Zimbardo wrote one of the textbooks I used in one of my psych classes. Brilliant guy. He also did an experiment with college students, randomely assigning them to be either a prisnor or a guard, and found very similar results to the experiment you posted about. Scary stuff, and helps to make Abu Graib a bit more clear as to WHY it happened (not that it makes it any more acceptable).
I think I lean more towards dispositional, although not as much as your (former) friend. And for many of the same reasons. I have been through some seriously bad things in my life, but managed to keep my life together and move on. Yes, some of it was due to my support network and luck, but a lot was due to my not having a victim complex. I don't think either viewpoint is mututally exclusive - I'm pretty sure elements of both can be found in any situation. For every extreme dispositionalist, you can find situational factors that made their success possible. By the same token, for every situationalist, you can find places where personal responsibility and hard work could have helped.
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Date: 2006-11-27 04:29 pm (UTC)I think I lean more towards dispositional, although not as much as your (former) friend. And for many of the same reasons. I have been through some seriously bad things in my life, but managed to keep my life together and move on. Yes, some of it was due to my support network and luck, but a lot was due to my not having a victim complex. I don't think either viewpoint is mututally exclusive - I'm pretty sure elements of both can be found in any situation. For every extreme dispositionalist, you can find situational factors that made their success possible. By the same token, for every situationalist, you can find places where personal responsibility and hard work could have helped.