Muzafer Sherif

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Muzafer Sherif (July 29, 1906, in Odemis, İzmir, Turkey – October 16, 1988, in Fairbanks, Alaska) was one of the founders of social psychology. He helped develop social judgment theory and realistic conflict theory.

An extraordinary social psychologist, Sherif a was founder of modern social psychology, who developed several unique and powerful techniques for understanding social processes, particularly social norms and social conflict. Many of his original contributions to social psychology have been absorbed into the field so fully that his role in the development and discovery has disappeared. Other reformulations of social psychology have taken his contributions for granted, and re-presented his ideas as new.

Sherif received a B.A. at the American International College in Turkey, and later an M.A. at the University of Istanbul. Sherif came to America, earning an M.A. from Harvard University. He enrolled at Columbia University, and in 1935 earned a Ph.D. with Gardner Murphy. His dissertation was titled "Some Social Factors In Perception" and the ideas and research were the basis for his first classic book "The Psychology of Social Norms."

The topic of his dissertation was social influence in perception, and the experiments have come to be known as the "autokinetic effect" experiments. In an otherwise totally dark room, a small dot of light is shown on a wall, and after a few moments, the dot appears to move. This effect is entirely inside-the-head, and results from the complete lack of "frame of reference" for the movement. Three participants enter the dark room, and watch the light. It appears to move, and the participants are asked to estimate how far the dot of light moves. These estimates are made out loud, and with repeated trials, each group of three converges on an estimate. Some groups converged on a high estimate, some low, and some in-between. The critical finding is that groups found their own level, their own "social norm" of perception. This occurred naturally, without discussion or prompting.

When invited back individually a week later and tested alone in the dark room, participants replicated their original groups' estimates. This suggests that the influence of the group was informational rather than coercive; because they continued to perceive individually what they had as members of a group, Sherif concluded that they had internalized their original group's way of seeing the world. Because the phenomenon of the autokinetic effect is entirely a product of a person's own perceptual system, this study is evidence of how the social world pierces the person's skin, and affects the way the understand their own physical and psychological sensations.

Sherif is equally famous for the Robbers Cave Experiments. This series of experiments, begun in Connecticut and concluded in Oklahoma, took boys from intact middle-class families, who were carefully screened to be psychologically normal, delivered them to a summer camp setting (with researchers doubling as counselors) and created social groups that came into conflict with each other. These studies had three phases: (1) Group formation, in which the members of groups got to know each others, social norms developed, leadership and structure emerged, (2) Group conflict, in which the now-formed groups came into contact with each other, competing in games and challenges, and competing for control of territory, and (3) Conflict resolution, where Sherif and colleagues tried various means of reducing the animosity and low-level violence between the groups. It is in the Robbers Cave experiments that Sherif showed that superordinate goals (goals so large that it requires more than one group to achieve the goal) reduced conflict significantly more effectively than other strategies (e.g., communication, contact).

Sherif's academic appointments included Yale University, the University of Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania State University.

Muzafer Sherif married Carolyn Wood Sherif, and they collaborated profitably on subsequent projects for many years, on scholarly books (e.g., Sherif & Sherif, 1953) and a still-useful textbook (Sherif & Sherif, 1969).

Sherif died of a heart attack at the age of 82.

[edit] Bibliography

• Batur, S., & Aslıtürk, E. (Eds.) (2007): Muzaffer Şerif'e Armağan: Muzaffer Şerif'ten Muzafer Sherif'e. Istanbul: İletişim. ISBN 9750505331 (Turkish)
• Sherif, M. (1935). A study of some social factors in perception. Archives of Psychology, 27(187) .
• Sherif, M., & Sherif, C. W. (1977): Experimentelle Untersuchungen zum Verhalten in Gruppen. In Koch, J.-J. (Ed.), Sozialer Einfluss und Konformität. (S. 167 – 192). Weinheim und Basel: Beltz Verlag
• Sherif, M., & Sherif, C. W. (1969): Social Psychology (Int. Rev. Ed.). New York: Harper & Row.
• Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W. (1961): Intergroup conflict and cooperation: the Robbers Cave experiment. Norman: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange.
• Sherif, M., White, B. J., & Harvey, O.J. (1955). Status in experimentally produced groups. American Journal of Sociology. 60, S. 370 – 379.
• Sherif, M., & Sherif, C. W. (1953): Groups in harmony and tension. New York: Harper & Row.
• Sherif, M., & Cantril, H. (1946) : The Psychology of Ego-Involvements. New York: Wiley & Sons.

[edit] External links

• Psychology History, includes biographical information.
• The Classical Studies of Sherif.