Book Review: The Lucifer Effect How Good People Turn Evil.

The Lucifer Effect, a New York Best Selling book written by research psychologist Professor Philip Zimbardo  highlights an uncomfortable but honest observation regarding human nature: That even the most seemingly ordinary, up-right and good person can become a perpetrator of evil. When we're trying to understand behavior that is destructive, irrational and malicious we often direct our focus primarily onto innate characteristics or personality traits which would have lead to such behavior, while ignoring any circumstantial factors which would have shaped such behaviors. Similar to the Fundamental Attribution Error which you can read more about here.

What Zimbardo hypothesized is that it is possible for external situations and systems to become key influences of  change in behavior and that they can often override a persons morals and values and be a corruptive force in extreme circumstances. The analogy of Lucifer within this book was that he was God’s favorite angel, but due to Lucifers fall from grace when he challenged God’s omnipotent authority, Lucifer was transformed into the forever recognized symbol of evil, Satan. This is the idea of people turning from good to evil.

In The Lucifer Effect, the Stanford Prison Experiment in 1971 is the ideal starting point for Zimbardo as he recalls from first person accounts on how the events of the experiment unfolded. He describes how he and the other researchers set up a simulated prison in the basement of one of Stanford University's academic buildings and then selected 24 students to participate and play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The students he said were chosen from a larger group of 70 volunteers and were chosen specifically because they had no criminal background, had no psychological issues or medical conditions. The student volunteers agreed to participate during a one to two-week period in exchange for $15 a day.

Lasting only a premature six days due to the experiment having to be stopped early Zimbardo describes in gripping detail how the students began to sink deeper and deeper into their roles and how they as guards became abusive, and the prisoners begin to show more signs of extreme stress and anxiety as their time in the experiment went on. While the prisoners and guards were free to interact in any way they pleased, the interactions became hostile and malicious. The guards began to behave in ways that were aggressive and abusive toward the prisoners while the prisoners became passive, depressed and show signs of anxiety.

He writes that even the researchers themselves began to lose grip of the situation and lose sight of their objective whilst potentially leaving the students open to psychological damage. Zimbardo, who acted as the prison warden, repetitively overlooked the hostile behavior of the jail guards until graduate student Christina Maslach voiced her concerns as to the conditions in the simulated prison and the morality of continuing the experiment. Zimbardo aptly draws out every bit of emotion and drama involved in the experiment in 1971, which keeps the  reader in awe every step of the way. The Lucifer Effect is brilliantly written, intriguing, and keeps you emotionally engaged throughout reading it. In reference to the end of the experiment Zimbardo beautifully quotes in his book "Only a few people were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency; obviously, I was not among that noble class,"

The book doesn't stop there.

In the remainder of The Lucifer Effect, Zimbardo goes to show how important the concept of the Stanford Prison Experiment is and extrapolates that to some of the more horrifying real world events in recent times, such as the abuse at the hands of agents of the US at Abu Ghraib, the genocide in Rwanda and the rape of Nanking. He discusses how the insidious and corrosive effect of power often leads to the creation of a corrupt system corrupting the people involved.

The prison study of Abu Ghraib in Iraq is used as an example. Zimbardo became thoroughly involved in the aftermath of Abu Ghraib when he was asked to be an expert witness for Sergeant Ivan Frederick, one of the accused who inevitably stood trial for alleged prisoner abuses. Through his research into what transpired at the Abu Ghraib prison, Zimbardo was able to gain insight into what it was like for the soldiers who spent long weeks working shifts within a military prison, and although the accused was eventually sentenced to eight years hard time in another military prison, Zimbardo was able to document the failures in leadership that led to many of the abuses and states that the military system itself was the leading proponent and should be to blame for the conditions in which such atrocities could take place.

In conclusion, there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Much of the book has much of a darker sombre feel to it compared to other books due to the descriptions of how ordinary good people can perform evil acts. The final chapters of The Lucifer Effect offers us a lighter tone reminding us that some people are able to resist situational influence and can have an unbending resolve against peer pressure and systemic evil. Zimbardo gives examples of such unique individuals which include Christina Maslach, the graduate student who spoke up to Zimbardo to end the Stanford Prison Experiment, and Private Joe Darby, the soldier who blew the whistle on the atrocities that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison.

If you want to learn more about The Lucifer Effect and read other book reviews about it...

Check it out here on Amazon.

