A study of Prisoners and Guards in a Stimulated Prison
Introduction:
The Stanford Prison Experiment is a research that took place in 1971 by the Office of Naval Research. The purpose of this study was to see the various mechanisms employed in human aggression and conformation. Whether the aggression of the guards or the conformity of the prisoners was due to their own personality or a result of their surroundings.
The Hypotheses:
The US Naval Research under the guidance of Dr. Zimbardo tried to make an educated guess on the exact situations and circumstances that caused an individual to act aggressively by carrying out a research of his own.
The Methods:
• Dr. Zimbardo carried out a newspapers add asking for volunteers to participate in his
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Zimbardo used an environment suitable enough to be a prison.
• The roles were played over a period of one week.
The results of this study
• The longer time spent incarcerated the prisoners become more aggressive and wanted to harm each other more frequently.
• The prisoners started to think less of themselves, they became less confident with each passing day.
• The relationship between the guard and the prisoners were mostly hostile. The guards abused their power. They abused the prisoners verbally since they were not allowed to harm the prisoners physically.
• Five of the prisoners had to be released form prison because of extreme depression. The living conditions were despicable , unfit for human accommodation.
• One of the prisoners developed a rash all over his body.
• At the end of the experiment the prisoners were excited about leaving. The guards enjoyed their autonomy and was delighted to go to work every morning, they were not as happy as the prisoners after the experiment was over.
• The prisoners and guards reaction after the experiment was over testifies to the fact the surrounding did in fact affect their behaviour.
Major conclusions of the
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With that being established, this article shed light on exactly what carries on in the real prison and it is still relevant in our world today. One can gain a better understanding from history not by looking at how the higher bosses are treated but the ones who are reputed as noting. ““It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” (Mandela n.d.).
References:
Josh Zollman's Rhetoric and Civic Life Blog. (October 29, 2012). The Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved on September 06, 2016 from https://sites.psu.edu/joshz/2012/10/29/the-stanford-prison-experiment/
Simply Psychology. (2008 updated 2016). Standford Prison Experiment. Retrieved on September 06, 2016 from http://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html
Good Reads (n.d.) Quotes About Prison. Retrieved on 6th September, 2015 from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/prison
University of the people. (n.d.) Naval Research Reviews. Retrieved on 6th September, 2016 from
It may be useful to repeat the experiment with female subjects. It would also be interesting to discover how people treat others of the opposite sex; will men restrain from exacting violence on women? (How long will our chauvinistic society last?). A reason for why the environment was so evil was that the prisoners were treated unfairly and the guards were given superiority over the prisoners for no reason. The prisoners and guards were not treated as equals.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). Revisiting the Sanford Prison Experiment: A lesson in the power of
In this study Zimbardo chose 21 participants from a pool of 75, all male college students, screened prior for mental illness, and paid $15 per day. He then gave roles. One being a prisoner and the other being a prison guard, there were 3 guards per 8 hour shift, and 9 total prisoners. Shortly after the prisoners were arrested from their homes they were taken to the local police station, booked, processed, given proper prison attire and issued numbers for identification. Before the study, Zimbardo concocted a prison setting in the basement of a Stanford building. It was as authentic as possible to the barred doors and plain white walls. The guards were also given proper guard attire minus guns. Shortly after starting the experiment the guards and prisoners starting naturally assuming their roles, Zimbardo had intended on the experiment lasting a fortnight. Within 36 hours one prisoner had to be released due to erratic behavior. This may have stemmed from the sadistic nature the guards had adopted rather quickly, dehumanizing the prisoners through verbal, physical, and mental abuse. The prisoners also assumed their own roles rather efficiently as well. They started to rat on the other prisoners, told stories to each other about the guards, and placated the orders from the guards. After deindividuaiton occurred from the prisoners it was not long the experiment completely broke down ethically. Zimbardo, who watched through cameras in an observation type room (warden), had to put an end to the experiment long before then he intended
The prisoners were given prison uniforms and number. The prisoners were subjected to numbers over their names and required to remember their names as ordered by the guards. When they reached the prison, they were blindfolded, stripped naked and forced to wear a dress as humiliation and entertainment
In the Stanford Prison Experiment, a study done with the participation of a group of college students with similar backgrounds and good health standing who were subjected to a simulated prison environment. The participants were exposed completely to the harsh environment of a real prison in a controlled environment with specific roles of authority and subordinates assigned to each individual. The study was formulated based on reports from Russian novelist Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky had spent four years in a Siberian prison and his view on how a man is able to withstand anything after experiencing the horrors of prison prompted Dr. Philip Zimbardo a Professor of Psychology at Stanford and his
The day before the experiment, the researchers held and orientating session where they instructed the guards not to physically harm the prisoners but said them to create atmosphere in which the prisoners feel
The ideas of social psychology mentioned above can be applied to the Stanford Prison Experiment; in which the environment, the participants, and construals brought about behaviors that may not have been how the participants actually would behave in real life.
