Social Psychology Archives - Page 4 of 5 - The Psychology Notes Headquarters

Albert Bandura’s Self-Efficacy: 4 Sources That Shape What You Believe You Can Do

Albert Bandura didn’t just study what people do — he studied what people believe they can do, and why that belief matters so much. In the 1970s, he introduced Bandura’s self-efficacy theory: the conviction that you are capable of carrying out the actions needed to reach a specific goal. It sounds simple, but this idea turned out to be one...

Milgram’s Obedience Experiment: The Shocking 65% Result and the Ethical Issues Behind It

The ethical issues in the Milgram experiment center on three problems: deception that removed any chance of informed consent, psychological harm severe enough to cause visible distress, and a right to withdraw that existed on paper but rarely in practice. In 1961, Stanley Milgram’s study at Yale University found that 65% of ordinary participants delivered a maximum 450-volt shock to...

Stanford Prison Experiment: What Zimbardo’s Study Really Proved (and Got Wrong)

The stanford prison experiment is a 1971 psychological study led by Philip Zimbardo that randomly assigned college students to roles of guards and prisoners inside a simulated prison at Stanford University, testing whether abusive behavior comes from personality or from the power of a situation. Planned to run two weeks, it was shut down after just six days once guards’...

Social Loafing: Why People Put In Less Effort in Groups (And How to Fix It)

Social loafing is the tendency to exert less effort on a task when working as part of a group than when working alone. The effect is well-documented, surprisingly consistent across contexts, and deeply familiar to anyone who has survived a frustrating group project. Psychologists have studied it since the 1880s, and what they’ve found goes well beyond laziness — social...

Social Learning Theory: Bandura’s Observational Learning & Bobo Doll

Social learning theory is Albert Bandura’s framework proposing that people learn by observing others — not only through direct experience or personal reward and punishment. His landmark Bobo Doll experiment showed that children imitate aggressive behavior after simply watching an adult, fundamentally challenging behaviorism’s insistence that consequences must be personally experienced. Social learning theory bridges behavioral and cognitive approaches, showing...

Robbers Cave Experiment: Why Normal Kids Turned on Each Other

The Robbers Cave experiment is a landmark study in social psychology in which Muzafer Sherif demonstrated that ordinary boys could be turned into bitter rivals within days — simply by making them compete. Set in a 1954 Oklahoma summer camp, the study showed that competition for limited resources breeds genuine hostility, while cooperation toward shared goals can heal it. What...

Category: Social Psychology