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

Chapter 376 Individual Growth in Group Counseling

After the Stanford Prison Experiment ended, Professor Zimbardo, the media, and the academic community all conducted some degree of follow-up investigations into this experiment that had a huge impact.

During 1971-1972, Zimbardo's team conducted a preliminary follow-up on the participants' psychological state and found that some people still had problems with anxiety and insomnia, and a small number of volunteers still had identity confusion and were still unable to break free from the identity of "prison guard" or "prisoner".

In the 1980s and 2000s, some prisoner volunteers and prison guard volunteers were interviewed in the public media, stating that they had a long history of psychological intervention, suffered from mental illnesses such as post-traumatic stress disorder, and publicly condemned the experiment.

After 2000, foreign scholars compiled the original materials of this simulated prison experiment and found a recording in which Professor Zimbardo directly instructed the prison guard volunteers to be "stricter" when dealing with the prisoner volunteers.

Considering all of the above, Nan Zhuren said that this experiment was infamous.

As for the other "John Watson's Little Albert Experiment" mentioned by Nan Zhuren, it can be said to be even worse than Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment, with a more severe and far-reaching impact.

The Little Albert Experiment was conducted in 1920 by John B. Watson, a leading figure in behaviorism, to investigate whether emotional responses could be learned through classical conditioning.

This Watson is completely different from Holmes's assistant Watson.

The subject of the "Little Albert Experiment" was a 9-month-old baby, who was given the pseudonym "Little Albert" in the experiment, hence the name of the experiment.

In the early stages of the experiment, Albert showed curiosity and even affection for plush toys such as white mice and rabbits.

As the experiment officially began, Watson attempted to establish a conditioned reflex of fear in Albert: when Albert came into contact with the white rats, Watson would strike a metal rod with a hammer behind him, creating a loud noise that would trigger Albert's fear, causing him to cry. After repeating this procedure multiple times, it became clear that as soon as the white rats appeared, even without Watson striking the metal rod to create a loud noise, Albert would exhibit fear responses such as crying and avoidance.

In other words, little Albert went from being curious and affectionate towards the white mouse to being fearful of it.

Albert's fear was originally directed at "loud noise," but in the experiment, it was connected to the white rats through conditioned reflexes.

Subsequently, the experiment produced an unexpected result—when Albert saw items such as rabbits, Santa Claus masks, and cotton, he also experienced a strong sense of fear, even to the point of hysterical crying.

His fear was no longer directed at the white rat, but rather extracted the characteristics of the white rat, thus generating a fear of all white and furry things.

Psychology has since adopted a new concept—generalization—to explain this phenomenon in Albert.

Watson's experiment was successful, proving that emotions can be formed through nurture, thus validating the core behaviorist principle that "environment shapes behavior." This experiment also became a significant example of classical conditioning theory, propelling the development of behaviorist psychology.

At the same time, they also began to face verbal and written criticism.

……

"Without a doubt, the experimental results of both Zimbardo and Watson are invaluable. It can be said that their research accelerated the development of psychology as a profession by several years and even created a new branch of research in psychology."

"But what is even more certain is that their behavior is unacceptable in today's context. The field of psychology will never allow experiments of this nature to occur again."

"The desire for achievement, honor, or something higher can easily drive even professors to madness, allowing them to hypnotize themselves with lofty reasons."

At this point, Nan Zhuren took a deep breath.

"However, even a great cause that can promote the development of the industry cannot become a reason to violate morality and ethics, or even to harm oneself or others."

If Nan Zhuren's previous theories of "group polarization" and "situational power theory" were meant to provide a framework for those "guilty students" who experienced the Wang Rui incident, then...

What we're talking about now is, without a doubt, shining a flashlight in the faces of these "cognitively distorted students."

Even a cause with the glamorous core of "driving the progress of the entire industry" cannot be disguised as "harming others".

Those who violate this rule will face condemnation from people in all walks of life for centuries to come.

Not to mention the "college entrance examination" that you just experienced?

Nan Zhuren concluded:
"This is the follow-up impact of the Stanford Prison Experiment. I apologize for showing you the less glamorous side of psychology."

However, if this can dispel your unrealistic fantasies about psychology and make you seriously choose your major after the college entrance examination, then that would be a great achievement. Nan Zhuren thought to himself.

Bringing her thoughts back, Nan Zhuren took a deep breath.

With this, all the groundwork for group counseling is complete.

Next comes the most crucial step – cognitive integration.

……

The students at the scene had various expressions.

At this point, Teacher Zhao also became a little nervous.

Today's group counseling session is about to reach its climax.

Although the counseling session just now did help the students, ... don't counselors always want to go further and solve the problem completely?
What Teacher Zhao is most worried about is that at this stage, some people might revert to their previous "defensive stance" or even withdraw from this group counseling session.

Compared to Teacher Zhao, Nan Zhuren was much more composed.

He cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention: "You all still remember the content of the video we just watched, right?"

Let's relax a bit.

This time, not only Lin Junkai and Li Mingchen, but most of the students also smiled in agreement.

Some people even quietly replied "no" in response.

"Okay, now please open your A4 papers. I need you to give yourselves a score again."

"If you were a 'prison guard' in this experiment, how likely would you be to be influenced and abuse prisoners when you encounter the situations in the experiment? Please rate this likelihood on a scale of 1-5."

"At the same time, if you were the 'prisoners' in this experiment, how likely would you be to comply with the discipline without resistance and allow yourself to be treated like a real prisoner? Still on a scale of [1-5]."

Seeing the students' expressions change immediately, Nan Zhuren thoughtfully added a sentence.

