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Analysis Of The Stanford Prison Experiment, By Philip Zimbardo

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There was a time not even a month ago that an incident was brought to the attention of the author in which a close friend was battling the issues of unfairness in the classroom. The student was intelligent and smart, but they felt the biased opinion of the teacher against their education. The teacher would directly call out the student at inappropriate times and criticize the disadvantages of the student, without giving them an equal opportunity. The student tried relentlessly to improve the teacher 's view about them, but their futile attempts were blatantly thrown aside and the prejudice persevered. Upon the time in which the student had the opportunity to apply for more advanced classes to promote his education, the teacher boldly stated …show more content…

The experiment encompassed assigning college students the roles of a prisoner or a guard in a prison facility. The guards were instructed not to physically harm the prisoners, but also instructed to maintain order. Throughout the experiment, the tasks of the guards grew to be more morbid and increasingly destructive in order for them to maintain the role as guards. As for the prisoners, the abuse they were subject to altered their state of mind and over half of the prisoners abandoned the test due to severe emotional reactions. The original two week experiment was cut short to only six days due to the severity of the abusive situations. Psychologists goal in this experiment was to evaluate the effect of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated environment. According to Zimbardo, “[The] Stanford Prison Experiment… was a classic demonstration of the power of social situations to distort personal identities and long cherished values and morality as students internalized situated identities in their roles as prisoners and guards.” This experiment was used to show how the role of an authoritative figure in the prison system affects the morals of the person. However, the position of power can be given to many different people and those people just might take it too far, similar to the guards in …show more content…

However, when power gets in the way, the instructors lose a sense of morality and become discourteous towards the students. In the same way, the Stanford Prison Experiment analysed how roles of power changed the personality of the volunteers to one of a condescending nature. Both the experiment and education systems can cause the downfall of the prisoners and students by the powerless group being subject to the ridicule and vulgarity of the powerful. Regardless, it is important to keep in mind, not all guards in prisons, nor all teachers come across as vile to the opposing group. However, power tends to change the the perception of situations to the group in charge and can cause feelings of hopelessness and depression. The SPE is a clear example of how power can transform any situation in which someone is given leadership to result in people being subject to a tyrannical

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In summary, the purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment was supposed to demonstrate that powerful situational forces, much like Abu Ghraib, could over-ride individual dispositions and choices, leading good people to do bad things simply because of the role they found themselves

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In the second chapter of the book, Whistling Vivaldi, the author, Claude M. Steele, makes a number of fair assessments on how people’s prejudices and preconceived notions can interfere with someone’s ability to live up to their full potential. Even those who don’t notices these preconceptions can be unintentionally placing them on others, unwittingly experiencing them, or both. There are several key points that Steele raises in his writings which reinforce the aforementioned thoughts, one being that the students are unconsciously aware of the biases they place on themselves, another element is that when students feel bigotry being placed upon them, they oftentimes underperform, and lastly the lack of balance which can be found in experiments.

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The two groups in this narrative would be the complaining students and hooks, or the educator. hooks chooses the overcome the teacher-student gap by discussing pain with the class, instead of maintaining the position of an authoritarian. In the end, the students gain insight into the different perspective of pain and hooks preserves her job security. This outcome would not be possible for a educator using domination, as the complaints would still jeopardized the teaching position, but education for liberation prevails over the standard relationship in education during the time of which this was written. The narrative utilized by hooks demonstrates the impact education has on job security and motivates those using education for domination to take a different route.

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After the experiment, the students who played the guards were interviewed and found to still be shocked by their behavior within the fake prison environment, unrecognising that side of them or that they were even capable of doing such evil and abusive

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This experiment was conducted in Stanford University by Dr. Zimbardo. During this two week long session, Dr. Zimbardo had several volunteers agree to act as prisoners and as prison guards. The prisoners were told to wait in their houses while the guards were to set up the mock prison, a tactic used by Dr. Zimbardo to make them fit into their roles more. The official police apprehended the students assigned to the role of prisoner from their homes, took mug shots, fingerprinted them, and gave them dirty prison uniforms. The guards were given clean guard uniforms, sunglasses, and billy clubs borrowed from the police.

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This connects to the idea of guards having the capability of turning evil through an atmosphere of the prison environment where they can turn evil and have no remorse feelings towards the prisoners. From the article, "Stanford Prison Experiment," by Saul McLeod, he explained that the evil tactics that were made by the guards were from the atmosphere of the prison environment because the norm for a prison guard is to act tough and have no remorse feelings towards the prisoners when assigning punishments. He also added that guards acted this way because they lost their sense of personal identity when they dressed up as a guard, which can show they may have believed that they were actual guards and the experiment was real, which might’ve triggered their dark side with harsh punishments. Therefore, losing their personal identity in a prison environment may have been the factor where they triggered their evil side during the prison

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In the six days that the experiment ran they saw the personalities that the prisoner and prison guards took.

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They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are

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The film, The Stanford Prison Experiment, is an excellent modern-day example of social constructionism. The film expertly portrays the sheer intensity of the psychological effects that a prison would have on the minds of people. As well as how, over an extended time period, the volunteers would begin

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Unit 1 Written Assignment Literature Review of article on Standard Prison Experiment Introduction This article concerns the Stanford Prison experiment carried out in 1971 at Stanford University. The experiment commenced on August 14, and was stopped after only six days. It is one of the most noted psychological experiments on authority versus subordinates. The studies which emerged from this have been of interest to those in prison and military fields due to its focus on the psychology associated with authority.

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Authority gives a person the chance to feel superior, and as seen throughout this film, those within the position of authority will only then abuse this opportunity. Given the chance for people to gain authority or rather the sense of authority is enough to awaken the evil within. Within the movie, The Stanford Prison Experiment the guards were enabled to set a line of difference between the prisoners and themselves. They were able to make the prisoners feel weak or emasculated, forcing the students to strip and wear the assigned prison clothes that barely covered their genitals (Alvarez). Forcing the prisoners to wear these feminine articles of clothing and assigning them a number, gives the opportunity to strip away their personality and

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Stanford Experiment: Unethical or Not Stanford Prison Experiment is a popular experiment among social science researchers. In 1973, a psychologist named Dr. Philip Zimbardo wants to find out what are the factors that cause reported brutalities among guards in American prisons. His aim was to know whether those reported brutalities were because of the personalities of the guards or the prison environment. However, during the experiment, things get muddled unexpectedly. The experiment became controversial since it violates some ethical standards while doing the research.

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Students today live their day-to-day lives in constant fear of what seems inevitable. The United States has one of the highests rates of school shootings in the world. Society has become so desensitized to these shootings that they are no longer shocked to hear about another school falling victim to it. Even when students take a stand against gun violence, the only solution offered to them is a proposition to arm teachers. However, bringing more guns into a school will only further deteriorate the situation.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 illustrated the direct relationship between power of situations and circumstances to shape an individual’s behavior. During this study 24 undergraduates were grouped into roles of either a Prisoner or a Guard, the study was located in a mock correctional facility in the basement of Stanford University. Researchers then observed the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras. The study was meant to last two weeks. However, the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days.

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The experiment mainly focused on the participants appearance, for example prisoners were dressed into prison clothes for feeling more demeaned and humiliated, however at the same time guards were dressed into like real guards with sunglasses for appearing more detached and less humane. The results were terrifying because the guards took the matter seriously and sometimes harassed the prisoners with the help pf physical punishment, or even

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