social Darwinism

the now discredited theory that social relations develop according to the principles of natural selection advanced by Charles Darwin. As articulated by Herbert Spencer and others, the theory proposed that societies evolve through survival of the fittest, the fittest being defined as those with wealth, power, and “natural” superiority in the struggle for existence. With its legitimizing of social, economic, and racial inequality, social Darwinism became a major ideological vehicle for justifying laissez-faire economics, imperialism, and eugenics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Psychology term of the day

December 20th 2024

Stanford prison study

a controversial 1971 study of the psychological effects of coercive situations, conducted by a research team under the direction of U.S. psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo (1933– ). The male participants were randomly assigned to the roles of either prisoner or guard in a simulated prison at Stanford University. A variety of methods and situations were used to depersonalize participants, diminish their sense of identity, and increase a sense of power on the one hand (guards) and powerlessness on the other (prisoners). The experiment was terminated after only 6 days of the originally scheduled 14, when several participants showed physical manifestations of stress and psychological trauma. The study was criticized on both ethical and methodological grounds but is often cited as an example of the power of the situation, because it illustrated the manner in which social contexts can influence and transform human behavior, often in very negative ways. See also Lucifer effect.