And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are necessary to create defined groups, and then analyze the subjects behavior within their groups. January 1, 2003. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. 4. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. All rights reserved. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. According to role theorist Erving Goffman, emotional and cognitive experiences in such experiments as the Blue-Eyed versus the Brown-Eyed can have a long-term influence on behaviors and attitudes of participants especially when they are made to play the role of a stigmatized group (Biddle, 2013). "We want to see Room No. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. The day after Kings murder, Jane Elliott, a white third-grade teacher in rural Riceville, Iowa, sought to make her students feel the brutality of racism. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. Scores of others did participate. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. At recess, three brown-eyed girls ganged up on her. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? Brown-eyed people. Terms of Use The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. The video . All 28 children found their desks, and Elliott said she had something special for them to do, to begin to understand the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the day before. (2010). Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. Could you?". When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. They gossiped about her in the hallway. Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. And what she did caused an uproar. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Junior high, maybe. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. 10," Elliott said. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . The publication of compositions which the children had written about the experience in the local . The children said yes, and the exercise began. The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. Youve probably heard different versions of it. It is quite powerful to watch. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. This was intentional. Blue Eyed versus Brown Eyed Students Jane Elliott was not a psychologist, but she developed one of the most famously controversial exercises in 1968 by dividing students into a blue-eyed group and . They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. The results were the same. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. Why do researchers use correlational studies? Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. Cookie Policy Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The American Psychologists Principles and code of conduct state that in cases of deception, experimenters should take into consideration the potential harmful effects to participants. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. 4 Pages. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. Abstract The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of ncnblack teacher eduction students toward blacks. The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. THE ANGRY EYE , a 35-minute video, features Jane Elliott conducting her Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed exercise with college students. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes offers an intimate portrait of the insular community where Elliott grew up and conducted the experiment on the town's children for more than a decade. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates.

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