Ps124 Unit 3

Basic Concepts and Principles in Psychology

Tiffany Barnes

Kaplan University

PS124 - Unit 3 Assignment

November 25, 2015

I chose to do my report on the “Robber’s Cave Experiment” video. Even though the experiment was 50 years ago, it’s amazing how easily understood the experiment is because of reality television shows. The main point of the experiment was the use of nurture and how we react to something because of the group we belong to compared to other groups that we are not a part of. Robber’s Cave experiment was used with young teenage boys but I personally think that any age group would have reacted in a similar way to help prove the realist conflict theory. “The realist conflict theory states that when there is competition for resources negative feelings will arise,” (Bennett, 2013).

Personally, I found the Robber’s Cave Experiment very intriguing because it helps reinforce what we have seen throughout most of our lives with different groups interacting with each other. The experiments starts off with two different groups of boys around the age of twelve, however they were split up before they ever knew about the other group. In the first stage the boys in each group bonded with one another. Stage two was a competition between the two groups and there was a winner and a loser, second place did not get a prize. The two groups had so much hatred towards each other during the competition that there was verbal assaults, vandalism, theft and even violence towards each other. The final stage of the experiment combined the two groups where they had to work together to accomplish a single task that would benefit everyone. At first the boys stuck with others in their same group but by the end, the boys ended up bonding with each other no matter what group they were in. It’s human nature to stick to what we are used to and what we know.

“Nature is hereditary and what is in passed down in your genes” (Myers, 2014). “Nurture has more to do with the effects...