Who would study psychology if they didn't have some kind of problem?

Chapter 375 [Cognitive Integration]

"If you can feel your own distinct emotions, you can use a five-point scale of 1-5 to describe your emotions this time."

This time.

After Nan Zhuren asked everyone to feel their own emotions.

None of them, including Zhang Zihao and the other two, put pen to paper without thinking, unlike before.

Instead, they all fell silent and began to think.

This is the purpose of the "Stanford Prison Experiment" video that Nan Zhuren carefully selected.

Although the students present were affected to varying degrees by Wang Rui's incident, and thus had different feelings and encountered different problems.

But regardless of the type of student, they can all find relatable aspects of the "Stanford Prison Experiment".

This kind of "shadow that, though not me, feels very similar to me" is the most effective at bypassing defenses, stimulating thought, and ultimately producing an educational effect.

Nan Zhuren wanted to seize that fleeting influence, consolidate it, and even strengthen it.

While pondering, Nan Zhuren softly reminded the students that time was up. He then glanced around to see who would make eye contact with him and be the first to share.

Lin Junkai seemed a little hesitant. He looked around to make sure no one else wanted to speak before raising his hand.

After obtaining Nan Zhuren's permission, he showed what he had written on an A4 sheet of paper.

"Teacher, my emotions are anger and doubt. I'd give myself about 4 points for anger, but as for doubt... I'm not so sure."

Lin Junkai clearly understood his feelings and described them precisely: "[Anger] stems from the process of this experiment... it was just too much. I think even in an experiment, the participants should have a limit to what they do... uh..."

At this point, Lin Junkai paused. He moved his neck slightly, giving the impression that he wanted to observe his surroundings but was restraining himself from doing so.

"As for my doubts, I've been thinking..." Lin Junkai paused to organize his thoughts, "Is it really okay for this professor to do this? And why can't even a lawyer help?"

Nan Zhuren nodded: "Thank you for sharing, Jun Kai. We'll answer your questions together later—and I also have a question."

Lin Junkai nodded and leaned forward as if listening intently.

Why did you rate your anger at 4 out of 10?

“I’m really angry about what’s in this video. I was thinking of giving it a 5 out of 10 at first.” Lin Junkai paused. “But I feel that a 5 out of 10 would be the kind of feeling where you can’t control yourself and want to rush out. I don’t think I’m that angry yet, so I’ll give it a 4 out of 10 for now.”

Nan Zhuren succinctly relayed: "In other words—aside from the extreme anger that makes you lose control, you've reached the extreme of anger right now, within the limits of being able to 'control yourself'?"

Lin Junkai nodded: "Yes."

……

Nan Zhuren thought to himself.

Lin Junkai's subjective self-perception at this time is clearly somewhat biased.

Individual emotions are influenced by many factors. The current "Stanford Prison Experiment" clearly fits Lin Junkai's "past experience", so it can evoke Lin Junkai's emotions much more intensely than those of others - such as other students in the senior year (1) class.

At the same time, Lin Junkai's feelings may be somewhat exaggerated, and he may have a subjective idea that "I 'should' be very angry about this situation."

According to Nan Zhuren's observation, Lin Junkai did show anger, but if rated on a scale of five, it would probably be between 2 and 3.

……

But this isn't a problem that needs to be pointed out.

“Okay, thank you for sharing, Jun Kai,” Nan Zhuren said.

The students, immersed in the experimental scenario, gradually came to their senses and began to share their emotions one by one.

Nan Zhuren listened to their speeches one by one.

"I don't know what my emotions are." Soon it was the student sitting to the left of Teacher Zhao's turn. "I just feel sorry for the students who participated in the experiment, especially those who played the prisoners."

“[Sympathy].” Nan Zhuren made a precise summary based on the micro-expressions and language of the student sitting on Zhao Zuo’s side.

The student sitting on Zhao's left looked confused for a moment: "Ah, is it... [sympathy]?"

