Written by Elizabeth Yost Hammer, Garth Neufeld, Jeanne Turner
Purpose
The purpose of this learning activity is to give your students an opportunity to develop their metacognitive skills (i.e., their ability to plan, monitor and evaluate their learning processes), while also teaching deindividuation. In order for this discussion to have the most impact, you should explicitly discuss the role of metacognition.
National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula
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Pillar: Social and Personality
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Standard Area: Social
Background
In a study on the relationship between deindividuation and anonymity, Dodd (1985) asked participants, “If you could do anything humanly possible with complete assuredness that you would not be detected or held responsible, what would you do?” Dodd found that 9 percent of participant responses were prosocial (intended to benefit others), 36 percent were antisocial (intended to injure others or deprive them of rights), 19 percent were non-normative (clearly violates social norms but does not directly help or harm other), and 36% were neutral (catch-all category).
Time Required
20-30 minutes in-class of response and class discussion
Task
To illustrate deindividuation, students will reflect on Dodd’s prompt before being told the results. Class discussion can have students evaluate what factors may lead to the outcome (e.g., deindividuation, anonymity, samples used in experiment, and other social concepts that the instructor deems appropriate). Metacognition will also be used as students explore future, real-life situations and reasons for their own possible behavior.
Assessment
Informal evaluation of after-activity student responses
Attachment
Anonymity Reflectionopens in new window (PDF, 109KB)
Reference
Dodd, D.K. (1985). Robbers in the classroom: A deindividuation exercise. Teaching of Psychology, 12(2), 89-91.
This resource was developed by a Working Group on Skills that Promote Well-Being and Flourishing from the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education (July 2017).