Abu Ghraib Prison Experiment

In the movie, “A Few Good Men”, two types of reactions are shown in response to being part of a person’s wrongful death. Philip Zimbardo in his work, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”, provides the perspective of the guards who initiated a harsh prison environment and how they reflected upon the experience. Meanwhile a real-life scandal is analyzed by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak in “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism”. This piece reviews the actions of soldiers in controversial situations shortly after the infamous 9-11 attacks. Repeating the military topic, Herbert C. Kelman and V. Lee Hamilton addressed Lt. Calley’s steadfast belief that he did no wrong in the Vietnam War scandal in “The My Lai Massacre: A Military Crime of

When put into the position of complete authority over others people will show their true colors. I think that most people would like to think that they would be fair, ethical superiors. I know I would, but learning about the Stanford Prison Experiment has made me question what would really happen if I was there. Would I be the submissive prisoner, the sadistic guard, or would I stay true to myself? As Phillip Zimbardo gave the guards their whistles and billy clubs they drastically changed without even realizing it. In order to further understand the Stanford Prison experiment I learned how the experiment was conducted, thought about the ethical quality of this experiment, and why I think it panned out how it did.

In “The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism,” Marianne Szegedy-Maszak informs the reader of the situation United States guards caused against Iraqi detainees. Under Bush’s presidency, United States soldiers brought physical abuse and humiliation upon the Abu Ghraib Prison. Szegedy-Maszak briefly analyzes the situation and compares the abuse to further scientific experiments in which test obedience. One of the experiments was the topic of another article titled, “The Stanford Prison Experiment,” written by Philip G. Zimbardo. In his work, Zimbardo discusses the experiment he held at Stanford University. A group of male students from the university were paid to participate in an experiment held in a mock prison. Half of the group

citizens, but it was the researchers afterwards that contributed the most startling idea. Zimbardo, the same man who ran the Stanford Prison Experiment, said in an interview with the New York Times, “Prisons tend to be brutal and abusive places unless great effort is made to control the guards’ base impulses. It’s not that we put bad apples in a good barrel. We put good apples in a bad barrel. The barrel corrupts anything that it touches” (Swhwartz, 2004 p. 2). A professor of Law at Loyola University, Marcy Strauss, studies criminal procedure and wrote a forty-two page manuscript on the lessons that should be discussed beyond news articles. Strauss said of Abu Ghraib, “Undoubtedly, these factors [poor training of guards, poor oversight and horrendous conditions] played a major role in facilitating the abuse. Correcting these conditions is imperative. But, to end the introspection there would be a mistake” (Strauss, 2005 p.9). The idea that people could be malignant under specific circumstances has been proven by Milgrams’ studies and this idea is now apparent in real life. Thus, the concern for prisons, as pointed out by both Zimbardo and Strauss, cannot simply be that the guards or correctional officers do not abuse people in the future. The issue is that the maltreatment and indignity in Abu Ghraib was a result of the poor foundation of the U.S. correctional system (Strauss,

She begins recounting the notorious details, how innocent college students labeled prisoners and guards displayed psychological abuse after only six days of confinement, and makes reference to Stanley Milgram’s obedience study and Abu Ghraib, where similar maltreatment, perceived or real, was conducted on civilians by civilians. She addresses and refutes the accepted belief that the Stanford Prison Experiment proved that anyone could become a tyrant when given or instructed by a source of authority. Instead, she suggests that Zimbardo’s inquiry points toward but does not land on one exact conclusion. She explains the influence of the setting, the presentation of the roles, Zimbardo’s participation, and perhaps a sense of expectation felt, all of which can be reflected in the shocking behavior of a few guards. She argues that it should not have been so shocking. Konnikova discredits the neutrality of Zimbardo’s experiment by insisting that people who would respond to an ad for a psychological study of prison life were not “normal” people. However, with her diction and choice of evidence she displaces the study's culpability in a way that ultimately blurs and undermines her claim.

