The Lucifer Effect Is An Eye Opener For Me - 1919 Words

Reading The Lucifer Effect was an eye opener for me. It got me thinking do we really know anyone for that matter do we know ourselves? There are times in of our lives, have we been astonished to learn about the activities of someone we thought we knew very well. Are those who commit atrocities people with serious character defects or psychopathology, or are they ordinary people responding to an extraordinary situation? The Lucifer Effect delivers some possible rationalizations for these personal mysteries in which we deal with. This book also gives some prospective on perplexed ideas of our own actions that may contradict our previous thought of our own identities. In this reflection paper I will be In The Lucifer Effect Zimbardo addresses a question, â€Å"What makes people go wrong?† (p. 5) He defines the word: â€Å"Evil consists in intentionally behaving in ways that harm, abuse, demean, dehumanize or destroy innocent others—or using one’s authority and systemic power to encourage or permit others to do so on your behalf† (p. 5). As is evident from this definition, the study of evil is the study of particular behaviors and motivations. As such, it could be argued that such a study is within the legitimate province of psychology, although some may be disturbed by this. Zimbardo begins by pointing out that the predominant paradigm in our culture for explaining human behavior is known as the dispositional model, a model that focuses on inner individual personality traits andShow MoreRelatedEssay about Galileo Galilei2120 Words   |  9 Pageshow they saw the world. â€Å"For example, a serious discussion among academics at that time was about the size and shape of hell as depicted in the poem Dantes Inferno, which was another eye opener for the community. Galileo gave a well-received lecture on the topic, including his scientific opinion about how tall Lucifer was† (Bellis). As a result of his lecture, there were positive criticism that helped Galileo score a position at the University of Pisa. â€Å"When he was born there was no such thing as