Psych 3

777 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What can we learn from the Zimbardo prison experiment

The Zimbardo prison experiment (1971) was carried out at Stanford University in 1971. From August 14th, to August 20th, Professor Philip Zimbardo (1971) gathered 24 male students and set them up in a mock prison. The premise behind the experiment was that abusive behavior from prison guards and prisoners was due to inherent personality traits within the individual. By gathering these 24 students, Zimbardo (1971) hoped to show that guards and prisoners were not only abusive due to their personality, and not due to the situational circumstances. Philip Zimbardo (1971) published an advertisement offering fifteen dollars a day to any college students willing to participate in his mock prison. Out of the 70 people who had responded to Zimbardo’s (1971) ad, 24 male students were selected to play the roles of prisoner and guard. The 24 males were all deemed to be psychologically stable and healthy. Zimbardo (1971) ruled out any applicants with a history of drug abuse, mental disabilities, or a criminal record. Most of the men chosen were middle class, and white. The college students were to be split up equally between prisoners/guards, and would be paid fifteen dollars a day for a two week period. The experiment was conducted in the Stanford Psychology department basement. The mock guards were told they could use anything to enforce prison rules except violence. Their goal was to be strict and psychologically demeaning to the prisoners. Guards were told to dehumanize the prisoners, calling them by their assigned number instead of their name. Zimbardo (1971) took the role as prison superintendent and watched over the guards and prisoners. To begin the experiment, Zimbardo (1971) cooperated with local law enforcement and had all 12 pri... ... middle of paper ... ...would never greet a random stranger in an aisle way. But while working, it becomes second natural and I find myself greeting customers without even thinking about it. This alternate personality of mine sometimes trickles over into my everyday life, but is mostly confined to when I am at work. I take on a role that is not like my normal self, and I become so absorbed in it that I hardly even notice any behaviors that are abnormal to my everyday personality. Philip Zimbardo (1971) conducted an experiment that will be remembered for its shocking realization of how much a situation can control our personality. Nice people can turn into horrible people, and psychologically healthy people can lash out and become unstable. Even though Zimbardo’s experiment (1971) was cut short, it showed the world that evil places can take a huge toll on otherwise genuinely good people.

Show More
Related

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment commenced in 1973 in pursuit of Zimbardo needed to study how if a person are given a certain role, will they change their whole personality in order to fit into that specific role that they were given to. Zambrano significantly believed that personality change was due to either dispositional, things that affect personal life and make them act differently. Or situational, when surrounded by prisoners, they can have the authority to do whatever they want without having to worry about the consequences. Furthermore, it created a group of twenty-four male participants, provided them their own social role. Twelve of them being a prisoners and the other twelve prison guards, all of which were in an examination to see if they will be able to handle the stress that can be caused based upon the experiment, as well as being analysis if their personality change due to the environment or their personal problems.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment: Philip Zimbardo

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gray, P. (October , 2013 19). Why zimbardo’s prison experiment isn’t in my textbook the results of the famous stanford prison experiment have a trivial explanation. Retrieved from

    Read More

  • Are Humans Innately Evil? Lord of the Flies and Jim Jones

    1421 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the summer of 1971, at Stanford University, Philip G. Zimbardo developed The Stanford Prison Experiment to test his theory on the Lucifer Effect. The idea that good people can become evil when placed into an atrocious situation or a position of authority over others. For this experiment they set up a simulation prison in a corridor of Stanford University, they collected 24 average, male, volunteer, undergraduates who were all tested previously for psychological abnormalities, and split them up into two groups, guards and prisoners (Stanford Prison Experiment) All guards wore identical khaki uniforms and aviator shades to de-individualize them and hide their emotions. Also, they had been given no training or instruction on how to be a prison guard, and were given free reign to do whatever was necessary to maintain law and order in the prison. Whereas prisoners were forced to wear thin paper gowns with nothing underneath to humiliate them, and a metal chain on their ankle to constantly remind the prisoners of the...

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. The experiment was a landmark study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. In social psychology, this idea is known as “mundane realism”. Mundane realism refers to the ability to mirror the real world as much as possible, which is just what this study did. Twenty-four subjects were randomly assigned to play the role of "prisoner" or "guard" and they were made to conform to these roles.

    Read More

  • The Ethics of the Stanford Prison Experiment

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin the experiment the Stanford Psychology department interviewed middle class, white males that were both physically and mentally healthy to pick 18 participants. It was decided who would play guards and who would be prisoners by the flip of a coin making nine guards and nine prisoners. The guards were taken in first to be told of what they could and could not do to the prisoners. The rules were guards weren’t allowed t o physically harm the prisoners and could only keep prisoners in “the hole” for a hour at a time. Given military like uniforms, whistles, and billy clubs the guards looked almost as if they worked in a real prison. As for the prisoners, real police surprised them at their homes and arrested them outside where others could see as if they were really criminals. They were then blindfolded and taken to the mock prison in the basement of a Stanford Psychology building that had been decorated to look like a prison where guards fingerprinted, deloused, and gave prisoners a number which they would be calle...

