October 2014 Database of the Month

Psychological Experiments Online is a multimedia online resource that synthesizes the most important psychological experiments of the 20th and 21st centuries. The collection pairs  audio and video recordings of the original experiments (when existent) with primary-source documents such as Stanley Milgram’s films and personal papers and Philip Zimbardo’s detailed notes from the Stanford Prison experiment along with the film, Quiet Rage. Also find exclusive and hard-to-find materials including notes from experiment participants, journal articles, books, field notes, letters penned by the lead psychologist, videos of modern-day replications, and modifications to the original experiments.

The collection begins at the turn of the 20th century, with Ivan Pavlov’s work in classical conditioning and continues through a century of ground-breaking psychological experiments, including:

• Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments
• B.F. Skinner’s research with pigeons
• Stanley Milgram’s research on obedience to authority
• Albert Bandura’s Bobo Doll experiment
• John B. Watson’s Little Albert experiment
• Harry Harlow’s monkey study
• Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment
• Bibb Latane and John Darley’s study of bystander apathy
• Elizabeth Loftus’s eyewitness testimony research
• Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s black and white doll experiment
• Muzafer Sherif’s Robbers Cave experiments
• Other key research including the false memory experiment, the monster study, research on the halo effect, and more

Psychological Experiments Online features an array of archival material scholars won’t find anywhere else from content partners including the Center for the History of Psychology and Yale University. Contemporary interviews with Columbia University’s Betsy Sparrow look at the latest developments in the field related to prejudice, conformity, cognitive dissonance, and learned helplessness.

Psychological Experiments Online includes a growing selection of course activities and learning objects designed to increase student involvement and comprehension of the core materials. These resources include quizzes, assignments and exercises, discussion questions, interactive timelines, guidelines for in-class recreations of experiments, and multimedia playlists.