Case Study Assignment #1, Communist Prison Camps, Pages 84-85
What Specific techniques were used to bring about the destruction of self-awareness among the prisoners?
Specific techniques that were used to bring about the destruction of self-awareness among the prisoners included, physical privation, prolonged interrogation, total isolation from former relationships, detailed regimentation of all daily activities, humiliation, degradation and social alienation by “thought reform” group (s).
What opposite processes could be used to create the reverse process, that is, a strengthening of the self-concept?
Strengthening of the self-concept could be brought on by using processes such as the five core aspects of self-awareness: 1.
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This understanding must be un-ambiguous, so that the new employees can be certain of their roles and responsibilities.
What mechanisms do people use, and what mechanisms could the prisoners of war have used, to resist a change in their self-concepts?
Mechanisms used to resist change are changes in cognitive style. Cognitive styles are inclinations towards information and learning that we have developed over time. They can be changed and altered through practice and conscious development. As individuals, people develop over time the ability and strategy to suppress some information and pay attention to other information. They also tend to focus on their locus of control, that is the attitude people develop regarding the extent to which they are in control of their own destinies. The prisoners were not in control of their own destinies. To help resist they could focus on external locus of control, i.e. Something or someone else caused the change. This can enable them to keep their internal locus of control .
What could be done to reform or rebuild the self-awareness of these prisoners? What can be done to help individuals without self-awareness to improve that skill?
To rebuild or reform or restore self-awareness in the prisoners or to help individuals without
Another issue in Zimbardo’s experiment was in the treatment of the prisoners. The guards would curse at the prisoners and force them to ridiculous and arbitrary tasks such as forcing them to pick thorns out of their blankets which the guards had dragged through the bushes (737). Even the prisoners would make detrimental remarks about their fellow prisoners (737). The extreme actions taken by the guards resulted in some prisoners developing anxiety symptoms, one symptom even exhibiting itself in a psychosomatic rash when one prisoner’s parole was rejected by the parole board (738). The American Psychological Association makes it very clear on this type of behavior in their code of ethics they state that “any direct or indirect participation in any act of torture or other forms of cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment or punishment by psychologists is strictly prohibited. There are no exceptions.”
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a clear example of how humans can adapt to specific social roles and behave differently under the pressure of control. The experiment illustrated the concepts of deviance and social control through participants behavior. Although the prisoners were not really prisoners, they believed that they were. The behavior of the prisoners began to morph along with the experiment. By day two, the prisoners were showing deviance by barricading themselves inside their cells. The environment and treatment of the prisoners were likely causes of the disobedience. Similarly, the guards showed signs of social control throughout the experiment. Guards were able to show control over the prisoners through various actions, such
The guard attempted to hide this situation from the people running the experiment because of them “being too soft on the prisoners.” Another guard, not aware he was being observed, paced around the “yard” while the prisoners slept, watching his “captives” and aggressively hitting them with his nightstick. A majority of the prisoners still involved in the experiment started to accept the loss of their identities and the abusive treatment they received, because of the belief that they “deserved it.” The guards formed a corrupt but unified team that used their power to inspire fear and complete control over the prisoners. The prisoners, in response, became mentally compromised and developed depression, feelings of helplessness, and feelings of psychosis.
But, in seeking this goal, they sacrificed the prisoners’ liberty within the prison to the extent they went insane. Solitary confinement and beatings are two examples of the terrible conditions. The search for finding a way cure deranged men led to unjust treatment against democratic ideals even though the reformers were trying to improve their lives.
In the Zimbardo’s The Stanford Prison Experiment; however, the ‘guards’ and ‘prisoners’ were placed in the same facility and were face to face on a daily basis unlike the Milgram experiment. The ‘guards’ would tell the ‘prisoners’ jokingly to do something, however the ‘prisoners’ would do what they were commanded to do to try to hang on to their identity. (Zimbardo 393) By the end of the experiment most ‘prisoners’ showed increased stress levels in the ‘prisoners’ within days, some ‘prisoners’ could not handle the stress induced and had to be released early. The ‘guards’ were equally changed do to the scenario they were put in. One journal of the ‘guards’ showed how a passive person became a person shoving food down another person’s mouth and locking them up in solitary confinement (Zimbardo 389-399).