"Since we're going to give two scores this time, I'll give you an extra minute to think. I'll call a halt in three minutes."

"Just like the previous two times, I will show my score and share why I gave it that score."

His voice was calm, like a gentle breeze.

But it stirred up a huge wave in the hearts of the students.

……

If this were a group counseling session themed around "self-exploration," then Nan Zhuren would have the students score the students in this round before explaining the experiment.

Because Nan Zhuren has already given this experiment a "notorious" rating, this rating will inevitably affect the students' grades.

But that's exactly the effect Nan Zhuren wanted. This group counseling session wasn't about "self-exploration."

To put it dramatically, the theme this time could be described as "confronting oneself"!
Let students confront their own anxiety, guilt, and distorted perceptions.

At this moment, the paper and pen in their hands are their weapons of resistance.

All the students—including Lin Junkai, who was the most decisive at the beginning, and Zhang Zihao, who was the most defensive—faced the blank paper in front of them, their pens rising and falling.

A series of ink dots were printed, but they couldn't form a single number.

This is a very crucial step.

Just as Nan Zhuren said during a psychological counseling session, "thoughts" are fleeting in the mind and can be exaggerated, amplified, or even distorted.

Even if they reflect on, defend, or make decisions about their past actions, these reflections are likely to be fleeting and soon buried by even heavier thoughts.

Only by writing it down and presenting it in an objective form can people truly confront this idea.

Currently, the ritualistic act of "writing" can also serve as a "final strike" for students as they confront themselves.

This evaluation, seemingly a group counseling assignment, involves imagining one's "possible" behaviors.

In reality, it's about giving a score to their current perception of "themselves".

This includes your past self, your present self, and even your future self.

"Hush-huh-"

The heavy breathing sounds rose and fell around him, but Nan Zhuren ignored them, his eyes scanning over the faces of the students as usual.

"Time's up," he said quickly and softly.

Some people gained insights from this process and wrote down their scores.

Some are still in a daze, completely lost in thought during this round, until Nan Zhuren reminded them and they hurriedly came back to their senses, gritting their teeth and writing down a score.

Others simply didn't write a rating. After hearing Nan Zhuren's reminder, they folded the A4 paper, put it away, and waited to hear others share their experiences.

"Would anyone like to share their score first?" Nan Zhuren asked.

As expected, there was a moment of silence.

Then, to Teacher Zhao's surprise, but also to Nan Zhuren's surprise, a student who always spoke last this time raised his hand first.

This was his first time speaking out. He was like the student with the thick bangs, someone who felt particularly guilty and had limited involvement in the previous incident.

First, the student looked around, perhaps to see if anyone would try to speak first, or perhaps to see how others would react to him speaking first.

He met Nan Zhuren's eyes for a moment, then looked at Teacher Zhao, seemingly hoping to gain some support from him.

Teacher Zhao's eyes maintained a practiced gentleness.

“I would give myself a score of 4 points for playing the role of a ‘prison guard’ and also a score of 4 points for playing the role of a ‘prisoner’.”

“The reason… is the same.” First, Yan pursed his lips. “I think based on the experimental environment that Teacher Nan just mentioned, I definitely wouldn’t be so clear-headed in there. I would definitely be just like those people in the experiment.”

"At most, when I was a prison guard, I probably wouldn't actively bully prisoners; I would just watch others bully them."

"After all, the experiment showed that those volunteers were Stanford students, and they were like that, while I am definitely not as good as them. Then there are those psychological patterns that we don't usually pay attention to, the influence of the environment on people, and I feel that I don't have the ability to... go against the psychological laws of people and do things that are different from everyone else."

First, after stating their scores, the students gave an unusually long explanation, as if they were trying to defend themselves.

But his eyes had long since left Teacher Zhao, staring intently at the floor in front of him. It was unclear whether he was explaining to the others present, or to himself.

“If we calculate it that way, I should actually give it a 5 out of 10,” the student concluded. “But I personally don’t want to do this. I hate doing this. Whether it’s the prison guards or the prisoners in the experiment, I don’t want to be like them.”

"So we'll lose 1 point and only have 4 points left. Let's hope for a miracle."

After the student finished speaking, he smiled at Teacher Zhao.

Apart from Lin Junkai and Li Mingchen, the students were closer to Teacher Zhao than to Nan Zhuren.

So this time, Teacher Zhao temporarily took over Nan Zhuren's lines and encouraged her, saying, "Thank you for your speech."

The student immediately seemed to be comforted.

Nan Zhuren nodded: "Next?"

……

"I'll do it." A voice rang out from beside her.

It's still Lin Junkai.

The student's brows were furrowed and his lips were pursed, as if a thousand thoughts were colliding in his mind like random bullet comments.

"When I wrote down my score for this round, I first wrote down a 5, then crossed it out and wrote a 0. This is the score I gave myself as a 'prison guard'."

Lin Junkai showed the record sheet in his hand, which indeed had traces of corrections.

"Then I also wrote a score of 0 for myself as a 'prisoner'."

Lin Junkai paused.

"The reason I wrote it this way was initially because I thought I would start from the perspectives of psychology, people, and patterns."

"But then I thought about what had happened recently."

This statement jolted the students, who were already tense about this segment, into a state of heightened alertness, resulting in a series of uncomfortable reactions.

This is not enough.

"Let me be blunt, it's about Coach Wang... no, Wang Rui. It's about her forcing us to do extra training and forcing us to bully Pengcheng!"

Nan Zhuren clasped his hands together and took a deep breath.

This student has started a group buy!

(End of this chapter)