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Pros And Cons

    449 Words  | 1 Pages

    Without the proper guidance given for experiment, participants were exposed to possible emotional and mental harm. Experiment was terminated with ethical objections when prisoners began to experience mental stress. What Zimbardo did was an ethical research. A few prisoners had to be removed early due to traumatized effects. Some might argue that this experiment was more of a hostage take over situation than official prison guards and prisoners relationship. Volunteer prisoners suffered with humiliated, and damaged mental stress even after the study ended. However, Zimbardo followed up with all the participants to make sure they have no lasting

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    1231 Words  | 3 Pages

    The “Stanford Prison Experiment” was a psychological experiment done in the year of 1973, which was lead by Philip Zimbardo. The experiment purpose was to study the psychology of prison life and the effects the environment induced on the people involved with it by using volunteers that would act out the roles of the people that would be in a prison, such as prisoners and guards. The experiment’s reshaped publication, originally from The New York Times Magazine, shows Zimbardo’s description of the experiment in an analytical manner. Zimbardo’s background as a psychologist gives him leverage over the audience’s emotions because his profession has allowed him to know what type of behaviors might evoke certain emotional responses that would make

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment took place in the year 1971, where a group of young men were divided into the roles such as prisoner and guard and put in a simulated prison environment in the Stanford University psychology department basement. In this essay I am going to review and summarize the article.

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Phillip G Zimbardo

    1657 Words  | 4 Pages

    In 1971 an experiment known as the Stanford Prison Experiment took place to study the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or guard induced into stressful situations. The questioning of the experiment was this: What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does their humanity win over evil or does evil triumph? Social psychology professor Phillip G. Zimbardo was the opposing psychologist who headed the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo based his social interest off of the Milgram experiment; the experiment was carried out by psychologist Stanley Milgram who conducted an experiment by focusing on the conflict between obedience to authority and personal conscience. Zimbardo used the Milgram experiment

    Read More

  • Summary Of A Prison Experiment

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    One inmate suffered from a physical and emotional breakdown. The conditions became so severe that he was released. Zimbardo later stated that, “we did so reluctantly because we believed that he was trying to ‘con’ us.” Clearly Zimbardo was overreacting and should have seen that his actions and choice of experimentation caused the man to spiral out of control. By day 4, a rumor was going around that they newly sprung inmate was planning another revolt. As a result, they moved the entire experiment to another floor of the psychology building, and yet again another inmate suffered a breakdown. Soon after, he was released, and over the next two days, two more inmates would do the likewise. A final example of the effects of this experiment is shown when a fifth inmate is released. This time, the man developed a psychosomatic rash over is entire body. These are usually caused or aggravated by a mental factor such as internal conflict or stress, similar to all of the conditions faced inside the mock prison. After the fifth grueling day, Zimbardo finally thought his experiment was a success. The events inside the prison walls were occurring just as Zimbardo had planned. He was finding success and joy in these grown men’s emotional breakdown, and many thought this experiment could be considered ethically

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Milgrim And Zimbardo Experiments

    671 Words  | 2 Pages

    All participants had an equal chance of becoming either prisoner or prison guard. Within a few hours of the experiment beginning, both prisoners and prison guards began enacting into their specific roles. Prison guards took away all of the prisoners individuality and harassed them. They felt a true sense of power over the prisoners. As the prisoners became more and more obedient to their authority figures, the prison guards became more and more harsh. It was unfortunate to see how contempt the prison guards truly were watching the prisoners act so subordinate. After a couple days, a few prisoners had to be released as they were expressing unhealthy amounts of stress and anger. Zimbardo ended the experiment early for this reason. Milgrim and Zimbardo had similar goals in terms of what they were researching. While Milgrim was solely researching levels of obedience of an authority figure, Zimbardo was seeing how prisoners would obey the prison guards as well as how the prison guards would intern treat the prisoners. In terms of scientific method, both experiments asked a question, did necessary background research, constructed a hypothesis, tested their hypothesis by executing an experiment, analyzed data and came to a

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical Issues

    1870 Words  | 4 Pages

    Dr. Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the behavior of guards and prisoners in 1971. The study ended after only six days, despite a planned course of 14 days. The film Stanford Prison Experiment was released in 2015 and provides an accurate depiction of Dr. Zimbardo’s experiment. This paper will outline and discuss ethical dilemmas occurring during the film utilizing different ethical approaches.

    Read More

  • Essay: The Stanford Prison Experiment

    1377 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Summer of 1971, an experiment was conducted by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University. This experiment is known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. It put students in the roles of either the prisoner or the guard which then measured how these students acted in their assigned characters. It was a simulation of how prison life would be during that time. As the experiment continued, there was an increase in the level of aggression from the prisoners which caused more dominance by the guards. The main research question in this experiment was, what happens when you put good people into an evil place? Does humankind win over evil, or does evil succeed? The findings showed that young men suffered, both verbally and physically. The prisoners

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment Essay

    668 Words  | 2 Pages

    Based on a true story, the movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment, directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, tells a story of Dr. Phillip Zimbardo, a Stanford psychology professor who inspects the source of abuse in the prison system and the affects a prison system can have on human behavior. Although the findings of the experiment shocked the world, there were many ethical issues surrounding the study which will be examined in greater detail for the duration of this paper.

    Read More

  • Social Psychology and the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    2259 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. The purpose of the experiment was a landmark study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. In social psychology, this idea is known as “mundane realism”. Mundane realism refers to the ability to mirror the real world as much as possible, which is just what this study did. Twenty-four subjects were randomly assigned to play the role of "prisoner" or "guard" and they were made to conform to these roles.

    Read More

More about Psych 3

Open Document