Psy 324: Advanced Social Psychology
Miami University
Living in a Social World
Psy 324: Advanced Social Psychology
Miami University
"I Always Believed the Press Would Kill Her in the End..." Death of a Princess
Princess Diana died on August 31th in a car crash in Paris, along with her companion, Dodi Fayed and
their driver. An immediate and widespread attribution was that her death was the
result of harrassment by photographers ("paparazzi") from whom she was trying to escape, though it was also discovered
that the driver was legally drunk. The quote above was
from her brother, Earl Charles Spencer, who noted the continuing and relentless pursuit of Diana from the beginning of her relationship with the royal family. Of
course, some pointed out that the press was rewarded in their efforts by a public that was
fascinated with the private details of her life, and without that public interest there
would have been no car chase. Certainly this case raises interesting and important
questions about the morality of
journalism (for example, about the sale of photos of Diana in the wreckage), but also highlights questions concerning the
psychological basis of the attractiveness of celebrities in our everyday lives, and the
social phenomenona that surround the tragic death of
someone as prominent as Princess Diana.
Back to Top
Back To Psy 324 Home Page
"This is Not an Issue of Adultery..."
Sex, Power, and the Military
Regarding the court martial of Lt. Kelly Flinn, the first female
B52 Bomber pilot in the U.S. Air Force, General Ronald Fogleman said, "This is not an
issue of adultery...." but rather "...about an officer entrusted to fly nuclear
weapons who lied" (CNN
5/21). Indeed, the charges against Flinn are more complicated than simply having an
affair with someone who is married, at least in the eyes of the Air Force--
and so are the social questions raised by the case. For example, some raise the
possibility that Flinn is being treated more harshly than males in similar circumstance.
Others have pointed out the power differential between Flinn and the wife (also in the Air
Force) of the man with whom Flinn had the affair, and suggest that the wife is also a
victim here, as illustrated in her letter to the authorities. There is also the question
of whether the man lied to
Flinn about his marital status. At a more general level, the case illustrates issues
of increasing importance regarding sexual behavior in the military (e.g. adultery in the
Air Force) and understanding the causes and solutions of problems arising from a mixed gender
military.
Back to Top
Back To Psy 324 Home Page
Cyberspace and Suicide: The Internet, Cults, and Technology
On March 27, 1997, the bodies of 39 members of the Heaven's Gate
cult were discovered in a mansion near San Diego, apparently the "victims" of a
mass suicide (see web coverage by PBS, MSNBC, and CNN). This event
illustrates, as do other mass
suicides, the extreme effects that groups can exert on individual behavior, and raises
questions of what
attracts people to cults and what psychological mechanisms account for the cults' power.
In the case of the Heaven's Gate event, additional questions were highlighted by the
group's use of internet technology to promote their philosophy and to recruit new members,
as illustrated by PBS
interviews with cult experts such as Robert Lifton, Fred Clothy, and Stephen Levy.
Analysts also pondered the whether the uncensored nature of the World Wide Web was
encouraging the promotion of extreme groups of all sorts, including other cults, and
whether internet activity made people somehow more susceptible to cult recruitment.
Perhaps of even more interest, though less widely discussed, was the role of the World
Wide Web in disseminating news of the event and providing public access to information
about the cult with unprecedented speed and thoroughness. For example, public fascination
with the case was graphically illustrated by reactions to the announcement of the cult's
website. CNN quoted the chief operating officer of the cult's internet service provider as
saying that within minutes of the announcement of the cult's website address on t.v.,
"The general
public was flooding our Net with millions of hits and knocking off the rest of our
customers. We pulled (the site) off temporarily. " MSNBC reported that at one
point the site was receiving 40,000 - 60,000 hits per hour. Without the World Wide Web it
is likely that only few people would have had direct access to the cult's materials.
However, the same technology also allows direct access to religious material that is
generally regarded more positively, for example on the Vatican
website, which was one of the first pages on the web (1995).
Back to Top
Back To Psy 324 Home Page
JonBenet
Ramsey: Murder of a Six-Year-Old Beauty Queen
This American tragedy may tell us more than we care to know about many aspects of living in a social world. For example, the attention given to the case may illustrate our abhorrence of violent crimes against children, but what explains our fascination with this particular incident? Some have argued that media coverage panders to the public appetite for sensational stories: "...if it bleeds, it leads." Others suggest that the JonBenet case raises important questions about the socialization of gender roles, and the importance of physical attractiveness in our society. Of course, the lengthy investigation and slowness in solving the crime has, as in the TWA Flight 800 case, engaged a number of principles of causal attribution. For example, many people have questioned why JonBenet's parents refuse to be interviewed by police if they are innocent? What aspects of correspondence inference theory bear on this? Details of the case, and documentation of public reaction to it, can be found on many sites, including the Denver Post, CNN and MSNBC.
Back to Top
Back To Psy 324 Home Page
"Simpson Will Never Be A
Murderer:" The O.J. Trials
Two trials, two juries, two verdicts. If the evidence in the O.J. trials was the same, why were the outcomes so radically different? What did USA Today mean by the headline following the guilty verdict in the civil trial that "Simpson will never be a murderer?" There are many principles in social psychology that may be helpful in understanding this truly "social" phenomenon, and also in assessing the reasons for people's interest in the O.J. case and evaluating the impact of the case on American society. For documentation of events surrounding the trials, including transcripts of testimony, see coverage by USA Today, CNN and other websites.
Back to Top
Back To Psy 324 Home Page
Social Psychology / Miami University (Ohio USA). Last revised: . This document has been accessed 2,793+ times since 1 June 1996. Comments & Questions to R. Sherman
 Links2Go Social Psychology |