He then revealed a kind of joy, as if he had a vague feeling about something but it was unclear, and now the clouds had parted and the sun was shining through.

"Thank you, teacher. So that's what I was thinking..."

Nan Zhuren smiled and nodded, not delving into the matter, letting Zhao Zuo, the student sitting there, process his feelings on his own.

He then focused his attention on Zhang Zihao.

In this round of emotional sharing, only Zhang Zihao and two other students like him did not speak.

The other two students were looking at Zhang Zihao, seemingly waiting for him to answer first.

"Then I'll give the next answer."

Zhang Zihao glanced left and right, stretched his neck, and then suddenly curled the corners of his mouth at Nan Zhuren.

"I think the people in the video are all stupid."

After he finished speaking, he paused his narration, tucked his chin in, and stared intently at Nan Zhuren.

Nan Zhuren looked at him quietly, without the slightest change in emotion.

Zhang Zihao snorted: "I think all the students here are stupid. Those students playing prisoners were beaten and physically punished. Why didn't they just say they didn't want to earn that $15 and quit?"

"Those playing the prison guards don't understand their own roles either. It's just an experiment, why are they taking it so seriously? Have they not thought about what will happen after the experiment ends? If they do something too outrageous and it becomes intentional assault or something, won't they go to jail after the experiment ends? They are not real prison guards."

"And that professor, well, he's a professor, how could he not know how serious things were? Why didn't he stop it?"

Zhang Zihao concluded: "To be honest, if you hadn't shown the documentary and said that this was actually an experiment done by an American, I would have thought it was some kind of little story you made up—it makes absolutely no sense."

What's that saying again—fiction needs logic, but reality doesn't?

In this Stanford prison experiment, the behavior of the volunteers and professors did indeed, to some extent, contradict the logic of popular perception.

Zhang Zihao's words were full of aggression, and his expression was equally aggressive.

Looking at Zhang Zihao's posture, Nan Zhuren felt only joy.

The verbal aggression that Zhang Zihao is displaying at this moment is also a form of defense.

But it's so much better than Zhang Zihao's defense that doesn't say anything.

In psychological intervention, a "bad reaction" is better than "no reaction".

Zhang Zihao's current reaction may not necessarily be "bad" for Nan Zhuren.

It's important to understand that the Wang Rui incident not long ago also defied so-called logic in a sense. In reality, there are even more outrageous incidents than the Wang Rui case, not to mention those that happened recently.

Zhang Zihao's verbal attacks at that moment soon turned into boomerangs, becoming the driving force for his own cognitive correction and intellectual growth.

Meanwhile, Nan Zhuren was more interested in another point—was Zhang Zihao's aggression at this moment really only directed at the video, his classmates, and his teachers?
Is it possible that, subconsciously, he actually knew that he himself was also within the scope of the attack?

……

After Zhang Zihao finished speaking, two other students who were similar to him followed suit and expressed their thoughts.

“My thoughts are similar to Zihao’s; I also think this experiment is outrageous.”

"Me too. I don't have any other feelings or emotions, and it's hard to give a score. I just find it unbelievable."

Nan Zhuren nodded, and as usual, he offered encouragement to each student, regardless of their feelings about sharing.

"Okay, the students just asked a lot of questions about this video, and I know that everyone is also very curious about what the experiment in the video is about."

Nan Zhuren looked around.

As expected, everyone showed expressions of curiosity again.

The order of each step in group counseling is important.

After playing the video, Nan Zhuren specifically asked everyone to share their feelings first.

Then came the explanation and interpretation of the video.

This is similar to high school students doing practice tests with the answer key in hand. Teachers always tell students, "Do it yourself first, then check the answers."

Students often copy the answers directly and then memorize them, thinking it will have the same effect. But in reality, when they get to the exam, even if they see the exact same questions, they might be completely lost.

