Читать книгу Social Psychology - Daniel W. Barrett - Страница 49

Why did Adam Lanza kill 26 children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012? Was it because he was a mean nasty young adult with an inborn propensity for violence? Did he have a serious mental disorder? Neglectful parents? Was he bullied by other kids while growing up? Or was it because he had easy access to weapons? What we are asking here is whether Lanza was entirely to blame for his actions or were outside factors the cause of his behavior? Stated differently, was his violent behavior a product of just his internal characteristics—such as his personality—or was it the result of external, situational features—such as violence in the media (Aronson, 2001)? More generally, is social behavior a result of only internal characteristics or only external conditions? The answers are “no” and “no.”

As Lewin argued many years ago, explaining behavior as because of only one or the other is overly simplistic. Social psychologists believe in interactionism—that all social behavior is a result of both the person and the situation (L. Ross & Nisbett, 1991). In the case of the Sandy Hook shooting, if personality were the sole explanation, why didn’t Lanza act violently in other contexts? If situational pressures were the only cause, why don’t we see more mass killings? Clearly, both characteristics of the person—what we call the person’s disposition—and features of the situation together produce social behavior. In other words, social behavior is a product of both dispositional and situational influences. Apply this to one of your behaviors—say going to college—and try to identify the internal and external factors that led you to do so.

Scene from the site of the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, Newtown, Connecticut. A memorial site has been made to remember the victims of the school shooting.

Gordon M. Grant / Splash News/Newscom.