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Analysis of stanford prison experiment
Stanford prison experiment outline
The Stanford Prison Experiment summary
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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.
In the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo wants to find out whether the cruelty reported among the guards towards the prisoners in American prisons was due to brutal personalities of the guards (dispositional) or due to the environment in which they found themselves (situational). This topic is the study of prisoners and guards in a pretended prison; it reveals the psychology of power and abuse and it investigates how people would comply
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with the roles of guard and prisoner in a play-acting environment that portrays assumed prison life. At the end of the experiment, Zimbardo formulated a hypothesis through direct observation of the real world that the treatment of guards or prisoners would result in substantial diverse reactions on behavioral measures of interaction, emotional measures of mood state and pathology, attitudes toward self and other indices of coping and adaptation to this unique circumstance. The method used by Zimbardo in order to study the role-play in the simulated prison was to use the Stanford University psychology building basement.
He recruited his participant by asking college students to volunteers through advertisement and more than 70 applicants responded to the advert after which diagnostic interview and personality test was carried out in order to pick participants that are psychological and medically fit and have no history of crime or drug abuse. In addition, they agree to pay $15 per day to their participants and they were randomly selected to either the role of a prisoner or a guard in the simulated prison environment. Eventually they got 24 male college students of which 10 serves as prisoners, 11 as guards, two were reserves, and one dropped out; leaving 23 in …show more content…
totals. The guards are to work in sets of three on an eight-hour shift and the prisoners will be housed in sets of three per room and there was a solitary confinement cell also for misbehaved prisoners.
The whole scenario was staged to be as real as possible; prisoners were arrested at their homes without prior notice, taken to the local police station, finger printed, photographed, booked, blindfolded and driven to the simulated prison. On their arrival to the prison, they were stripped, deloused, took all their personal belongings and locked them away and given ID numbers, the same prison clothes and beddings, et al. All the guards were dressed similar uniforms of khaki, carried a whistle, a billy club and special sunglasses that will prevent eye contact. The guards were instructed to do whatever they seems fit was necessary to maintain law and order in the simulated prison and to command reasonable respect of prisoners, but an explicit prohibition was given against the use of physical violence.
In addition, the measures collected were the transaction between and amidst each group of subjects and individual reactions. The transactions between and within the guard and the prisoners was collected through the use of video, audio tapes and direct observation and the individual reaction were gathered through the questionnaires, mood inventories, personality tests, daily guard shift reports and post experimental
interview. In general, the simulation did not go as planned as it was supposed to last for two weeks, but only lasted for six days due to the alarming way the guards and the prisoners showed a striking propensity towards extended negativity of influence and their general perspective became progressively more hostile. The most frighten was how the warden (Zimbardo) was drawn into the show; if not that Christiana Maslach, a recent Ph.D at Stanford was brought in to conduct interviews with the participants, the situation would have been more tragic. She was not pleased with the way the groups were reacting to each other especially the way the guards were maltreating the prisoners and she objected to the simulation. In a nutshell, the result of the study shows that the environment of absolute custody will have great effect on the emotional states of both the guards and the prisoners along with the interactive processes taking place amidst the role-groups. The major conclusions of the study in respects to the future psychological research and understanding social behavior are that if people are confined in a solitary place such as prison for a period of time, they will conform to the social roles they are expected to display. In addition, the prison environment and the institution happens to be a significant factor in generating guard’s cruelty as the guards lost their sense of identity and personal responsibility due to the position and the uniform of power they wore and their role of accountability. Also, the prisoner’s submission to the guard was as a result of their helpless social structure. In my opinion, the strengths of this research is that it reveals the reality of incarceration, the roles were reinforced as the prisoners were truly arrested from their homes, deloused, et al., the method used in collecting data was detailed and valid, but the limitations are the fact that the population is low, the research was conducted only once and the main stress was on the participants most especially the prisoners. I believe the way the study was conducted can be modified by using a different dimension, for example, the brutal environment can be replaced with a more conducive one with the guards given power to put ideas into practice and rules in place that will make the prison to run smoothly. This situation will bring a psychological advantage to the individual group and the implications for the community will be a safeguarding one. Furthermore, the groups should have been more protected; especially the prisoners and prison guards should have been well trained prior to the time of the simulation In conclusion, the study of the Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological event of the human response to imprisonment, especially to the real world situations of prison life. It is evidence that prisons does not actually rehabilitate neither does it act as a corrective measure to future crime, but instead it creates hatred and disrespect among the inmate for the authority and the created order of the community in which they will return to. References Haney, C., Banks, W.C. & Zimbardo, P.G. (1973). A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. In Stanford Prison Experiment . Naval Research Review, 30, 4-17.
The stories of the Red Guards remind me very much of the Stanford Prison Experiment, in which 24 university students were recruited for a psychological experiment in which half of the group would become a prison guard and the other half prisoners. The young men had rules that they had to live by during the week to two weeks the...
The Implications of the Stanford Prison Experiment In 1971 Dr Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in the basement of Stanford University. This involved imprisoning nine volunteers in a mock up of Stanford prison, which was policed by nine guards (more volunteers). These guards had complete control over the prisoners. They could do anything to the prisoners, but use physical violence.
On August 14, 1971, the Stanford Prison Experiment had begun. The volunteers who had replied to the ad in the newspaper just weeks before were arrested for the claims of Armed Robbery and Burglary. The volunteers were unaware of the process of the experiment, let alone what they were getting themselves into. They were in shock about what was happening to them. Once taken into the facility, the experimenters had set up as their own private jail system; the twenty-four volunteered individuals were split up into two different groups (Stanford Prison Experiment).
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.
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.
Before commencing the study all participants were briefed on the roles pertaining to the experiment without actually being assigned roles. Once roles were determined and assigned each participant was given specific instruction to their roles whether it be the role of the Guard or Prisoner. The group assigned to the prisoner role were greater in number and were instructed to be available at a predetermined time, this was done to maintain the reality of the simulation. The prisoners were arrested and escorted by real-life law enforcement officials and processed as any detainee would be in a real situation. Upon completing the processing part of the experiment the students were then transferred to the simulated prison, which was housed in the basement of the university, and assigned identifying numbers, given demeaning clothing as uniform and placed in barren cells with no personalized
After they selected 24 applicants they divided them randomly in a group of prisoners and guards.
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading ro...
Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading routines. In Romesh Ra...
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.
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 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...
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/