In chapter two, we study the research methods of different psychological experiments and studies. This includes “the ethical obligations of researchers toward” the participants in their research, which are enforced by institutional review boards at American research colleges and universities. In these studies, researchers are required to provide the following: (a) informed consent “of the purpose of the research, its expected duration, and any potential risks, discomfort, or adverse associated with it”; (b) protection for harm and discomfort; (c) knowledge of deception in a study and debriefing once the study has concluded. These obligations are required to protect research participants. However, these are not always followed in research. In the 2015 movie, “The Stanford Prison Experiment”, audiences are shown a reenactment of the notorious true story. In August of 1971, psychologist, Philip G. Zimbardo, at Stanford University was interested on the psychological effect that prison’s have on human behavior. Therefore, Zimbardo put an ad in the newspaper reading, “Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks beginning Aug. 14. For further information & applications come to Room …show more content…
However, this was not before the “guards” already showed major problems with throwing authority around by hitting a “prisoner”. On the second day of the experiment, “prisoners” rebelled against the guards which provoked the “guards” to put a rewards and punishment system into place, which turned into a hunger for power. This power-hungry alliance of “guards” forced three “prisoners” to be released from the experiment for traumatic experiences by day four. As the experiment continued, the “guards” only became more tyrannical while the “prisoners” become more unhinged. This forced Dr. Zimbardo to finally discontinue the experiment after day
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.
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.
The prisoners dealt with a great deal of suffering and torment. Meanwhile, the guards showed no compassion towards the prisoners. When the students first signed up they were not specifically told what the experiment entailed or that they were going to be physically abused. Zimbardo gave himself the role of being the prison warden and in charge of the experiment which led to him blurring the lines of reality. He later realized that he had crossed the line by putting the prisoners through mental and physical abuse. The experiment crossed a line when the guards began harming the prisoners and Zimbargo not setting boundaries with what the guards were allowed to do. This all led to the experiment not lasting for two weeks as planned. Ethical guidelines were established after the study to ensure the safety of
The guards began to use physical punishment. They also would force the inmates to sleep without a mattress or sleep naked. The inmates were in cells built for three people. They had to share a bucket for excretion and defecating. The guards refused to dump the buckets causing the sanitation to be very poor. At one point in the experiment Zimbardo heard the release prisoner was going to help the others escape he moved the prison, but he never tried to help them escape. When Christina Maslach, Zimbardo’s future wife, said that she believe the experiment was not moral he discontinued his research on the sixth day. The results show obedience to authority and behavioral
Into two groups. One were prisoners and the other were guards. Each group had their own
The Zimbardo prison experiment was a study of human responses to captivity, dehumanization and its effects on the behavior on authority figures and inmates in prison situations. Conducted in 1971 the experiment was led by Phlilip Zimbardo. Volunteer College students played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a simulated prison setting in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.
The Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment has to be one of the cruelest and disturbing experiments I have witnessed since the Milgram experiment. This experiment was pushed far beyond its means and went extremely too far. I know experiments in 1971 weren’t as thorough and strategic as today's but I know today's rules and regulations never allow cruel and unusual punish just to test out one’s theory’s. I don’t believe criminologists should be permitted to conduct replications of Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. I also know that the ACJS and other organizations who set the rules and guidelines for experiments would not promote or condone an experiment that is dangerous and is unethical such as Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. There were no boundaries or a level
Dr Philip Zimbardo created the Stanford prison experiment in 1971, the aim of this experiment was to find out the psychological effects of prison life, and to what extent can moral people be seduced to act immorally. The study consisted of 24 students selected out of 75, the roles of these 24 men were randomly assigned, 12 to play prison guards and 12 to play prisoners. The prison set up was built inside the Stanford’s psychological department, doors where taken of laboratory rooms and replaced with steel bars in order to create cells. At the end of the corridor was the small opening which became the solitary confinement for the ‘bad prisoners’. Throughout the prison there were no windows or clocks to judge the passage in time, which resulted in time distorting experiences. After only a few hours, the participants adapted to their roles well beyond expectations, the officers starting
The Stanford prison experiment overview and the variables involved The Stanford prison experiment was a research experiment conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. The experiment involved male college students and the goal was to be able to understand the behaviour between prisoners and guards within a prison setting. The mock prison was set up in the basement of Stanford University and an ad was created with information on the experiment offering the college students fifteen dollars a day to participate in the study. A total of seventy-five male applicants applied to be a part of the study but after conducting numerous psychological tests on the applicants only twenty-four proved to be successful.
