Dispositional vs Situational Factors in Prison Behavior

In 1971 three psychologists, Craig Banks, Curtis Haney, and Phillip Zimbardo were captivated in finding out whether the rough treatment described among guards in American prisons was due to the aggressive behaviors of the guards or the prisoners lack of respect for law and order (dispositional hypothesis) or had more to do with the prison atmosphere (situational hypothesis) (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). If the prisoners and guards acted in a non-violent way this would corroborate the dispositional hypothesis, or if the prisoners and guards act the same way as people do in real prisons this would authenticate the situational explanation (McLeod, 2016). Dispositional means elucidating behavior in terms of an individual’s distinctive character

Craig Banks, Curtis Haney, and Phillip Zimbardo decided to test the situational hypothesis, so they transformed the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building into a mock prison (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). Zimbardo and his colleagues placed an advertisement in the local newspaper offering to pay $15 per day for participants to play the roles of prisoners and guards for approximately two weeks (McLeod, 2016). Seventy-five applicants responded to the advertisement and were screened to get rid of those with medical disabilities, physical problems, mental health issues, a history of crime, and a history of drug abuse (Maxfield & Babbie, 2009). Twenty-four healthy and psychologically fit male college subjects were chosen to participate in the experiment out of the seventy-five applicants (McLeod, 2016). The subjects were randomly designated to be either a prisoner or a guard in the mock prison (McLeod, 2016). The participants were required to sign contracts which detailed the functions of the guards and prisoners; unfortunately, one of the participants dropped out and there were two reserves, which left twenty-one participants---ten prisoners and eleven guards (McLeod, 2016). The subjects assuming the role of prisoners were informed that they would be incarcerated and be under

Psychological and social factors decided how the subjects acted and instead of the subjects using their own judgement, they behaved how they thought was required for the situation (McLeod, 2016).

The research purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment was a combination of the descriptive and the explanatory, because the Stanford Prison Experiment was designed to explain what happens when independence and self-respect are taken away from humans and their life is totally regulated and individuals are placed in positions with “power” (McLeod, 2016). Zimbardo wanted to demonstrate that the situation determines the way humans behave (McLeod, 2016). Zimbardo acted as the warden, in addiction to, observing as a researcher and describing what was