On the contrary, once you've actually done it, made a mistake, and corrected it based on the answer, you're able to solve even the same type of variation quite well.

This involves a fundamental research issue related to the "depth of processing," which will not be discussed in detail here.

In short, after watching the video, Nan Zhuren first let the students experience, share, and then explain the video, which is similar to doing the questions first, getting wrong, and then checking the answers.

This process is even better than the so-called "checking the answers," because checking the answers only deepens the understanding of the "wrong answers"—while "feelings" are not divided into right and wrong!
Therefore, when Nan Zhuren presented the "answer," every student, regardless of their feelings after watching the video, would think, "So that's how it is. My feelings just now actually match the scientific basis of this psychology," thus deepening their understanding and leading to growth.

And after they learn and grow from this experiment.

Then one can move on to the next stage – [cognitive integration].

They can integrate what they learn from this story into their own experiences.

This is also why Nan Zhuren carefully selected "The Stanford Prison Experiment" as the material for group counseling. Although the events in this experiment are slightly different from the Wang Rui incident, each NPC in the experiment can basically be found in the events that happened some time ago.

The students may seem to be learning from videos and experiments; in reality, they are following Nan Zhuren to dissect themselves and grow.

"The Stanford Prison Experiment is a landmark study in the history of psychology, the core of which is to reveal the vulnerability of human nature in specific situations. Subsequent researchers have developed many effect terms based on the results of this experiment, which are now used in books such as Management Psychology and Social Psychology."

"Many of the questions that the students just asked can also be explained by these effects."

Nan Zhuren looked at the students.

"First, there is the [situational power theory]. Experiments show that the environment and role have a far greater influence on people's behavior than personal traits. Even if the volunteers are mentally healthy college students, their behavior will quickly become distorted once they are given the role of a prison guard or 'prisoner': the prison guards abuse their power, and the prisoners passively obey."

"This theory confirms that human nature is not solely determined by an individual's intrinsic traits. The environment also plays an important, even primary, role."

Teacher Zhao was the quickest to react—because she knew the purpose of this group counseling session from the very beginning.

She fell into deep thought, beginning to search for correspondences between what Nan Zhuren was saying at that moment and what had happened before.

"Secondly, there is depersonalization and identity swallowing."

"Depersonalization, through anonymization and role labeling, weakens an individual's self-awareness and makes their behavior more susceptible to the control of group norms."

"Identity devouring is a more serious consequence of depersonalization. The identity devouring of volunteers means that their self-awareness is completely destroyed. In the experiment, they internalized the label of 'guilt' and began to believe that they really were prisoners."

"This is not just the effect of the experiment... even more."

Nan Zhuren said meaningfully, "When that prison priest appeared, although he offered to hire lawyers for the volunteers, wasn't that exactly how prisoners are treated? His actions only made the volunteers more convinced of their status as prisoners."

Teacher Zhao was stunned. When he compared this passage with a certain obstacle in reality, he suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"There is also the [systemic conspiracy]: the silence of bystanders, including Professor Zimbardo, contributed to the spread of evil. In this experiment, Professor Zimbardo himself was also lost. He did not realize that he had fallen into the role of 'warden' until he was reminded by other professors and suddenly realized that he had stopped the experiment."

"Others include [group polarization], [the herd mentality], [the Lucifer effect], and so on..."

The students listened attentively, their eyes shining.

As I said before, this kind of "analysis of human nature" in psychology is really effective at fooling laymen.

"The Stanford Prison Experiment has had a profound impact on later generations, promoted the development of psychology, and is even used in our group counseling today."

"It has many positive uses. One could say that such experiments are 'essential' for the development of any discipline. But—"

Nan Zhuren then changed the subject: "This experiment is also one of the most infamous experiments in psychology, almost on par with John Watson's 'Little Albert Experiment'."

"This experiment also advanced two things—ethical review and research standards in psychology!"

　These chapters are quite coherent, and they've all been combined into one post.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)