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Our sleep cycle and the different stages of sleep.

So what happens to we're asleep? Despite the fact that we spend a good portion of our lives fast asleep (around a third), most of us aren’t really aware of the fact that we experience different stages of sleep and different times of the night. Sleep is a vastly complicated science, and a typical night of sleep consists of just five sleep stages. Though sleep can also be divided into two broader stages, non-rapid eye movement (NREM), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. 

The vast majority of our sleep (around 75 to 80 per cent) is NREM; during NREM sleep, dreams tend to be more abstract and quite vague, whereas during REM sleep dreams are more detailed and emotionally charged. During a nights sleep, every 90 to 110 minutes you cycle through five different stages of sleep, often experiencing anything between three to five dreams each night. 



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Stage One: Within a few minutes of falling asleep your breathing gradually becomes more steady and the heart rate begins to slow down. Your brain produces what are called alpha and theta waves (alpha waves are involved in relaxing you while theta waves are involved in your emotional experience) and your eye movements slow down. This stage of sleep is fairly brief, lasting up to seven minutes. This is where you are in light sleep stage, meaning that you’re somewhat conscious and can be woken easily. 

Stage Two: During this stage your muscle activity decreases further and your awareness of the outside world begins to fade away. As a sleeper you would not likely be conscious enough to notice any outside stimuli. During this stage, which is still also fairly light, the brain produces sudden increases in brain wave frequency known as sleep spindles (sleep spindles are bursts of brain activity visible on an EEG monitor). Shortly after your brain waves begin to slow down.

Stage Three: Deep, slow brain waves known as Delta Waves begin to emerge during this stage (Delta waves are associated with relaxation and healing). This stage transitions you from a light sleep to a deep sleep.

Stage Four: This is a deep sleep that lasts for roughly 30 minutes producing more delta waves. Your body begins to perform restorative functions such as tissue and muscle growth, energy restoration and memory consolidation where your brain files away any new information.

Stage Five: Most dreaming occurs during this stage known as REM. REM sleep is defined by the eye movement, increased respiration rate and an in increase brain activity. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because, while the brain and other systems in your become more active, your muscles become more relaxed to the point of paralysis. Dreaming occurs due to an increase in brain activity, though your voluntary muscles become paralyzed. Voluntary muscles are the muscles you can consciously move such as moving your arms and legs or tensing your abdominals. Involuntary muscles are the muscles you do not have conscious control over such as your heart or your inner gut. Muscle paralysis during this stage of sleep is a function to prevent you acting out your dreams whilst you're sleeping.

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Sibling Relationship Psychology

Out of all the relationships throughout our lives whether it's a friendship, parent/child relationship or a romantic relationship one of the most unique and powerful bonds we may have is the relationships with our siblings. Our siblings are usually the ones that we share our life journey's with from a young age all the way across to our adult years and during that journey you experience the ups and downs, family woes, jealousy and hostility towards each other, competitiveness, joint responsibilities and most of all the joys of being part of a family unit.

Jeffrey Kluger a science writer and author of the book The Sibling Effect: What the Bonds Among Brothers and Sisters Reveal about Us speaks in this video about not only the common characteristics and behaviours of individual siblings in a given family but he also talks about how parental influences effect how siblings develop and interact to gain attention by cultivating their individual roles within the family household. A particularly interesting segment of the talk is where he speaks about parents and sibling favouritism, he briefly speaks about how opposite gender resemblance is a common factor when parents have a favourite child whether the parents know this or not; for instance the hard headed father may favour the no nonsense daughter because he see's a little of himself within her or the soft speaking mother may favour the quietly spoken son because of their similarities. Kluger describes it as a sense of reproductive narcissism from the parent to their favourite. This is a very profound talk from a very good speaker who cites some of the studies based on the topic of sibling bonds, it  generally is a topic which would likely relate to most people, a great talk and very interesting overall.

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Human needs... its not just air, food and water.

Being interested in human psychology naturally helps you understand human needs which is a good foundation for this thought provoking subject, knowing this psychologist Abraham Maslow wanted to know what would motivate humans to achieve their own individual goals whether big or small. Interestingly enough according to Maslow these human needs weren't to be fulfilled at a random or casual order, these needs were taken care of in a sequence or order of importance so when one need was taken care of then the person will then advance to seek the next need up the hierarchy and so on. Maslow in 1943 developed a chart called the hierarchy of needs in which there are five needs in the chart and the lower the needs in the hierarchical order the more essential they are and the more likely the person will prioritize and give more attention to the lower need over the higher need, for instance when we are deprived of food the last thing on our mind is to go to a club to be social, meet people and improve our self esteem. 

