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Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

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The Stanford prison experiment of 1971 was a major game changer in the psychology field. This study was cause for all new ethical principles to be set in place for any study that where to take place after the Stanford prison experiment. Dr. Philip Zimbardo, a professor at the university, created a prison-like environment held in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University. Two groups of young men were divided into roles; one group were prisoners while the other group served as the guards. This experiment was meant to last two weeks, however only after six days the experiment had been terminated. Due to the brutality of the guards and the suffering of the prisoners, the study lead to a graphic illustration of how the power of a situation can influence an individual’s behavior. Zimbardo pressed that the guards acted the way they did because they were unconsciously binding to their assigned role, as he did when he placed himself in position as the prison superintendent. They change into their uniforms. The guards were in control. However, there were a couple of issues wrong …show more content…

In the experiment, Zimbardo’s advertisement in the newspaper stated he needed participates to study for an experiment about “prison life”. For the general population of people the title alone would make them repulse the idea. However, all applicants of the experiment were preselected due to the comfort with the idea of "prison life". Not surprising only the narcissistic/ aggressive people interested would sign up for such an experiment; thus already showing selection bias. On the other hand, some of these same aggressive/ narcissistic participants could just as easily be made into compliant prisoners as well. One might think prisoners would rebel more, maybe even fight back more, but for the first couple of hours this was not the

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