Experimental Studies in the Social Climates of Groups

★★★ · OK, Kids, Here Are Your Assigned Tasks...No, Wait, on Second Thought, Just Do Whatever You Feel Like Doing...Wait, No, L · Christine Hennig · 2006-03-17

Silent film from the 40s that documents a sociological experiment in which three groups of school-aged boys are formed into clubs with adult leaders with three different leadership styles: authoritarian (where the adult bosses the kids around), laissez-faire (where the adult does next to nothing), and democratic (where the adult participates in the groups activities and encourages cooperation and group decision-making through discussion and consensus). As you might expect, the boys in the authoritarian group work efficiently but are very dependent upon the leader, abandon their assigned tasks…

★★★ · Or, The Wonders of The Substitute Teacher · Spuzz · 2005-05-15

Weird little film, similar to Activity Group Therapy (which is the BOMB), This film, or as I like to call it, ESITSCOG, gives us several groups of kids and shows us how them emulate the adult leader of the group. This alone is a bit interesting, as it could show how important Father figures are in kid's lives, and how kids react to discipline. In the 2nd half of the film, the adult leader is replaced by a complete opposite. EG, if the leader was meek, the next leader is authotarian, and vice versa. We then follow how the kids respond initially, then adapt to these changes. Quite interesting…