Maslows Hierarchy of needs.

Types of needs

Deficiency needs

Believing that these needs are similar to instincts Maslow thought that these needs play a large part in the psychology that drives our behaviour. Physiological, security, social and esteem needs are deficiency needs otherwise known as D-needs, these needs motivate people when they are deprived or are threatened which cause people to take action to avoid bad feelings and negative consequences.

Growth needs

These needs are at the peak of the pyramid as opposed to deficiency needs where the motivation comes from a lack of something, growth needs tend to come from a place of wanting to grow as a person and learn about themselves and expand their own capacity to learn and reach their potential.

Hierarchy of needs

Physiological needs

These are the most basic needs as this need is heavily rooted in sustaining energy and survival, this will include food, water, air, sleep and recovering from injuries and illnesses.

Security needs

Another need with strong links to survival though not as demanding as physiological needs but still necessary. Security needs include shelter, safety, employment and a stable environment.

Social needs

Not as basic as the physiological and security needs this need is more of a psychological  and emotional need.  Its more of feeling of belonging whether it is a club, religious or community groups, friendships, relationships and family attachments also.

Esteem needs

After the last three are achieved you start to focus on your self worth and everything that you have experienced or have at that moment will be reflected onto your self image and your self worth will be in question until it is satisfied.


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Self actualization needs

At the top of the pyramid when you are attempting to satisfy this need you become more self aware, and are more likely to look at problems and challenges objectively, have less concern with peoples judgements and think about personal growth. Your thinking would shift to an existential sense (why am I here? what can I achieve if I really pushed myself) rather than the smaller material concerns (I want that car, I need a bigger house, I want popularity)

Though everybody is capable of moving up the hierarchy towards self actualization sometimes you may hit certain roadblocks which take you back a step or two away from self actualization such as losing your job and home which affects your lower needs such as food, water and safety, life experience can often cause a person to bounce between two needs.

Limitations to Maslows needs theory.

Even though Maslows hierarchy is widely known and is used by many professionals it is only used as a framework and used loosely. While some research do back up some of Maslows work other research by Mahmoud Wahba and Lawrence Bridwell showed the contrary stating that there is little or clear evidence that these needs come in any particular order and are hierarchical in nature.

Criticisms also suggest that self actualization is a concept difficult to research and measure and Maslow based his self actualization concept against mainly highly educated white males neglecting other races, cultures and the female gender, with the examination of cultures living in poverty lacking in food, water and security it has been made clear people can achieve higher ranking needs such as love, belonging and companionship, while according to Maslow physiological and security needs have to be met first in order for this to be possible. In the current age we live in Maslows needs do not hold well as peoples needs nowadays are met but not in a strict sequential fashion, his research should be used as a philosophical point of reference rather than a strict set of rules. 

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Self image.

A persons self image is a collection of ideas, thoughts and experiences they have in regards to themselves. It is a mental picture of the self which can be subject to change, and when it does it's either through external experiences or through internalizing judgement and/or feedback from others. This is how we create our self concept, it is how we think we look, how we think we come across to others, and more importantly how we perceive ourselves. 

The construction of the self

In early childhood the self image is obviously at its infancy, we haven't gained barely any life experience to properly have an idea of what the self is. We are essentially a blank slate. Roughly at the early of age of 3 years old we begin to become aware of ourselves through experience of other objects within our close surrounding areas realising we can affect objects around us and from there on curiosity ensues. We begin touching things, putting things in our mouth, we explore what's around us. Fast forward a few years to where we have now developed speech and we can now voice our own opinions, more importantly voice our opinions about ourselves. At this age we are a bit more self aware, when we describe our selves we give very definitive labels such as I am tall, I have blue eyes, I have dark hair. Then as time goes on and we become older we learn more about ourselves then these labels become more intricate and they become more comparative using more qualities, traits and evaluations depending on how you think others see you. (think about when you was asked about yourself in a job interview)

High self esteem
This is when we have an overall positive self image, this is created through positive experiences, positive interactions with other people and having the perception of all experiences as positive overall even if they don't seem to be (important). This mentality has an affect on your actions by giving you confidence and conviction with everything you do and with that you will have the ability to not think about what others are thinking and will accept yourself as you are. There are other factors such as...

