Comparative Psychology : Zimbardo 's Stanford Prison Study

Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment.

Drs. Milgram and Zimbardo both made groundbreaking discoveries in their field and led people forward based on this knowledge. Both studies originally, in thought, started out to be ethical but the way the experimenters went about the treatment of those being tested was unethical due to the mental stresses put on by both experiments. The physical humiliation the participants were put through in the Stanford Prison experiment was uncalled for. It was not right to trade the suffering experienced by participants for knowledge gained because these people are left with physiological damage because of how they were treated. In Milgram’s experiment they all believed they were shocking a man with a heart condition which brought undue stress to the teacher, but they weren’t doing any actual damage to him. In the Stanford Prison experiment the prisoners were belittled and shamed and made to feel like actual prisoners. One prisoner went on hunger strike and refused to eat unless released. The hunger strike and most of the guard’s emotional attacks caused major psychological scars and emotional damage. This is what many people actually experience when they come out of prison.

The experimental study that I chose to write about is the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was run by Phillip Zimbardo. More than seventy applicants answered an ad looking for volunteers to participate in a study that tested the physiological effects of prison life. The volunteers were all given interviews and personality tests. The study was left with twenty-four male college students. For the experiment, eighteen volunteers took part, with the other volunteers being on call. The volunteers were then divided into two groups, guards and prisoners, randomly assigned by coin flips. The experiment began on August 14th, 1971 in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. To create the prison cells for the prisoners, the doors were taken

The article on the Stanford Prison Experiment titled, A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison and written by the Office of Naval Research, provides us with the overall information that deals with this controversial psychological study. The study was conducted by

Social psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, has lead one of the most infamous experiments in the modern history with the Stanford Prison Experiment. The immense popularity of the experimental research on situational power, although having cultivated great recognition, has overshadowed the multiple contributions and accomplishments that Zimbardo continues to assume in his lifetime. Many of Zimbardo’s recognitions have been brought upon due to the Stanford Prison Experiment, yet in this paper will extensively examine Zimbardo’s psychological career from the beginning to the current date to recognize his notable influence in the field of Psychology, specifically the field of Social Psychology. This brief review of Zimbardo’s lengthy career will include various facts and personal accounts of Zimbardo’s regarding his life and work. Zimbardo’s lifetime of work has mainly focused and researched the multiple flaws of human’s beings, and it’s through his findings that society is truly able to progress forward positively. Zimbardo’s long career exemplifies that of an unrestricted devotion; he has and still works to better society through its various flaws, making him undoubtably impactful.

Philip (2009) to try and see what was being said about prison treatment was true, this was called the Stanford prison experiment. This experiment only lasted 6 days due to the circumstances versus 6 weeks. Zimbardo had to find out whether the prisons were brutal due to the guards or due to the environment. It was clear that the role of the guards was the issue and not the environment. This was discovered when a sample was chosen from the population. Each induvial was set up to be a guard or a prisoner at random. In this study researchers got see the unfortunate power of social situations. Once prisoner and guard roles were assigned each group were told that they were being watched by the researcher and his colleagues, the guards were to not hit the prisoners, and debriefed about the experiment. Although all this was told the guards took situations into their own hands and the power took over. The guards began simply viewing them as prisoners and the prisoners began to fear the guards. It is important to note the researcher did not intervene but continued to observe when the hitting was taking place. This is particularly important because not only are the guards fitting the rod but the researcher is at fault for the fundamental attribution error but viewing the situation for what it

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted in 1971 by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo. According to Dr. Steve Taylor (2007), “It’s probably the best known psychological study of all time.” (Classic Studies in Psychology, 2007). Zimbardo stated that the point was to see what would happen if he put “really good people in a bad place” (Dr. Zimbardo, 2007). He did this during a time were most college students were protesting for peace and were against anything authoritarian. The experiment contained both positive and negative aspects; which will be discussed further in this paper.

Social psychology explains individual behavior as prejudiced by other people and the social context. Social psychologists thus deal with the factors that lead us to behave in an assumed way in the presence of others. It examines the circumstances and situations under which certain actions and feelings follow. (University of Southern California) This paper discusses the ethical dilemma on Stanford prison experiment by Professor Zimbardo. How his social psychology experiment was unethical and what led it to be. His experiment is extending to the Milgram obedience studies.

This week’s class was a really good one. It was good at showing exactly how society is. We do worry about what other people think. I never thought about it but it is true. Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Study was scary. Those people had a role to play and got into character. The scary part was the fact that they did not realize how they were acting at first. The fact they did not last the full 2 weeks was strange. I do like the fact that they videotaped them afterwards because the guards needed to see how they treat the prisoners.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was performed to observe the behavioral and psychological consequences of being a prisoner or guard. More specifically the experiment was performed to see whether people would conform to the roles of being a prison guard and a prisoner. This experiment was to help understand how positions of power and the expected norm would affect the subjects in a prison environment. The psychologist also wanted to know whether violence by guards is due to their personalities or if the guard and the prisoners actions were more related to the environment and situation that they were placed in.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an experiment to see how people react to being stripped of their identities and isolated. The Project was meant to evaluate the psychological effects of the “prisoners”. When this project took place the researchers discovered that the boys that were put in the role of a guard took complete control over the boys that were in the prison. When this study took place the boys was taken in as if they were really being arrested. As the website www.prisonexp.org/the-story states “On a quiet Sunday morning in August, a Palo Alto, California, police car swept through the town picking up college students as part of a mass arrest for violation of Penal Codes 211, Armed Robbery, and Burglary,

In 1971, Phillip Zimbardo placed an ad in a local paper looking for people interested in participating in a psychological study. The ad stated that participants would receive $15.00 per day, the study would last between 1-2 weeks, and would focus on the psychological effect of prison life. Zimbardo, then a professor of psychology at Stanford University, and his colleagues screened the 70 applicants and picked 24 based on their psychological screenings. Zimbardo then randomly assigned each participant to be either a guard or a prisoner. Zimbardo originally wanted to see how individuals adjust to being in a powerless situation, but his now infamous study ended up going far beyond the original focus of powerlessness (Ratnesar, 2011). The Stanford

So, to study as genuinely and realistically as possible the cause and effect of this phenomenon, Professor Zimbardo converted one of the Stanford University basements into a prison. An advertisement was posted for students to take part in the experiment. 24 out of 75 candidates vetted for “psychological normality” were selected to play the roles of prison guards or prisoners.

Although Zimbardo intended for the Stanford Prison Experiment to last for two weeks, the experiment was terminated after six days due to the dark and corrupt nature that came forth from within the prison guards. (The Study, 2008). As days passed in the experiment, prisoners began to experience demoralizing and humiliating punishments from the guards; this is, in turn, caused many of the prisoners to develop forms of mental and physical distress. (Shuttermouth, 2008). On the second day of the experiment, prisoners lead a massive revolt against the conditions in the prison, this revolt later led to guards using fire extinguishers to settle the dispute. (Zimbardo, P. G, 1999-2017). The events that occurred on the second day demonstrated the prisoners and guards were conforming to their experimental roles because all the actions taken on that day were not coordinated or prompted by Zimbardo. (Zimbardo, P. G, 1999-2017).

In 1973, Psychologist Philip Zimbardo thought of coming up with an experiment where he wanted to test the human psychological aggression. This was done together with some of students around Stanford University. Zimbardo came up with a stimulating prison where students were identified to be prisoners and prison guards through undergoing interviews and each student was promised to receive $15 per day for two weeks.