In the summer of 1971 professor Philip Zimbardo of Yale University conducted a social psychology experiment that had the intention of understanding human conformity in groups. This essay will analyse and evaluate the contribution to understanding, the method used and the practical implications of the study. Additionally, this essay will discuss the ethical implications highlighted by this experiment. Zimbardo's prison experiment was a difference from the early work into biological processes however, his experiment has had an impact on government and organizational policies.
Zimbardo's experiment was considered a follow on from Milgram's conformity study that involved ordinary people believing they were administering a lethal dose of electricity
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Desiring to know if the systemic reports of abuse in American prisons was situational or dispositional. Zimbardo believed prior to the experiment that if the individuals that were selected to be guards behaved in non-aggressive, respectful manner towards prisoners then the abuse in prisons would be due to guard’s personalities and would support the idea that it was dispositional. However, if the individuals identified as guards were drawn into abusive, disrespectful behaviour then abuse in prisons could be situational and could be a result of prisons rigid social environment (Zimbardo, …show more content…
The assimilation of roles and the attitudes of individuals can be explained by Zimbardo’s experiment. As individuals we all conform to a set of norms that have been designed to maintain certain behaviours (Havighurst, 1973). These roles that individuals identify with are sometimes broad for example gender or nationality however, these roles can then be reduced to sexuality, social class or a multitude of further reductions that would influence behaviour or attitude (Cialdini, R. and Trost, M, 1998). Further research from Zimbardo’s experiment have identified negative effects of conforming to a contrived set of behaviours, arguably none more than gender. Slavich et al (2009) postulates the idea that in life we are either a prisoner or guard and if we are not limiting the freedom of others as a parent, boss or spouse then individuals are intern a prisoner and assuming that role. The Stanford Prison Experiment identified the potential for these expectations of identity to push even the average person to commit depraved acts (Zimbardo, Maslach, & Haney, 1999). In turn this has inspired reforms within the prison system and Zimbardo has been involved in internal reviews of prison policy for over twenty years after his initial experiment (Haney & Zimbardo, 1998). Laws were changed due to the further research of juvenile abuse in prison conducted by
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
In Maria Konnikova’s “The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment” she reveals what she believes to be the reality of sociologist Philip Zimbardo’s controversial study: its participants were not “regular” people.
In the documentary Quiet Rage, the story of Zimbardo’s prison experiment is retold. In the documentary, Zimbardo develops a hypothesis that the abusive behaviors in prison is either caused by pre-existing personality traits of the inmates and guards, or the prison environment itself is the cause. He tested his hypothesis by carefully selecting 24 physically healthy, and mentally stable, male college students to participate in a “mock prison” experiment. The basement of Stanford’s psychology department was used to recreate a prison environment, complete with cells, a prison yard, Warden and Superintendent’s offices, and solitary confinement. Half of the test subjects were randomly selected to be prisoner, and the other half to be guards. They were to be placed in the environment, and their roles, for two weeks, and to be carefully observed by Zimbardo who also acted as the prison superintendent. Zimbardo planned to observe the affects the prison environment had the subjects. Due to the extremely abusive characteristics guards developed, and the swift decline of
Philip Zimbardo and his team aimed to demonstrate the situational rather than the dispositional causes of negative behaviour and thought patters found in prison settings by conducting the simulation with average everyday participants playing the roles of guard and prisoner. From a total of seventy-five volunteers, twenty-two male participants
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.
The Stanford Prison Experiment sought to recreate a prison experience to study behaviors of prisoners and guards. The authors were seeking answers to the question of dispositional hypothesis which states “that the state of the social institution of prison is due to the “nature” of the people who administer it, or the “nature” of the people who populate it, or both” (A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Stimulated Prison, 1971, pg. 2). In other words, they were studying whether the prisoners and guards behaviors changed due to their personalities or was it the prison environment that caused these changes. The authors considered the recidivism rate that was 75 percent at the time, conditions in prisons, and the belief that prisons
The Stanford Prison Experiment is known as one of the most infamous social experiments in the study of psychology. Conducted by Stanford professor Phillip G. Zimbardo, the experiment was a prison simulation using male college students that volunteered. Zimbardo’s experiment was designed to strip prisoners of their individuality and freedom and put them in a place where they were powerless against people with whom they would be equal in the outside world (Shuttleworth, Martyn). The intent of his experiment was to answer his questions about the conflict and morality between prisoners and guards. Professor Zimbardo pondered these questions after being an expert witness in a trial regarding the abuses of Abu Ghraib, an american prison in Iraq (Shuttleworth,
The men who would be prisoners were mock arrested, finger printed, and photographed and taken to the basement of the university. They were strip-searched and given clothing made to make them feel uncomfortable, and also given a hat/smock, and a chain was put around their ankle and were put 3 a cell. The purpose of the experiment "Zimbardo (1973) was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards (i.e. dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment (i.e. situational). " The mock prison had viewing windows, also video and and audio recordings were made. As a hypothesis Zimbardo wished to understand what character traits if any caused by both Prisoners and Guards and if and how it would lead to abusive behavior The experiment was made up of 24 individuals all from similar backgrounds as all were college students, and were randomly chosen to be either "prisoners" and "guards".
