Zimbardo’s Prison Study Essay

In psychology, there are lots of controversial experiments that have been done and are still talked about today. The experiment that sticks out for me is Zimbardo’s Prison study, it catches my eye for more than one reason. In this study, Philip Zimbardo gathered up a bunch of students to play the roles of prisoners and guards. Zimbardo wanted to investigate how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role played situation that would be equivalent to prison life. (McLeod 1) During this experiment that lasted six days, Zimbardo found out that the guards treated the prisoners horribly (McLeod 1) This turned the tables and Zimbardo became interested in finding out if the brutality of the guards were due to their malicious personalities or if it had more to do with the environment of being in a prison. One form of behavior that Zimbardo noticed was that the prisoners did not respect the authority of the guards which resulted in the guards being aggressive towards the prisoners (McLeod 1).

The psychology professor, Philip Zimbardo, from Stanford University began to test how imprisonment affects different people in August 1971. He chose twenty four out of seventy five male students. These students were the most psychologically and physically stable. Zimbardo built a mock prison in the basement of the university. Within the twenty four chosen students some were randomly selected to be guards. The guards only had to pretend for eight hours a day, and then got to return to their normal lives. The prisoners had to stay in the prison all day for seven to fourteen days.

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 Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted by Phillip Zimbardo to better understand how people will react if put into an evil setting, and if we as humans, would allow it to consume us, or overcome it with our moral values and obligations. 24 participants were selected to participate out of the 70 volunteers. Before the experiment began, Zimbardo randomly selected students, either as “Prison Guards” or “Prisoners”. Zimbardo expected it to be a boring study that would last one to two weeks, but soon realized he would need to end the experiment within six days.

In 1971 Philipp Zimbardo carried out one of the most ethically controversial psychological experiment the ‘Stanford Prison Experiment’. Originally he aimed to study how much our behavior is structured by the social role we occupy. Describing the study briefly 24 undergraduates with no criminal and psychological record were chosen for the research to play the roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of Stanford University Psychology Building, equipped by hidden cameras and microphones. As the lead researcher, Zimbardo was observing the events from a different room, giving instructions to the guards. The research was supposed to last about two weeks. However,

Initial Preview: I will discuss the Stanford Prison Experiment, the roles that each member played, and what Dr. Phillip Zimbardo learned.

In the study of psychology the infamous Professor Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment is something anyone has taken a psychology course is familiar with. The experiment was done to show that “normal” people could in fact act in awful ways if under certain circumstances. This experiment required the study of young males. An ad was placed in the Palo Alto Times and soon 70 guys had responded to the ad. Of the 70, twelve were finally selected after going through a series of psychological tests. Nine of these individuals were arrested at their homes on the morning of August 17, 1971. The other three were assigned roles such as guards. After roles were assigned Zimbardo told the “officers” to keep the inmates under control without using

The Zimbardo Experiment or prison guard experiment was conducted at Stanford University to study the effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard, psychologically. Zimbardo, the psychology professor, and a team of researchers turned themselves into prisoners and prison guards to test the hypothesis that the in-born traits of guards and prisoners are the chief causes of abuse that prevails in prisons.

The famous Stanford Prison Experiment, of 1971, was a psychological experiment put together by Philip Zimbardo, who was a social psychologist. The main point of the experiment was to observe the social powers of a given role, the social norms, and the script of a person. However, not being able to go to an actual prison, Zimbardo created a mock prison in the basement of the Psychology building at Stanford University. An ad was placed in the local newspapers asking for male volunteers. All volunteers were male college students, of Stanford or the surrounding counties. Over seventy men volunteered to play a role in the experiment. Every single one of them was put through psychological testing. the psychological test was used to

1. The Stanford Prison Experiment was generated by Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in California in 1971. Zimbardo and his colleagues decided to conduct an experiment mocking a prison to show how the environment someone is in can effect their behavior. Twenty-four participants in the experiment were selected from a group of seventy. The ones selected had no criminal background and no major psychological or medical problems.

In the Stanford prison experiment the researcher, Philip Zimbardo, thought they were just going to figure out the psychology of prison life. Little did he know this experiment would change the view of roles in society. Humans tend to fall into the role society lays out for us as proven by the Stanford prison experiment. When Zimbardo was planning the experiment, in August of 1971, he was just searching for the psychology of prison life, to see how people act when they are put into a powerless situation.

Second off, the method which was used, required Dr. Zimbardo to make his “prison” the most a like to an actual prison. Even though the subjects knew they weren’t in actual prison the researchers wanted to stimulate an actual prison experience. For this he was able to get a ex-con as a consultant. The prison which was built was made as to look as much as possible as an actual prison. This experiment lasted for 2 weeks. Even a secure yard was created were all the subjects were allowed to interact and eat. They also built a solitary room where the prisoners would be sent if they misbehaved. In this jail when the subjects had to use the restroom they were lead to it by a guard and were blind folded. This was done so the prisoner wouldn’t know were they were. Intercoms and cameras were also installed to analyze and supervise the guards and prisoner’s comportment. The way the found the prisoners was by putting Ads out in newspapers and saying they’d pay them $15 a day. Take note, this study was done in the 70s $15 dollars was equivalent to $75 dollars a day. After checking the backgrounds of all who applied out of the hundred, 24 college-age

Zimbardo's experiment on prison life exhibited how quickly individuals can break from their own characteristics to fit into the social parts expected of them. The guards felt that they had to create the harsh conditions of the American prisons or what they felt right to do to control the situation. They wanted to show their powers over the prisoners. Because the guards lost their individuality and were playing the role that they were given. It resulted in them mistreating and violently assaulting the prisoners. It also, expressed how the prisoners were powerless and their dignity was stripped away from a human, and their life was completely controlled. Zimbardo, noticed the prisoner’s dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values

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.

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