
ISBN10: 0-7914-3308-0 ISBN13: 978-0-7914-3308-9
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Summary |
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Examines the origins and the development of the use of deception in psychological research to create illusions of reality.
Some psychologists think it is almost always wrong to deceive research subjects, while others think the use of deception is essential if significant human problems are to receive scientific study. Illusions of Reality shows how deception is used in psychological research to create illusions of reality--situations that involve research subjects without revealing the true purpose of the experiment. The book examines the origins and development of this practice that have lead to some of the most dramatic and controversial studies in the history of psychology.
Social psychology may be the only area of research where the research methods sometimes are as interesting as the results. The most impressive experiments in this field produce their impact by creating situations that lead research subjects to believe that they are taking part in something other than the true experiment, or situations where subjects are not even aware that an experiment is being conducted. These illusions of reality are created by using various forms of deception, such as providing false information to people about how they perform on tests or by using actors who play roles. The research described in Illusions of Reality includes significant and controversial experiments in the history of psychology that sometimes took on the characteristics of dramatic stage productions. The ethical issues raised by this research are discussed, and the practice of using deception in research is placed in the context of American cultural values.
"This book provides an interesting slice of the history of psychology that is usually ignored or simply an aside in other books of the history of psychology." -- Neil E. Grunberg, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences
James H. Korn is Professor in the Department of Psychology, Saint Louis University, and Fellow of the American Psychological Association and of the American Psychological Society.
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Table of Contents Preface
1. Varieties of Deception
Deception in Strange Places
How Would You Like a Shot in the Arm?
May I Watch You Urinate?
Would You Help a Bloody Stranger?
Defining Deception
The Significance of Deception in Research
Intrinsic Interest
Social Significance of the Research
An Overlooked Topic in History
Ethical Questions
The Image of Psychology
Deception Is a Characteristic of American Culture
Deception in Other Social Sciences
A Sense of History
2. The Growth of Deception
The First Deceptions
The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology: 1921 to 1947
Surveys of Deception: 1948-1989
Table 1: Percent and Number of Articles Using Deception in Various Journals from 1948 to 1989
3. Social Psychology Becomes Experimental
Experimental Social Psychology
4. Lewin's Legacy
Lewin in Germany
Lewin in America
The Father of Deception
5. Military Deception
Assessment of Men
Stress and Deception in Military Research
The "Ditching" Situation
Three Threats to Life and Limb
Demolitions
Military Medicine
6. A Voice of Independence
Group Pressure: Independence and Conformity
An Independent Voice
7. Leon Festinger, The Seminal Theorist
The Seminal Theorist
Predissonance Years
Dissonance and the Shaping of Social Psychology
Research as Theater. I
Prophecy and Privacy
The Festinger Family
8. Stanley Milgram and the Illusion of Obedience
Behavioral Study of Obedience
Revelation
Variations on a Theme
The Ethics of Obedience Research
Research as Theater. II
9. The Stage Production Era
Growth and Change
Directions for Deception
Ubiquitous Watergate
Ubiquitous Deception
Chemical Deception
Helping in False Emergencies
Aggression and "Pleasuring"
Life with Bogus Strangers
Into the Nineties
10. Questions of Right and Wrong
Psychologists' Ethical Principles for Research
Informed Consent in Medicine and Law
The Deception Debate
Vulnerable Experimenters
Did Psychologists Break the Law?
The Albany Shock Experiments
The Pittsburgh Victims
Research Ethics in 1993
11. Deception in Psychology and American Culture
Con Men and Sitcoms
Popular Philosophy
Social Psychology and Academic Life
12. The Power of Positive Illusions
Acceptable Deception and Effective Illusions
Social Psychology as a Positive Force
Notes
References
Index
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Related Subjects
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32558/32559(ZL//)
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