The Rehabilitative Era, spanning from 1960 to 1980, was a time in which self-improvement programs within prisons were used to reform prisoners rather than utilizing forms of punishment. Prisoners were still held accountable for their crimes, but their overall mental and psychical health was taken into account. Prisoners were seen as needing help in learning how to properly life within society. A clinical professor of psychiatry, James Gilligan (2012) writes, “The only rational purpose for a prison is to restrain those who are violent from inflicting harm on themselves or others, while we help them to change their behavior from that pattern to one that is nonviolent and even constructive, so that they can return to the community.” Imprisoning people to just teach them a lesson or inflict some type of revenge is inhumane. Acting violent towards already violent people only exasperates the problems they have. By giving them tools to better themselves, it would motivate them to change their lives for the better and be able to return to society as law-abiding citizens. While conducting research in San Francisco jails,
The participants adapted to their roles well beyond Zimbardo 's expectations, as the guards enforced the measures and ultimately subjected some of the prisoners to psychological torture. Many of the prisoners passively accepted psychological abuse and, at the request of the guards, readily harassed other prisoners who attempted to prevent it. The experiment even
The prison system in place was never designed to contain that many prisoners so the system became highly inefficient. With this inefficiency came many activities such as corruption and prisoner abuse that were able to be hidden and continued on without repercussion. Solitary confinement was used as a tool of punishment and convenience, the guards putting prisoners in solitary for the slightest offenses, to teach the rest of the prisoners a lesson, and even simply because the guard did not like a certain prisoner. This was soon followed by attempts at reforming the system with policies of treating prisoners humanely and providing them with tools to help better themselves, such as skill training, education, and therapy, more modern forms of rehabilitative measures. Though this attempt soon failed due to the rampant overpopulation, which the reformers’ programs of rehabilitation simply could not keep up with. This pattern of overpopulation and prisoner abuse followed by failed attempts at prison reform continue to this day, though as evidenced by prison rehabilitative measures today, skill and job training, education, and therapy and counseling, the reforms
With a positive start in self-concept, individuals will hold an advantage over their peers as they will not be as susceptible to
In life there are choices to be made, some are positive and lead a person in one direction, some are negative and a person in trouble. The decisions that are made on a daily basis and the way that one reacts to the consequences of those choices affect the outcome of their life. The same holds true for people inside a prison cell. Adapting to life if prison is a process, and each individual prisoner choses a different path for that process. Some react with anger and violence, some develop mental health issues such as depression and some eventually chose to accept what is the reality of life in prison. This paper with briefly summarize findings about prisoner’s coping with solitary confinement and coping with wrongful conviction.
When forced into such oppressive and horrible conditions people benign to do whatever they can in order to survive. Man got desperate enough to eat out other prisoners that broke rules. The camps affected the prisoners attitudes about themselves, making them believe that there was no hope for them, and some even believe that they were put in the camp because they are being punished by God for something they did.(Aleksandr Soljenitsin, Online PDF, Page 40) The camp makes the men look at themselves in a new light, with how they choose to survive and live defining who they are. They have to decide themselves if discarding any dignity they have left and lowering themselves will be worth it to survive. What they decide to do in order to survive makes them think if this is who they really are or want to be. Most importantly, the camp attacks their personal identity and individuality. Their names replaced with random letters and numbers, all aspects of themselves stripped away.They are not aloud to remember themselves and eventually it will be up to them to try and remember their lives before the camp, and who they are as an
PRC personal warn prisoners that they have to remodel their entire thinking and behavior.The workers of the camps often use remodeling of the thinking and behavior in sociopolitical compulsion. The PRC personal think of the prisoners as hopeless Chinese citizens that are “a mere grain of incohesive sand in a shifting social sand dune” and treat them as such.The camps advocate psychological reconstruction for the prisoners. The camps believe that the only way to deal with socialist citizens is to force them to become prisoners and participate in labor for the city. They believe this forced labor will make the prisoners non-exploitive, law- abiding citizens.The government is free from limiting sentencing of any individual. The more severe end
While dedicated research on the subject of psychological damage as a result of imprisonment is surprisingly sparse there are a few articles that touch on the subject. Prison is a ripe case study for many Psychology scholars due to its inherently insular nature and varied subcultures. Researchers have noticed frightening trends among inmates such as increased aggression, impairment of executive functions, and increased development of psychosomatic disorders.
After inmates received treatment programs for a few months or years, inmates have the capabilities to address their root issues that led them to prison. In most cases, inmates do not have the self-confidence to revisiting their childhood as they cannot bear the intense pain. Inmates subconsciously suppress their inner child that is re-experiences the past abuse by abusing substances. For inmates to emotionally and mentally heal, they themselves have to support their inner child. Although prison is not an ideal setting for healing as it is a negative environment, with relaxation and meditation, inmates enhance their emotional and mental stability (Casarjian, 1995, p. 3). If inmates are not emotionally and mentally prepared, they most likely
Instead of merely a holding cell, the prison became an instrument of subjugation, distinguished by the control it exerted over the inmates’ corporeal being. Visibility was exercised on the prisoners themselves, ensuring that even if their mind resisted, their bodies would be forced to obey. The separation, subjugation and surveillance of prisoners became the device through which order was maintained; prisoners were separated so they did not conspire, watched in case they needed medical attention, and monitored to make sure that they were not hiding contraband or trying to escape.