They experiment was suppose to run for fourteen days but only lasted a mere six days. Five prisoners had to leave early due to the participants breaking down emotionally. Everyone, even Philip Zimbardo himself, fell deeply into their assign positions (The Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo). Problem/Purpose
Zimbardo 's prison experiment continues to receive a lot of critics from the manner in which it was carried out to the results that its portrayed. Some people believe that as a psychologist, Zimbardo should have done a better job in trying to show how good can turn into evil through the said experiment. The research also demonstrates the interaction between the reality and the illusion which is also the concepts that Plato portrays in his analogy of light in a cave. As both of the experiments sometimes describe fantasy is more believable than the reality. Comparing the analogy of the cave and the experiment, a lot of
It didn’t take long for the students to adapt to their roles. This began as early as the first few hours of the experiment, when a few guards began to harass the prisoners. Not long after the prisoners adapted to their new roles as well. The prisoner began taking the rules created by the guards seriously and would even tell on each other. However, the situation again changed and progressively got worse. The prisoners were totally dependent on the guards, and the guards had the control. With the prisoners becoming more dependent on the guards with each passing day, the guards showed more disdain. The prisoner became more submissive due to this, which caused the guards to become more forceful and hostile. As the prisoners were dependent on these guards they tried to find ways to please the guards by various means. Dr. Zimbardo scheduled the experiment to take two weeks, instead it ended after only six days. The reason being that if the experiment continued, someone could end up injured physically or mentally. According to Saul McLeod (2008), if there is a social role that one is expected to play, they will voluntarily obey those expected societal
The major conclusions of this study were that it provided new dimensions that can be pursued in future in relations to imprisonment and also allowed for insights in providing information that will permit further studies of alternatives to existing training of guards. This brought to light that guards and prisoners are locked in a dynamic relationship, which is dangerous and destructive to human nature. Despite Dr Zimbardo being a psychologist he failed to see the shortfalls of his experiment soon enough and seemed to have keenly become so engrossed in the experiment that he allowed for the experiment to continue even after the students had a major breakdowns. The experiment was only stopped when his girlfriend got involved and pulled the plug.
During the summer of 1973 an experiment of the psychology of imprisonment was conducted by psychologist Philip K. Zimbardo. Zimbardo created his own jail in the basement in the Stanford University psychology building. Every participant had to be mentally and physically fit in order to participate in this experiment. Participants were randomly split into two groups’, guards and prisoners. Participants who were selected to be prisoners were arrested, blindfolded and sent the Stanford prison. The prisoners had to strip down and put on a prisoner uniform. The guards had to have a uniform also. Their uniform was composed of silver reflective sunglasses, handcuffs, whistles, billy clubs, and keys to all the cells and main gate. Prisoners had no freedom, rights, independence and privacy. Guards had social power and the responsibility of managing the prisoner’s lives. The day of the experiment everyone fell into their roles of guards and prisoners. The next day the prisoners started to rebel which motivated the guards to take affirmative action against the prisoners and maintain law and order. By the last days of the experiment the guards became sadistically aggressive and the prisoners became and passive. To explain the behavior of the guards and prisoners of this experiment we must look at, “Obedience to Authority,” “The Roles of Guard and Prisoner,” and “Prison
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