-Good, strong sense of self
-Having good respect for your own self beliefs and values
-Knowing your self and what you stand for
-Knowing your own strengths


 Low self esteem
As opposed to high esteem having low self esteem generally having a poor self image. This is created through bad experiences whether it is through people being negative towards you or experiencing bad situations. Like having high self esteem often it is just the perception of a situation as negative which can keep the person in a negative loop, the more they think negatively the more likely that person will interpret a situation as negative even if its positive.
Other factors are..

-Weak sense of self
-You feel at cause not affect (''Why me?'' as opposed to ''how did I do this?'')
-Little or no beliefs or values
-Low self respect
-Fixation on own weaknesses instead of strengths

Social comparison theory

A theory first coined by social psychologist Leon Festinger in 1954, according to his social psychology based theory it has been said that individuals have a drive to evaluate themselves and their behaviors to eliminate uncertainty. People are often comparing their behaviors and skills to others to have an idea of what is correct and how good they are at their current behavior or skill level, similar to observational learning. He also theorizes that there are two types of social comparisons, an upward comparison and a downward comparison. An upward comparison is when someone compares themselves who are better off, an amateur boxer comparing himself to a professional boxer is an example, this usually happens if someone is looking for a role model or wants to make improvements on themselves.

A downwards comparisons by contrast is when someone who compares themselves to someone who is worse off than them, an example is a well paid sales man comparing himself to a school janitor, this type of comparison typically makes a person makes feel better about themselves, this is why people with low self esteem tend to make downward comparisons. 

There are two forms of downward comparisons, the first is a passive downwards comparison when someone who compares themselves to a pre-existing negative situation such as someone who is in financial difficulty comparing themselves to someone who is already homeless, the other is an active downwards comparison where somebody creates a situation were someone is worse off than them this could be with the use of derogatory comments or making sure they feel belittled through humiliation or an ''accident'' giving them the opportunity to make a downwards comparison. Again, downwards comparisons are usually used by people with low self esteem to elevate their sense of self.

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Psychology of the human touch at an early age.

An important factor in growth and development. Similar to food, water and air, the human touch is another one of our basic needs as we have a constant desire to be connected with others. This is a innate need originates from within the womb and being the first sense we develop from 8 weeks inside the warm confines of the womb it can become apparent that physical touch is a vital part of our lives and we need it to survive, interact with our surroundings and stimulate growth.

What happens if we do not develop touch early on
If touch is not developed early on especially the first six months after birth the new born can suffer from physiological consequences such as being underweight, the immune system would not be fully developed and this can make the child more vulnerable to diseases and the child would be sick more consistently and generally be undernourished, brain development will be affected also giving the infant an increased level of cortisol which is a stress hormone which in large amounts can damage the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved with memory and learning. In worst case scenarios where the child has been extensively deprived of physical touch the child can actually die. 

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Bonding
An article in the Scientific American explains that children who suffer from deprivation of touch early on have altered levels of oxytocin (a hormone present in breast milk) and vasepressin which are deemed important in social bonding. In regards to mother and infant bonding touch is key, the very act of breast feeding has bonding elements to it, the close loving touch, the warm embrace, eye contact and even the smell of the mothers body and clothes strengthen bonding as it all relates to physical closeness. Research shows that infants smile more when in physical contact than an other interaction including a parent and child and similarly the parent of smiles a lot more also in kind. Contrary, lack of bonding and attachment in an adults early life results in the said adult being emotionally withdrawn, angry, upset, cold, often depressed and overall an unsociable individual.

Growth and health.
Touch is vital for human development, failing to actively take care of this results in a failure to thrive in their surrounding environment and the ability to properly grow. Young infants and babies who are not touched also have a lack of growth hormone and as a result of this it can stunt a child's growth, this transcends also to a child's immune system where their bodies are more likely to struggle against diseases making them more likely to contract illnesses.

Prevention is better than cure
Human contact should be at abundance in the early life of a baby and not restricted to not just the mother but the father should get involved as well, though fathers tend not to get involved as much they should be encouraged to share physical contact so the baby is overall more relaxed and secure due to the bonding process as a family unit as opposed to just having one source of regular human contact, i.e. only the mother. Touch between the mother and father can promote healthy bonding ensuring the infant develop and grow better psychologically and socially later in life. 

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