Critique a Criminological theory and its research Methods

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In this assignment I am going to critically analyse the Stanford Prison Experiment. I am going to see what type of research method was used and I am going to review the aim of the research method Zimbardo’s used. I will be critically analysing Zimbardo’s finding and reviewing the conclusion that Zimbardo came to. While I critically analyse Zimbardo’s study I will determine whether or not his study was ethical, useful and valid. Zimbardo’s hypothesis was that “assignment to the treatment of guard or prisoners would result in different reactions on behavioural measures of interaction, emotional measures of mood state and pathology and attitudes towards self, as well as other indices of coping and adapting to this situations” (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973) in simpler words, his belief is that the role you are given will determine you behaviour. The procedure for the Stanford Prison Experiment was that Zimbardo place and advertisement in the local paper for male volunteers for a psychological study of what prison life is like. Zimbardo stated that all volunteers would be paid fifteen dollars a day for two weeks. The twenty four most stable (mentally and physically) men were selected and randomly assigned to their positions, either a prisoner or a guard. There were two reserves and one dropped out finally leaving ten prisoners and eleven guards. Zimbardo set up a mock prison in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University. Once the mock prison was set up Zimbardo had all the prisoners unexpectedly arrested at their homes on a Sunday morning before church when he knew they would all be at home. The study is usually described as an experiment with the independent variable being, the condition the participants are ... ... middle of paper ... ...d to believe in their allocated positions. The study, therefore rejects the dispositional hypothesis. The experiment had been stopped after just six days instead of the planned fourteen mainly because of the pathological reactions of the participants. In general both the guards and the prisoners showed a marked tendency towards their negative emotions and their overall out look on life became increasingly negative. Despite the fact that both the guards and the prisoners were free to engage in any form of interaction, the nature of their encounters tended to be negative, hostile, insulting and dehumanising. The prisoners and the guards adopted very contrasting behaviours, which were appropriate for their respective roles. The guard’s interactions were mostly in the form of commands or verbal affronts whereas the prisoners generally maintained a passive response mode.

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