Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Social Psychology Book

Preface vii

Correlation Guide xvii

Introduction xix

Unit 1 General Issues in Social Psychology 1

Issue 1 Is Deception of Human Participants Ethical? 2

YES: Alan C. Elms, from "Keeping Deception Honest: Justifying Conditions for Social Scientific Research Stratagems," in T. L. Beauchamp, R. R. Faden, R. J. Wallace, & L. Walters, eds., Ethical Issues in Social Science Research (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982) 4

NO: Diana Baumrind, from "Research Using Intentional Deception," American Psychologist (vol. 40, 1985) 15

Issue 2 Should Social Psychologists Try to Solve Social Problems? 28

YES: Arthur Aron and Elaine Aron, from "Chutzpah: Social Psychology Takes on the Big Issues," The Heart of Social Psychology (Lexington Books, 1989) 30

NO: David Kipnis, from "Accounting for the Use of Behavior Technologies in Social Psychology," American Psychology (vol. 49, 1994) 38

Issue 3 Can Experimental Social Psychology and Social Constructionism Coexist? 50

YES: John T. Jost and Arie Kruglanski, from "The Estrangement of Social Constructionism and Experimental Social Psychology: History of the Rift and the Prospects for Reconciliation," Personality and Social Psychology Review (August 2002) 52

NO: Jonathan Potter, from "Experimenting with Reconciliation: A Comment on Jost and Kruglanski," Personality and Social Psychology Review (August 2002) 71

Unit 2 Social Cognition 77

Issue 4 Are Our Social Perceptions Often Inaccurate? 78

YES: Lee Ross and Richard E. Nisbett, from The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology (McGraw-Hill, 1991) 80

NO: David C. Funder, from "Errors and Mistakes: Evaluatingthe Accuracy of Social Judgment," Psychological Bulletin (vol. 101, 1987) 87

Issue 5 Does Cognitive Dissonance Explain Why Behavior Can Change Attitudes? 100

YES: Leon Festinger and James M. Carlsmith, from "Cognitive Consequences of Forced Compliance," The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology (vol. 58, 1959) 102

NO: Daryl J. Bem, from "Self-Perception: An Alternative Interpretation of Cognitive Dissonance Phenomena," Psychological Review (May 1967) 112

Issue 6 Are Self-Esteem Programs Misguided? 118

YES: Roy F. Baumeister, from "Should Schools Try to Boost Self-Esteem?" American Educator (Summer 1996) 120

NO: William Swan Jr., Christine Chang-Schneider, and Katie Larsen McClarty, from "Do People's Self-Views Matter? Self-Concept and Self-Esteem in Everyday Life," American Psychologist (February/March 2007) 131

Issue 7 Can People Accurately Detect Lies? 148

YES: Paul Ekman, Maureen O'Sullivan, & Mark G. Frank, from "A Few Can Catch a Liar," Psychological Science (May 1999) 150

NO: Bella DePaulo, "Spotting Lies: Can Humans Learn to Do Better," from Current Directions in Psychological Science (June 1994) 156

Issue 8 Are Repressed Memories Real? 163

YES: Richard P. Kluft, from "The Argument for the Reality of Delayed Recall of Trauma," in Paul S. Applebaum, Lisa A. Uyehara, and Mark R. Elin, eds., Trauma and Memory: Clinical and Legal Controversies (Oxford University Press, 1997) 165

NO: Elizabeth F. Loftus, from "Creating False Memories," Scientific American (September 1997) 174

Issue 9 Do Positive Illusions Lead to Healthy Behavior? 182

YES: Shelley E. Taylor and Jonathon D. Brown, from "Illusion and Well-Being: A Social Psychological Perspective on Mental Health," Psychological Bulletin (March 1988) 184

NO: C. Randall Colvin, Jack Block, and David C. Funder, from "Overly Positive Self-Evaluations and Personality: Negative Implications for Mental Health," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (June 1995) 199

