Ethical Concerns Among The Field Of Psychology

Stanford Prison Experiment: In this experiment it took a group of people and made half of them guards and half of them prisoners. The guards were given sunglasses to make them feel more powerful and have a mask to hide behind and the prisoners had chains put on their legs so they can feel a loss of freedom. In the experiment they were not given any rules to how there supposed to treat the prisoners, because these were fake prisoners they challenged the fake guards power. Since the guard’s were not given

When the prisoners were brought into the prison, they were treated as real prisoners brought into the prison system but were treated inhumanely by being blind folded and left naked for hours. The guards dressed in prison guard uniforms and monitored the prisoners. The clothing of the guards was also “intimidating” towards the prisoners to show their authority over them. The guards got too caught up in their roles that they began to treat the prisoners harshly and in some cases inhumanely. For instance, the lineups went from a couple of minutes to several

The prisoners became dependent, helpless, and passive. On the other hand, the guards acted exactly opposite. “They became abusive and aggressive at the simulated prison, bulling and insulting the prisoners’. “After the experiment was completed, most of the guards said that they enjoyed the power. Some of the others said that they had no idea of what they were capable. Everyone in the experiment was surprised at the results as well as saying, It was degrading.

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.

In The Stanford Prison Experiment it explains how guards take power over the prisoners. In paragraph 11 it tells how they are tormenting the prisoners and enjoying the things that they are doing. The guards demanded even greater obedience from

Less than two days into the experiment, one of the prisoners began to experience rage, emotional disturbance, uncontrollable crying, began acting crazy, and screaming. The experiment leaders realized he was really suffering and they had to release him. The next day was visiting day for the parents and friends of the prisoners. In order to stop parents from taking their children home, the experimenters cleaned the prison and the prisoners to make them seem pleasant. After the parents visited, there were rumors going around that the prisoners were going to attempt to escape. After the rumor was proved to be untrue, guards acted harshly towards the prisoners and added punishments. A priest who visited the prison, talked with prisoners and offered to contact some of their families for legal help. By day five, there were three types of guards; tough but fair guards, good guards, and hostile guards.

Those designated to enact the role of a prisoner, were arrested by the Palo Alto police department, obliged to wear chains and prison attire, and were transported to the basement of the Stanford psychology department, which was transformed into a makeshift prison. Furthermore, various guards became increasingly aggressive, resulting in the experiment becoming uncontrollable. Within six days, riots broke out, psychological distresses were showcased by certain prisoners, and unruly punishment was given to the prisoners. These irrational and disreputable incidents, caused the experiment to end abruptly.

In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment he selected twelve men to be prisoners and twelve men to be prison guard. At first he gave the volunteers the option to be either a guard or prisoner but none of them chose to be a guard just as none of the police men wanted to kill anyone. Eventually the men chosen to be guards enjoyed their position and took advantage of it at times. In the Police Battalion 101 the men were nervous and timid at

The conclusions generally outlined the relationship between the young men assigned as prisoners or officers within the experiment, to the disposition hypothesis that is status quo for most prisons. A distinct pattern in authority was noted throughout the experiment, implying whenever the guards felt their authority being threatened, they would use extensive measures to regain power over the prisoners. Such measures were used as humiliation and degradation. Once the prisoners were ultimately dehumanized within their own mindset, power would be temporarily restored back to the guards until the next situation occurred. Eventually, the riots began to die off while the new life of imprisonment was accepted. Prisoners were no longer a team hoping

The guards had different morality levels that varied by how the prisoners acted towards the guards. At the start of the experiment, no guards were given orders on how to maintain the jail and prisoners. Going into the experiment many guards had the incentive of Level 2-Stage 4, because they wanted to have rules to promote order within the prison. For an example of this, guards had lineups for the prisoners to familiarize their new number identities. When the prisoners did not follow these rules, the guards shifted levels. At first it started at Level 1-Stage 1, because the prisoners only broke minor rules, like talking back to the guards or not taking the lineups seriously. Therefore, guards served minor punishment such as making the prisoners do pushups. Rules were broken more severely which led to more severe punishment. The guards had to punish the prisoners, because on the second day they staged a rebellion in which they locked themselves in their cells. The level of

The guards were not given teaching, so they had to figure everything out for themselves. The guards had a slight limit to what they could do physically, but besides that, they had complete freedom to use whatever means necessary. Guards often held “Counts”, where the guards would wake up the prisoners, and make them read aloud their assigned prison identification. The reason for these

The experiment began with 9 guards and 9 prisoners with the remaining volunteers on call in case they were needed. The volunteers who were selected to be prisoners were arrested by the city police, read their rights, and taken to the real station for finger printing and processing. After they were processed and the simulation was created, the prisoners were blindfolded and transported to the mock jail. The guards in the study were not allowed to physically harm the prisoners, but they could use other kinds of abuse. They wore identical khaki uniforms, had a whistle around their neck, and carried a club.

Once the participants had been allocated to their chosen role, the research started almost immediately unknown to specifically the prisoners. The assigned positions were evident on appearance, with the guards wearing a khaki uniform, protective glasses, a baton as well as a whistle to emphasise their power and their position in the prison hierarchy. In comparison the prisoners were the definition of deindividualisation, as they were to wear clothing similar to a smock with an identification number written across their tunics. Their hair also had to be covered (this was so there was a close similarity between a real-life prison and the stimulated Stanford prison)

The prisoners wanted to make the experiment as real as possible. Even if having a complete change of the system would have consumed a lot of time and resources, and the changes helped in solving the challenges they faced, the system would have been said to be effective. By using actual police to conduct the arrests worked well in persuading the participants of a real prison system.

This way was just as effective as physically harming them. From the very beginning the guards needed to assert their power and authority so it gives the impression of a real prison and makes the experiment as real as possible, they succeeded. They brought in a priest who heard confessions from prisoners and when he listened to the mock prisoners even he began to think it was a real prison and he said that the responses that he heard were similar to real prisoners who had just been imprisoned.