The Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip G Zimbardo

Philip Zimbardo (1971) - Stanford prison experiment – 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

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.

She begins recounting the notorious details, how innocent college students labeled prisoners and guards displayed psychological abuse after only six days of confinement, and makes reference to Stanley Milgram’s obedience study and Abu Ghraib, where similar maltreatment, perceived or real, was conducted on civilians by civilians. She addresses and refutes the accepted belief that the Stanford Prison Experiment proved that anyone could become a tyrant when given or instructed by a source of authority. Instead, she suggests that Zimbardo’s inquiry points toward but does not land on one exact conclusion. She explains the influence of the setting, the presentation of the roles, Zimbardo’s participation, and perhaps a sense of expectation felt, all of which can be reflected in the shocking behavior of a few guards. She argues that it should not have been so shocking. Konnikova discredits the neutrality of Zimbardo’s experiment by insisting that people who would respond to an ad for a psychological study of prison life were not “normal” people. However, with her diction and choice of evidence she displaces the study's culpability in a way that ultimately blurs and undermines her claim.

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 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.

In 1971, Stanford professor and psychologist Philip Zimbardo, arranged and conducted an experiment with the intention of gaining a better understanding of the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment. However, what professor Zimbardo was not expecting, was just how much insight this study would provide into the psychology of individuals and social groups, as well as, the aggressiveness of human nature. Participants in the study had responded to newspaper advertisements in the Palo Alto Times and the Stanford Daily, which offered $15/day to male college students for a study on the psychology of imprisonment. It is important to note that all volunteers in the experiment were

The prisoners were powerless The Stanford prison experiment was done in 1973. Twenty-four college students who took part in the experiment were randomly assigned their role as guards or prisoners. Zimbardo choose his participants to be normal, intelligent, bright, and college students in order to make his experiment. Zimbardo chose those certain college students to reflect the common or average individuals in the current society. Zimbardo also spent a great deal of time with the details such as the appearance of the prison and the cells, the uniforms of the guards, and the entry process for the prisoners on the first day. All of these components were planned by Zimbardo to create the most realistic prison environment. “He consulted the “guards” in such a way: “You can create in the prisoner’s boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they’ll have no privacy…We’re going to take away their individuality in various way”. He wanted to take away their privacy, their individuality and make them feel powerless. Basically, he wanted to do these things to the prisoners to get the most out of them, abuse

After six days, the prisoners and prison guards could no longer differentiate between the experiment and reality. The prisoners actually believed that they were prisoners subject to the commands of the guards, and the guards actually believed that they had to power to punish the prisoners as they deemed fit. The guards developed extremely cruel routines to discipline disobedient prisoners and eventually most of the prisoners underwent psychological and emotional breakdowns. Overall, the experiment demonstrated chilling aspects of our society’s prison culture and also revealed the influence of our environment on our own

Starting the Experiment This experiment needed to answer some difficult questions; one being what happens when you put a good man in a horrible, evil place such as a prison. The person leading the experiment was Psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo and his contemporaries needed to find people willing to participate in how the impact of prison life affects the guards and the prisoners. Using an ad in the paper offering fifteen dollars a day, seventy people filled out applications and were heavy screened for drug abuse, any involvements in crime, or any underlying mental illness that was not documented, only twenty-four students from various colleges in Canada and the Stanford area were given the paid opportunity to take part of Zimbardo’s experiment (Zimbardo, Haney, Banks, & Jaffe, 1971).

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study about the psychological effects of college students becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment took place on August 14-20, 1971 in a basement at Jordan Hall, which is Stanford University’s psychology building, by Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor. Zimbaro’s hypothesis was to test each prisoner’s personality traits by having the guards mentally abuse them in a prison for two weeks. 24 men, who were healthy and stable, from Stanford had been chosen to do this experiment and get paid $15 per day to do so. The students participating in this went way beyond than what Zimbardo was thinking. After about two days, the prisoners went “crazy” as Zimbardo later described. “Less than 36 hours

Stanford Prison Experiment is the evil environment and this study is emotionally and painful. Because when I watch these videos it is horrific me, so badly harm and tortures them. I don’t know Professor Philip Zimbardo much realized how far the guards have to go to abuse the prisoners and this difficult situation to observant but “Zimbardo's primary reason for conducting the experiment was to focus on the power of roles, rules, symbols, group identity and situational validation of behavior that generally would repulse ordinary individuals.” This is unbelievable how the guards used their power it is aggression and tactic. I believe this study very interesting how we are human nature act inhuman away again to hard watching what was to these prisoners.

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 Stanford prison experiment occurred in 1973. It was a research study conducted by Philip zimbardo to test his theory situational variables can be a powerful determinant of an individual's behavior.The study consisted of 24 males selected participants. Volunteers will promise $15 a day to participate in the study which would last two weeks. During the study the participants were randomly divided into two groups which were inmates and guards. The expensive place in the basement of the staffing University and what Philip made to look like a simulated prison. The inmates were randomly taken into custody and experience the full intake procedure that real criminals have to endure. Philip used tactics to The individualize and mates by stripping

While the experiment was originally intended to last for fourteen days, it was abruptly ended by Zimbardo on Day 6 after being convinced that the occurrences within the mock prison were immoral. Despite the longevity of the experiment being cut short, many relevant and intriguing observations had been made.

The psychology wing at Stanford University has a stigma attached to it, of which every psychologist has learned at some point in their career. We all see prisons as an everyday thing: people do bad things, they get thrown in, they stay there for a length of time.