Unit 3 Social Influence 207

Issue 10 Do Milgram's Obedience Experiments Help Explain the Nature of the Holocaust? 208

YES: John P. Sabini and Maury Silver, in Survivors, Victims and Perpetrators: Essays on the Nazi Holocaust (Hemisphere Publishing, 1980) 210

NO: Florence R. Miale and Michael Selzer, from The Nuremberg Mind (Quadrangle/New York Times Book Company, 1975) 220

Issue 11 Does the Stanford Prison Experiment Help Explain the Effects of Imprisonment? 228

YES: Craig Haney and Philip Zimbardo, from "The Past and Future of U.S. Prison Policy: Twenty-Five Years after the Stanford Prison Experiment," American Psychologist (July 1998) 230

NO: David T. Lykken, from "Psychology and the Criminal Justice System: A Reply to Haney and Zimbardo," The General Psychologist (Spring 2000) 245

Issue 12 Is Subliminal Persuasion a Myth? 254

YES: Anthony R. Pratkanis, from "The Cargo-Cult Science of Subliminal Persuasion," Skeptical Inquirer (vol. 16, 1992) 256

NO: Nicholas Epley, Kenneth Savitsky, and Robert A. Kachelski, from "What Every Skeptic Should Know about Subliminal Persuasion," Skeptical Inquirer (vol. 23, 1999) 268

Issue 13 Can People Really Be Brainwashed? 281

YES: Trudy Solomon, from "Programming and Deprogramming the Moonies: Social Psychology Applied," The Brainwashing/Deprogramming Controversy (Edwin Mellen Press, 1983) 283

NO: James T. Richardson, from "A Social Psychological Critique of 'Brainwashing' Claims about Recruitment to New Religions," The Handbook of Cults and Sects in America (JAI Press, 1993) 292

Unit 4 International Society for Research on Aggression 307

Issue 14 Is Stereotyping Inevitable? 308

YES: Patricia G. Devine, from "Stereotypes and Prejudice: Their Automatic and Controlled Components," Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (January 1989) 310

NO: Lorella Lepore and Rupert Brown, from "Category and Stereotype Activation: Is Prejudice Inevitable?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (February 1997) 325

Issue 15 Does the Implicit Association Test (IAT) Measure Racial Prejudice? 340

YES: Shankar Vedantam, from "See No Bias," The Washington Post (January 23, 2005). 342

NO: Amy Wax and Philip E. Tetlock, from "We Are All Racists At Heart," The Wall Street Journal (December 1, 2005) 349

Issue 16 Can Stereotypes Lead to Accurate Perceptions of Others? 352

YES: Lee J. Jussim, Clark R. McCauley, and Yueh-Ting Lee, from "Why Study Stereotype Accuracy and Inaccuracy?" Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences (APA, 1995) 354

NO: Charles Stangor, from "Content and Application Inaccuracy in Social Stereotyping," Stereotype Accuracy: Toward Appreciating Group Differences (APA, 1995) 365

Issue 17 Does True Altruism Exist? 376

YES: C. Daniel Batson, Bruce D. Duncan, Paula Ackerman, Terese Buckley, and Kimberly Birch, from "Is Empathic Emotion a Source of Altruistic Motivation?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (February 1981) 378

NO: Robert B. Cialdini, Mark Schaller, Donald Houlihan, Kevin Arps, Jim Fultz, and Arthur L. Beaman, from "Empathy-Based Helping: Is It Selflessly or Selfishly Motivated?" Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (April 1987) 389

Issue 18 Does Media Violence Cause Aggression? 400

YES: Brad J. Bushman and Craig A. Anderson, from "Media Violence and the American Public: Scientific Facts Versus Media Misinformation," American Psychologist (June/July 2001) 402

NO: Jonathan L. Freedman, from Media Violence and Aggression (University of Toronto Press, 2002) 417

Contributors 427