Jane Elliott's Experiment

943 Words4 Pages
Psychology is the study of mental functions and behaviors that determine social, physiological, and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviors. It is important because it studies the primary form of human life. These studies can include helping diagnose various diseases or discover what makes each person different. Two experiments that studied human behavior are; The blue eyed versus brown eyed students experiment, and The Milgram experience. The blue eyed versus brown eyed students experiment was an experiment that discrimination and why those considered superior acted they way they did compared to those considered inferior. The Milgram experience was an experiment that studied authority figures and people’s inclination…show more content…
She decided to base her lesson on eye color rather than skin color to show the children what segregation would be like. On that first day of the exercise, the brown-eyed children were superior. Elliott provided brown fabric collars to wrap them around the necks of the blue-eyed students as a method to easily identify the minority group. She gave the brown-eyed children extra privileges, such as second helpings at lunch, access to the new jungle gym, and five extra minutes at recess. The next day, Elliott reversed the exercise, making the blue-eyed children superior. While the blue-eyed children did taunt the brown-eyed children in ways similar to what had occurred the previous day, Elliott reports it was much less harsh. That Wednesday, Elliott told the blue-eyed children to take off their collars and ended the…show more content…
In this experiment, there would be the teacher, and the learner. An actor would always be the learner, while the participant would always be the teacher. The teacher and learner were separated into different rooms where they could communicate but not see each other.The teacher was then instructed to use an electro shock generator that, if the answer was incorrect, the teacher would have to administer a shock to the learner, with the voltage increasing in 15-volt increments for each wrong answer. The subjects believed that for each wrong answer, the learner was receiving actual shocks. In reality, there were no shocks. A tape recorder played pre-recorded sounds for each shock level while the actor would start to bang on the wall that separated him from the subject. After several times banging on the wall and complaining about his heart condition, all responses by the learner would
Show More
Related

  • Jane Elliot Research Paper

    1648 Words  | 7 Pages

    Jane Elliott was born on May 27, 1933 in Riceville, Iowa. She was an American third-grade schoolteacher who made an everlasting impact in anti-racism and civil rights. How could a third grade schoolteacher make an everlasting impact in something that has haunted the United States and people of color for ages? Well, she wasn’t only a third-grade schoolteacher. She was an activist, an educator, and a visionary. After the death of Martin Luther King Jr., she felt an obligation and purpose to teach people

    Read More

  • Jane Elliott Research Paper

    1825 Words  | 8 Pages

    Jane Elliott was born May 27th, 1933 and is almost 82 years old. She was the fourth of five children and grew up in Riceville, Iowa on a farm. Eventually, she taught in the same small town of 840 people as an elementary 3rd grade teacher. What sets her apart though, and makes her an influential educator, is her exercise she conducted with her 3rd graders the day after Martin Luther King Jr. had been killed. The “Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed Experiment” or as Jane Elliott called it “Discrimination Day”

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Nurture On Human Development

    1235 Words  | 5 Pages

    people are studied to see how it affects human development. Jane Elliott’s and Philip Zimbardo’s experiments, and Genie are all exceptional examples of how nurture influences human behaviour and even physique. Conversely, nature refers to the

    Read More

More about Jane Elliott's Experiment

Open Document