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Mcleod s 2008 zimbardo stanford prison experiment
Zimbardo stanford prison study
Criticisms of the zimbardo prison experiment
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Synthesis The original goal of Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment was to “investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life” (Source A). The 1973 experiment remains among the most notorious to date; featured in films and textbooks worldwide. Despite the acclaim, the ordeal does not constitute as a true experiment. What Zimbardo conducted was no more than a simulation with results achieved by unethical means. First of all, the data was skewed from the start of the operation. Zimbardo was guilty of selection bias. As the newspaper advertisement provided in Source A suggests, Zimbardo sought male students to participate in his “psychological study of prison life”. This advertisement contributed to the experiment’s invalidity by disclosing …show more content…
(Selection Bias) (Source A) He included the topic of the experiment in the ad and skewed the data. Involvement in the experiment
Because of his active participation in the experiment, the participants behaved as they thought he wanted them to. He even told guards how to treat the prisoners so his argument that the environment and the power given to guards caused the behavior is invalid.
He literally told the guards to find ways to torture the prisoners without physically touching them
According to Dunning, “many designers of such experiments would summarily throw out such a study based on this alone”.
The Hawthorne Effect is a phenomenon in which subjects alter their normal behavior to give results that they think would please the experimenter. Not only did Zimbardo actively participate in the experiment, he also told the guards exactly how to behave. The guards were only behaving as they did not because of their own personalities, but because they were told to.
Scientific
Then he was given his rights at the station and was fingerprinted. He was then taken to a holding cell to think about what he had done On the second day the guards' behaviour began to degenerate so by the sixth day the experiment was cancelled. Two prisoners were removed from the experiment in this time. The experiment obviously had a serious flaw; this is thought to be Dr Zimbardo's involvement (he acted as the superintendent).
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
Phillip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford experiment where 24 physiologically and physically healthy males were randomly selected where half would be prisoners and the other half prisoner guards. To make the experiments as real as possible, they had the prisoner participants arrested at their homes. The experiment took place in the basement of the Stanford University into a temporary made prison.
Stanley Milgram conducted the experiment to put participants into immoral situations to obey an authority figure of some measure, and he tested their performance and willingness, to participate in acts that strayed away from their belief of right and wrong. Zimbardo conducted an experiment in some ways similar. He conducted an experiment to see if people would assume the expected normal roles of what a prisoner is expected to do and what an authority figure like a prisoner guard is supposed to do. So both Zimbardo and Milgram at this point are trying to prove that authority and the social norm of how authorities should act generates psychological effects on their performance, as well as people who are expected to be below and obey an upper hand.
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.
How would you act if you were locked up in a concentration camp and the guards made you suffer? If I were in there, I would listen to the guards because I want less suffered. In addition, I would not try to stand out in the crowed to receive punishment by the guards. In the Movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment, students were split to be two group, guards and prisoner. In the oppressive environment and authority to the guards, the guards were out of control, and they kept on punish prisoner until they broke down. The prisoners were treated as less than human, and they won’t get what they need. Furthermore, these guards will act more aggressive every day to try to force the prisoner to conform. In the film The Stanford Prisoner Experiment, the guards become immoral because they got
Things have gotten too out of hand, and situations will get much worse. Ethically speaking, Zimbardo made the right call because if the experiment continues, it would have been detrimental to the prisoner’s psyche. Zimbardo explains the event that occurred by stating, “The power of this situation ran swiftly and deeply through most of those on this exploratory ship of human nature. Only a few were able to resist the situational temptations to yield to power and dominance while maintaining some semblance of morality and decency. Obviously, I was not among the noble class (171).” By saying this, Zimbardo is fully aware that he let things get out of hand too
Zimbardo, Philip. "Stanford Prison Experiment." The: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment. N.p., n.d.Web. 19 Dec. 2013. .
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.
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.
In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the participants were checked for physical and psychological health. There was well planned out “experiment” were the goals were made clear to the participants when Zimbardo himself explained what was expected. They were also given a waiver that they had to sign making it even more clear. There was an unexpected result.
...experiment, felt that the experiment made such a deep impression on him that he became convinced that “social sciences and psychology, are much more important in today’s world.'; One can only imagine the inner conflicts that were running through his head. After the experiment, he described the mood, “I did want to stop at that time. I turned around and looked at [the experimenter]. I guess it’s a matter of…authority.';
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
This experiment was one of the more disturbing ones. It is sometime referred to as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo’s goal was to see if people will conform to the social roles that they are expected to play, which in fact is exactly what he discovered (Simply Psychology, 2014). Volunteers were chosen at random and were either picked to be a prisoner or a guard. The prisoners were placed in their cells in their jumpsuits and treated like actual prisoners, while the guards were positioned and put into uniforms with sunglasses that prevented eye contact with the prisoners.
Zimbardo begins his experiment to test how social roles influence our behavior. He did not have any intentions or even any idea how everything would play out. He wants to know what happens when he puts good people in an evil place; would humanity win over evil, or would evil win completely? After the experiment, Zimbardo said, “Our planned two week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be had to be ended after only six days because of what the situation was doing to the college students…our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.” As said earlier, this experiment was simply to test how social roles influence our behavior.