This paper serves to summarize The Zimbardo Prison Experiment, better known as The Stanford Prison Experiment which was conducted by Phillip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. The purpose of the study was to conduct research in order to better understand the psychological components of human aggression and submission to include conformity and obedience in a prison environment with a select group of subjects playing roles as either prison guards or inmates, however, I should note, according to McLeod, S. (2016), The Navy’s intent or purpose for the experiment was to better understand how to train members of the armed forces on how to cope with stress associated with captivity as opposed to making American Prison systems more humane. Another interesting point of note is that Zimbardo conducted this experiment shortly after World War II, and the Vietnam War where concern was raised as to some of the atrocities carried out in those wars where “ordinary” people conducted heinous acts per instruction from so-called authoritative figures. Experiments with similar objectives were carried out by Stanley Milgram and others. (Jones, A. D., & Milgram, S. 1974)
In 1971 Philip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) in the basement of Stanford University as a mock prison. Zimbardo’s aim was to examine the effect of roles, to see what happens when you put good people in an evil place and to see how this effects tyranny. He needed participants to be either ‘prisoners’ or ‘guards’ and recruited them through an advertisement, 75 male college students responded and 24 healthy males were chosen and were randomly allocated roles. Zimbardo wanted to encourage deindividuation by giving participants different uniforms and different living conditions (the guards had luxuries and the prisoners were living as real prisoners). The guards quickly began acting authoritarian, being aggressive towards the prisoners and giving them punishments causing physical and emotional breakdowns. Zimbardo’s intention was for his study to last for 2 weeks, however, it
Winston smith, the main protagonist in George Orwell’s novel, NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR, wrestles with oppression in Oceania, a place where the Party scrutinizes human actions with ever-watchful Big Brother. Defying a ban on individuality, Winston dares to express his thoughts in a diary and pursues a relationship with Julia. These criminal deeds bring Winston into the eye of the opposition, who then must reform the nonconformist. Orwell achieves by warning us of totalitarian regimes, through his definition of dystopia shaped by the events he had witnessed. He used the book he wrote as a medium to show the readers what would happen under totalitarian rule. Orwell would be disturbed to how 2017 is, this is due to having CCTV cameras on about every corner in major cities, a technology not around in the time that the book was published. However he would also be proud to see that countries like America and Australia are a socialist country and not under the totalitarian rule. Within this text the themes of totalitarianism, reality check, sex, love and loyalty and the individual vs collective identity.
Homelessness is one of the tragedies that one can face unexpectedly or where one can choose to be as well as being homeless by taking your own risk, which can be positive or negative, intentionally or not intentionally such as family breakdown or leaving a house where you could have been able to live there. Many people are sleeping rough while others are also finding it difficult to secure housing due to the regulations that govern the whole issues on homelessness legislation that is, being entitled for or not entitle for what you will be expecting. Some multi agency workers working under homeless people can also be an advantage of helping homeless people to settle yet there are some people that still needs help to settle down through
Referred to as the father of the English language, Chaucer has made a monumental impact with his works. “Chaucer is known for metrical innovation, inventing the rhyme royal, and he was one of the first English poets to use the five-stress line, the iambic pentameter, in his work, with only a few anonymous short works using it before him” (Oliver). He is known in history as a great iconoclast, or destroyer of sacred ideas, due to his controversial writings. In The Canterbury Tales, he questions societal norms through satire, or the saying of one thing but meaning another, the second meaning usually less than polite. He wrote his book in hopes of educating the common people, referred to as ‘yokels,’ about various societal issues. Chaucer’s used his various works of satire to attack hypocrisy in the church, the patriarchy, and nobility.
Throughout history there have been hundreds upon hundreds of influential figures, although not all of them have devoted their career to understanding the human mind. Of the few who have devoted their time to this hugely important task, Dr. Philip G. Zimbardo’s theories and experiments have made him stand out, and differentiate himself from the rest in his profession. Zimbardo 's area of expertise in the field of psychology is social psychology, the branch that deals with social interactions, including their origins and their effects on the individual. Zimbardo may be most well known for his Stanford Prison experiment, an experiment that seems to address the definition of social psychology perfectly. In this experiment Zimbardo had clinically healthy and sane people volunteer for the position of a prison guard or a prisoner and see how they behaved, for fifteen dollars a day. The prison was actually the basement of the Stanford psychology building, where the experiment would take place for a planned 14 days. As said before, the prisoners and guards were all tested as mentally healthy, and for the sake of the experiment were arrested, and processed on a random morning, August 14th 1971. (Zimbardo, 2007, p. 23). The results of this experiment are outstanding, shocking, and somewhat disturbing, making this one of, if not, the most unethical psychological experiments. Although the experiment is considered wildly immoral, Zimbardo is one of the most influential psychologists
“Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment remains an important study in our understanding of how situational forces can influence human behavior” (Cherry).“The purpose was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment” (“Stanford Prison Experiment”). What was supposed to be a two week experiment only went on for six days because Philip G. Zimbardo says “our guards became sadistic and our prisoners became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress” (“Stanford Prison Experiment”). In 1971, the Stanford Prison Experiment successfully proved that predefined roles strip away individuality, moral values, and dignity.