Though this was just an experiment many of the test subjects were quickly pushed to their limits and the ones in authority took their roles to the extreme. Eventually, this caused an early shut down of the experiment. There was a total of 9 students who were willing to be the prisoners in this experiment. The study issued that the guards would be forced to give brutal and cruel torture upon the prisoner. The experiment was known as one of the most controversial studies in the history of social psychology because even though it was an experiment, the prisoners went through major psychological changes and one prisoner even succumbed to a short period of insanity. Through deindividualized torture, exploitation and manipulation many of the test subjects underwent the same torture as those who were imprisoned at Abu Ghraib. It was finally shut down by a woman by the name of Christina Maslach but similarly to Abu Ghraib no one was held accountable for the short period of torture. Also like Abu Ghraib, the men who played the role of the guards in The Stanford Prison Experiment underwent psychological changes where they became evil, relentless and manipulative all while blaming it on the fact that they’re “just following orders.” In many cases when a person is given authority, they abuse it

At any given time, a single corrections officer, can expect to be outnumbered by upwards of 400 inmates (Conover, 2011). It can be chilling to work in the midst of hundreds of inmates, some of which initiate attacks and inappropriate relationships. However, other issues have impacted the psychological health and physical safety of the staff. Detrimental factors have included heavy workloads, the prisons physical structure, and a lack of support from both peers and superiors. Each workplace issue has been in addition to role problems, specifically role ambiguity and role conflict (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). It is believed that anyone of these undesirable facets of prison should be enough to deter the public from attempting to enter such

Prisons are fundamentally designed for the functions of law and order, and many guards seemed to act in

It is undeniable that what went on at Abu Ghraib was never a series of isolated incidents, which were unbeknownst to the military leadership. It is Taguba’s opinion that this would not be possible (Hersh). Any person in the military is taught from day one to follow orders. The woman in charge of the prison at the time was Janis Karpinski, an Army reserve brigadier general, although she was not stationed there very long. It was the report written by Taguba which exposed the “…sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses,” which occurred there (Hersh). It would seem quite unreasonable that one could think that an Army General would embark upon a random course of such insane violence, on such a wide scale. And if you look at the fact that similar activities occurred in Guantanamo Bay and Afghanistan, it would certainly paint a

There are have been many occasions where I have read or heard someone say that “what are the prison guards supposed to do? They are overworked, and they get paid little, which makes them exhausted and frustrated.” I believe if the pay gets better, some prison guards would still take advantage of the authority. They acknowledge that they have the power, which can be used to control the inmates even if it means extremely injuring some of the inmates; also, it does not matter if the inmate stops resisting or

In many of the torture pictures at Abu Ghraib, the prisoners are wearing bags on their heads or something to mask their face. The supervisors of the jail could have masked the inmates to make the guards feel less responsible about the vicious acts. Since the victim was masked and cannot tell who is torturing them, a kind of separation is created between the guard and the inmate. "The results are also unequivocal in relation to the distance from the direct exertion of violence: the greater the distance, the less the subjects feel responsible and the greater the obedience" (Meeus & Raaijmakers 159).

During the war in Iraq of 2004, CBS covered a story on 60 minutes that exposed the crude behavior of prison guards in Abu Ghraib prison. CBS exhibit photos of the Iraqi prisoners in a rather unsettling matter, such as being naked with bag over their heads, other where there was electric wire attached to their bodies, and some who were forced to perform sexual acts. A number of Americans were alarmed by our American soldiers. However, what makes this incident even more irksome is 30 years before the Abu Ghraib prison incident the same events played out in Stanford University. Both parties were many years apart causing the Abu Ghraib prison guards to most likely be unaware of the Stanford University study. Which causes one to question to rise:

The evidence from Stanford suggests that, according to Maria Konnikova, certain institutions and environments demand those behaviors-and, perhaps, can change them. No institution or environment on this planet demands the behaviors seen in Abu Ghraib or The Stanford Experiment. The environment and leadership at the time of Abu Ghraib had a hand in this unfortunate incident. In Dr. Zimbardo’s Op-Ed piece in the Boston Globe he says those responsible should suffer severe sanctions if found guilty, and we must separate guilt from blame. Being an active duty member in the Navy, whenever there is a serious incident or accident blame is always investigated for. Who do we blame? Depending on the incident or accident, the lowest man on the totem pole

In this essay I will talk about the torturing of prisoners in Abu Ghraib. I will also write about the Stanley Milgrim Experiment and the Stanford Prison Experiment. All of these relate to one of the topics we have covered this term.

I agree with you, I think that power dynamic at Abu Ghraib played a huge role in the terrible events that occurred there, as well as the soldiers who caused so much harm to their detainees. We both also mentioned Milgram’s (1963) obedience to authority study. Interestingly, Milgram’s results were replicated using men and women from a variety of ethnic groups. In this study Burger (2011), had 65 percent of the men and 73 percent of the women agree to administer increasingly painful electric shocks when they were ordered to do so by an authority figure. However, unlike Milgram’s experience, these participants were not allowed to go beyond the 150-volt shock (Burger, 2011). Nevertheless, other studies have found differing outcomes dependent