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...
When put into an authoritative position over others, is it possible to claim that with this new power individual(s) would be fair and ethical or could it be said that ones true colors would show? A group of researchers, headed by Stanford University psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo, designed and executed an unusual experiment that used a mock prison setting, with college students role-playing either as prisoners or guards to test the power of the social situation to determine psychological effects and behavior (1971). The experiment simulated a real life scenario of William Golding’s novel, “Lord of the Flies” showing a decay and failure of traditional rules and morals; distracting exactly how people should behave toward one another. This research, known more commonly now as the Stanford prison experiment, has become a classic demonstration of situational power to influence individualistic perspectives, ethics, and behavior. Later it is discovered that the results presented from the research became so extreme, instantaneous and unanticipated were the transformations of character in many of the subjects that this study, planned originally to last two-weeks, had to be discontinued by the sixth day. The results of this experiment were far more cataclysmic and startling than anyone involved could have imagined. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast the discoveries from Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment and of Burrhus Frederic “B.F.” Skinner’s study regarding the importance of environment.
In jail insensibility began with uniforms, without any personal object and a identification number instead of their names. Due to the different situations, the guards began to behave abusively and cruelly, and at the same time the prisoners began to experience stress and anxiety. The guards and prisoners could communicate, but later the prisoners started to get abused by the guards verbally as well as physically, the inhuman work that was given to the prisoners were increasing excessively, the guards took the prison’s rules very seriously which worsen the situation between them and the
When we do research on daily prison life, we come across two typical but less than ideal situations: either social imaginaries cloud our judgment or information provided by the prisons themselves hide certain weak or bad aspects that they do not want to make public. We can also find information on TV, but most of the time it either exaggerates or minimizes the facts. In order to obtain more reliable information, we have to have access to people who are working or have worked in this institution, and such will be the sources of this essay. We will be describing and giving examples of prison violence according to three types of violence: sexual, physical and psychological violence.
The ideas of social psychology mentioned above can be applied to the Stanford Prison Experiment; in which the environment, the participants, and construals brought about behaviors that may not have been how the participants actually would behave in real life.
Zimbardo, P. G. (2013). A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment Conducted at Stanford University. Retrieved from Stanford Prison Experiment: http://www.prisonexp.org/
The Prison Simulation, studied by Haney, Banks & Zimbardo is quite impressive as to how extensive the study actually is. Due to lack of length in this paper the synopsis dealing with this study will be brief. The experiment consisted of 24 voluntary men who were divided into two groups: Guards and Inmates. Both groups were given uniforms to encourage their roles in the prison scenario. The subjects immediately began to take on rolls as to how they thought they should act. The prison had a much greater impact on all persons than could have been anticipated. The study was supposed to last 14 days, but due to extreme emotional depression the study ended after 6 days. In the spring of 1998, my Law a...
This experiment gathered twenty-one young men and assigned half of them to be “prisoners” and the other half to be “guards”. Simply put, the point of the experiment was to simulate a prison and observe how the setting and the given roles affected the behavior of the young men. The men who were given the roles of guard were given a position of authority and acted accordingly. This alone strongly influenced the behavior of both the guards and the prisoners. The guards had a sense of entitlement, control, and power, while the prisoners had a feeling of resentment and rebellion. Social pressure also played a crucial role in the experiment. Many of the guards began to exploit their power by abusing, brutalizing, and dehumanizing the prisoners. Some of the other guards felt wrong about this abuse, but did nothing to put an end to it. Finally, the situation and setting of the experiment immensely altered the conduct of both the prisoners and guards. The setting of being in a prison caused many of the volunteers to act in ways that they may have normally not. Even though the setting of being in a prison was essentially pretend, the volunteers accepted the roles they were given and acted as if it was all a reality. The prisoners genuinely behaved as if they were indeed real prisoners, and the guards treated them likewise. The situation these volunteers