The Power of the Situation

1. THE POWER
OF THE
SITUATION

2. ESSENTIAL QUESTION &
LEARNING INTENTIONS
To what extent am I responsible for my actions?
Learning Intentions
• We are learning about our ability to control our own actions.
• We will be able to use evidence from psychology and our
lives to support our ideas.
• We are learning this because it will better help us understand
the factors that impact our behavior.

3. A SOCIAL
EXPERIMENT
Brain Games: A Social Experiment
• How does our understanding of conditioning/learning help
explain this situation?
• Was this more of an example of Classical or Operant
Conditioning? Why?
• What was the primary motivation in these participants’
actions? What drove their actions?
• What does this show about human behavior?

4. ANOTHER BIG
QUESTION
Am I Always Responsible for My Behavior?
• Free Write
• Group Discussion
Who was responsible for what happened to the frog & scorpion?
Could Kareem have stopped himself from breaking his promise?
How is Kareem’s situation similar & different from that of the
scorpion & frog?
How does our knowledge about learning impact this situation?

5. FREE-WILL &
DETERMINISM
Main Question: To what extent is an individual’s behavior
within their control or predicted by outside forces?
Free-Will: We are able to have some choice in how we act and
assumes that we are free to choose our behavior, in other
words we are self-determined.
Determinism: Behavior is caused by preceding factors and is
thus predictable. We do not have full control over our
behaviors.
Real Life Examples: Violent Crimes

6. LEARNING & FREE
WILL
A behaviorist psychologist (someone who believes that our
learning shape our behavior) would argue that we are the
product of our environment and thus lack free-will in many
ways.
• Do you agree or disagree with this idea?

7. MILGRAM
EXPERIMENT
Who was responsible for the “harm” done to the
learner?

8. THE POWER OF THE
SITUATION
To what extent are the people in these experiments
responsible for their behavior?
How is this similar or different from the first video?
How does this apply to our own lives?