Psychology Induced Motion Duncker 1910 Empty field except rectangle and dot Rectangle is moved dot id kept fixed However your eyes don t see it like this You see the complete opposite Rectangle as fixed dot as moving Why Your eyes choose the most stable looking object the rectangle as the reference frame with respect to which the least stable looking object the dot is judged So you see the dot as moving relative to the rectangle Natural Example of this Cloud Moon Illusion Cloud is moving moon is static However moon appears to be moving very fast through the cloud Just like the previous example rectangle dot Successive Embeddings of this Phenomenon Moon is seen as moving relative to cloud and cloud is seen as moving relative to buildings Notice moon building are both at rest yet moon is seen as moving and buildings are seen at rest They are separated into two relative systems Principle of seperation of systems Judge only with respect to next larger system not beyond Another motion Example Following point on wheel The pam of the point is as shown However you don t see it like this You see it as a hierarchy of two relative systems 1 The point is moving in a circular motion around the wheel center 2 The wheel is moving horizontally as a whole elative to you Gibson s Approach Gibson is the opposite of the Gestalt approach Recall that the Gestalt approach says that the structure of what you perceive comes from inside your mind i e by imposing the criteria of grapping Gibson says the opposite the source of structure is not your mind but the environment J J Gibson Major American perceptual psychologist He proposed what is called the ecological approach to understanding perception He says that the psychologist has to go through 3 stages to understand how an animal perceives 1 First understand the environment in which the animal is embedded 2 Then understanding what information about the environment is available in the stimulus on the retina 3 Then understand how your mind uses that information on the retina to recover the structure of the environment Attribution theory Study of how people attribute causes to other people s behavior Any action of other person can have many different causes Example in a single day a Waitress warmly smiles at us at end of meal b Man at gas station scowls at us Two opposite theories of this pair of events Dispositional Theories Waitress is friendly person Man at gas station is hostile person I e behavior was a result of dispositions deep seated consistent personality traits Situational Theories Waitress who might normally be bad tempered had been told by the boss to be nice Man at gas station might normally be good tempered had just had a cut in salary I e behaviors are due to purely local situations Attribution Error Most people use first kind of theory when explaining behavior of other people I e waitress s smile gas attendent s scowl are attributed to their permanent personality I e Dispositional factors People rarely use situational theories Attribution Error tendency to favor dispositional theories rather than situational theories Damaging effects of attribution error By making attribution error people can force other person to become something they were not originally particularly damaging to children grade school teachers frequently decide very early in schoool year who is smart and who is not this in turn has effect on child s self perception children who are viewed favorably because teachers do well children who are viewed not favorably by teachers do badly Self fulfilling prophecy a prediction that comes true not because it is right but simply because it was made in the first place called a self fulfilling prophecy Notice that this relates to attribution error child could be depressed undergoing bad circumstances at beginning of school year Teacher attributes child s behavior to disposition personality This forces child to become that personality This type of error is particularly damaging to society when made by authority figures e g police 19th century husbands Attribution error attributing to personality rather than situation is made by people about other people however opposite error is made by people about themselves they tend to persistently excuse their own behavior by blaming circumstances when it is something ingrained in their personality Ways to overcome attribution error with respect to others 1 try when you can to attribute people s behavior to situations This will counter tendency to use dispositional theories 2 Be curious 3 Always remember that behavior is due to a mixture of situation and disposition Conformity and obedience Conformity and obedience major factor in society Solomin Asch Experiment One real subject thought he was taking part in a perception experiment sits at large table with other people actors which he believes are real subjects like him Shown card with single line Shown another card with 3 lines of different sizes He is asked which line in second card is the same size a the single line on first card he is alays asked after several other subjects at the table give the same obviously wrong answer results showed real subjects gave answers that conformed with the group the other subjects actors were instructed before hand to Migram Experiments Stanley Milgram 1964 table divided by screen Box in middle Person on each side of table Cannot see each other through screen one of the two people is the real subject The other person is called the real learner Unkown to the subject the learner is an actor via the box the subject can administer electric shocks to the learner the subject is instructed by the experimenter To the administrator these shocks if the learner gets answers wrong to questions also the subject is instructed to increase the voltage as more and more answers are wrong as shocks increase in strength the learner would start screaming in pain voltage level reached 450 volts which we know kills people yet 34 out of 40 subjects continued obeying the instructions of the experimenter when questioned subjects described themselves decent and moral Milgram Paperback 1974 Obedience to authority Rejection Everyone fears rejection and suffers great pain on rejection e g for a job application etc it is a negative annotion based on a false belief that this is the only chance in fact every rejection gives you information e g at a job interview the more rejections the more information and knowledge you get and knowledge is
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