Social Science Knowledge: Being Bad

The Social Science aspect we looked at for our theme of “What makes humans bad?” allowed us to see a perspective that is different from the Humanities and our prior knowledge. The Social Sciences are academic disciplines that are concerned with the social life of humans in a group and individually. These disciplines include, history, geography, economics, political science, psychology, social studies and sociology. It is important to our theme that we look at it through the Social Science perspective because we get to see how studies that conclude in hard facts tell us so much more about human behavior. In the humanities we learned that society has an effect on human interaction, here in the Social Sciences we learned how scientists look at the facts that they gather during experiments to come up with a conclusions that’s based on evidence from the findings.

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To help understand the class theme a bit better, we began to read articles and research papers that came up with conclusions as to why the mentally ill act a certain way, what drugs do to you, and why bullying exists. One article that stood out to me was Interpersonal Dynamics in a Simulated Prison by Craig Haney, Curtis Banks and Philip Zimbardo from the Department of Psychology at Standford University. In what was supposed to be a 2 week experiment led by Philip Zimbardo, was to investigate the causes of conflict between military guards an prisoners. For the study, participles 12 guards and 12 prisoners adapted into their roles very well, so well that the 2 people quit and the experiment was terminated.  What the study found though was quite interesting. Those who are given the roles of authority and status quite easily abuse their power. In the case of the experiment, the guards enforced measures that ultimately endangered the prisoners to real psychological torture. Although many of the prisoners passively accepted the mental abuse, it become un-bearing for some.

In short, what this study taught me was that even if it’s a role that these Stanford students were playing for some quick cash, the guards took it very seriously and essentially became bullies, proving that in the cause of military guards and prisoners, it is not quite just the prisoners fault for violence, but instead, it is the faults of the guards who hold such authoritarian status, they become cruel.

When doing any sort of study or experiment it is important that scientists take into consideration many things such as race, age, gender, income, and illnesses. These and more, are important to know in a case of a study because they may have to do with a specific outcome.

Standford Prison Study - Google

"The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces." - Philip Zimbardo

In the study "Parental Characteristics Associated With Bullying Perpetration in US Children Aged 10 to 17 Years" we learned that parents are a major reason why children bully. The findings from the study suggest that the "parents perceptions of anger with their child, that their child bothers them a lot, and their child is harder to care for than other children" create higher odds of child bullying (Shetgiri, et al. 2012, 2283). In coherence with this, the study also suggested that with higher parental involvement and communication, children had lower odds of bullying. Therefore, negative interactions and home life is what shapes these children and they go on to school and environments other than their homes and model aggressiveness learned from their parents to other children.

Children Being Bullied - Google

Something the clinical social worker guest speaker said that I was able to agree with was that she does not believe humans are born bad. She stated that her clients are instead put in situations where they feel they have no other choice but to act in specific manners and do criminal activities as a result of their illness, lack of ability to cope, and constant rejection. The greatest part of her talk with us in my opinion was when she stated that people need to be nice to each other. It sounds so cliché but in fact, we do not know why people steal or kill, and certainly just talking to some of these people won’t change their outcomes, but little good deeds here and there really can go a long way. If people cared more for each other and less for just themselves, the world just might be a better place.

Therefore, having put all of this time mind, are the college students bad for taking on a role they were given? Are children who bully bad even though we know it may be the cause of their home environment? Are people with mental illness's bad even though we know it is not their fault they are sick? These are questions one cannot just answer without reasons.

What is important to remember that although the Humanities was based a lot about a person's mere true belief, like Hobbes and Locke's, knowledge from the social sciences looks to see the causes of actions. Social scientists do not seek blame their findings are referred to as more information to help understand an issue, they are not answers.