Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

538 Words2 Pages

Reducing a person’s image can cause people to behave in a more harsh way towards the individual being humiliated. Oftentimes many people may justify a cruel action after the degradation of another individual. Such circumstances are fairly evident in the events of the Stanford Prison Experiment, the Rwandan genocide, and the Holocaust. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a mock prison set up by Phillip Zimbardo to study the effects prisons can have on an individuals behaviour. Throughout this experiment it was revealed that many of the guards developed truly sadistic tendencies and performed many cruel acts towards the prisoners. Oftentimes the guards would use physical punishments in the form of exercise, as well as verbal harassment, and

Show More
Related

  • The Implications of the Stanford Prison Experiment

    737 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment: Taking a Deeper Look

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect

    1768 Words  | 4 Pages

    “Our young research participants were not the proverbial “Bad Apples” in an otherwise good barrel. Rather, out experimental design ensured that they were initially good apples and were corrupted by the insidious power of the bad barrel, this prison (229).” Philip Zimbardo, author of The Lucifer Effect, created an experiment of twenty-four college age men. He randomly assigned these ordinary, educated, young men with a role as either Guard or Prisoner. He questions whether or not good people will do bad things if they are given the opportunity. After the experiment is complete, he begins to compare the situations that occurred in the Stanford Prison Experiment with real life situations in Abu Giraib and Guantanamo Bay Prison. He points out many similarities that parallel the Stanford Prison Experiment. In every situation depicted, there is a good person in a seemingly “bad barrel” – or a bad situation that brings bad actions out of a good person.

    Read More

  • The Power of Force: Human Behavior Under Pressure

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    People will do some of the craziest things when any level of force is placed upon them. People will succumb to the pressure of doing things they had never imagined they could do. Just recently people can look at the events of the revolts in Northern Africa and the extremes the people did to over throw their governments, events at Abu Ghraib, and the recent riots in Missouri. When mass hysteria or force from others is involved people will succumb to the situation and may do things they would normally deem immoral.

    Read More

  • Comparison Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

    487 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment Review

    1090 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Social Psychology and the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    2259 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Sociological Analysis Of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

    1200 Words  | 3 Pages

    Philip G. Zimbardo was born in 1933 in New York City. He completed his BA with triple psychology, sociology and anthropology at Brooklyn College. He completed his PhD in psychology in 1959 at Yale University. Zimbardo has taught in many schools including his previous school, Yale from 1959 to 1960. He eventually joined the Psychology faculty at Stanford University in 1968.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

    1885 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Ethics of the Stanford Prison Experiment

    923 Words  | 2 Pages

    After only six days the Stanford Prison Experiment was stopped, after they originally planned it to last for two weeks. This was not because Zimbardo thought it should be, of the guards out of line behavior, or because outsiders thought so. The experiment finally stopped because of a graduate student was helping Zimbardo told him that it was out of control. I am very surprised from the results of the experiment. The power of situations was shown to be much more powerful than I ever would have thought. Because of the way the prisoners were treated, I do not think there will ever be another experiment like this ever again, even though a lot of valuable information was attained for conducting it.

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment

    1144 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Essay

    1842 Words  | 4 Pages

    Phillip Zimbardo’s theory helps illustrate how and why ordinary people are capable of acts of terror against other human beings. Zimbardo believes that people are seduced into evil by dehumanizing and labeling others. In 1971, Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment, where researchers set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building. They then selected twenty four ordinary students to play the roles of both prisoners and guards. The experiment was originally supposed to go on for fourteen days, it had to be stopped after just six days due to what happened to the student participants.

    Read More

  • What Was The Purpose Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many of you may have talked about The Stanford Prison Experiment in class or have watched the documentary on the experiment because this experiment was very popular for its results. This experiment was conducted on August 14 of 1971 by Philip Zimbardo using innocent college students. The purpose of the 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”. Zimbardo knew that in real prisons there was much brutality and violence between the prisoners and the guards. He was trying to discover why there was this violence. Zimbardo has made two possible assumptions. First, he thought that the violence was being caused by the personalities of the

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Essay

    1627 Words  | 4 Pages

    Is there something to be learned from a prison experiment? In the summer of 1971 Stanford University conducted a prison experiment to study the psychology of imprisonment. The experiment was set to last two weeks but was shut down after only six days due to extreme conditions. “In only a few days, our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress.”

    Read More

More about Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

Open Document