Sixth Form Psychology Conference - London
Psychology Day Trip- Zimbardo Conference!
On March 21st a group of twenty-three Sixth Form Psychology students were lucky to experience a series of presentations at the Emmanuel Centre, London, along with many other schools from around the country. Among the several famous Psychologists, Professor Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University was the standout name for his notorious and controversial work on conformity in the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971.
The conference began with a talk from Phil Banyard, a reader in Psychology at Nottingham Trent University. He entertained the audience with an insight into his chosen topic of ‘Who am I?’ posing many amusing questions and anecdotes to the audience. Following Phil was an informational talk from the host Cara Flanagan who has written the text books for both AS and A2 level, speaking about ecological validity and reliability in research. Before the break for lunch, Dr Mark Griffiths, Director of International Gaming Research also at Nottingham Trent University spoke about addiction; an interesting topic as it can apply to gambling behaviour, smoking or anything that causes impairment in an individual’s life and is hugely relevant to many young people today.
After a lunch break, we were excited for the arrival of Professor Zimbardo. During the build-up to his imminent arrival on stage, he slowly roamed the venue of The Emmanuel Centre; sending psychology nerds into near hysteria! He was such an entertaining speaker at the grand old age of 82, dancing to Santana to make us feel happy before his presentation started! He spoke at length to dispel the myth that dispositional factors are the sole cause for why someone would be evil in a given scenario such as the Stanford Prison Experiment. He explained at length that no individual can truly know how they would react in a situation, we all must simply be placed in that situation to find the answer. This is the reason why his work cannot be repeated nowadays; the ethical principles of research simply will not allow any harm to come to participants.
Alongside Zimbardo throughout his presentation was his wife Professor Christina Maslach, who spoke about her heroic role in the Stanford Prison Experiment (stopping the experiment six days in to a scheduled two week piece of research), but also her ‘burn-out’ research in relation to stress, which is especially relevant in today’s modern society. Zimbardo also spoke about his new venture, called the ‘Heroic Imagination Project’ which aims to make more members of society become proactive in speaking out about social injustice, and less inactive to evils in society when we witness them. Finally, once the conference came to an end, he concluded with a few questions from the audience, one of which came from our very own student Greta asking about what elements of the study were portrayed inaccurately in the recently released Hollywood film of his experiment, which he answered fully.
The conference was a fantastic experience and it was amazing to see so many famous Psychologists on the stage talking about their experiences and their passion for Psychology. The chance to see Professor Zimbardo speak with such charm and humour was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and we were very grateful for the opportunity to have such a fun time in London.
Jess Mather, Sarah Almond, Katrina Halsall
