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Compare And Contrast Stanford Prison Experiment And Milgram Experiment

645 Words3 Pages

Dialectic Essay

Carter

The Stanford Prison Experiment and the Milgram Experiment are two of the most regarded and controversial social psychology experiments ever performed. Completed in the 20th century, both experiments aimed to investigate the effects of power and authority on human behavior. While the Milgram experiment explored an individual's obedience to an authoritative command, the Stanford experiment focused on the effects of power dynamics in a simulated prison environment. Despite their undeniable contributions to our understanding of human conduct, these experiments have also been heavily criticised for their numerous ethical implications. Arguments can be made for either side, but which was really the worse of the two from an …show more content…

Participants were randomly assigned a role as a prisoner or a guard in the simulated environment. The trial was initially planned to be in commission for two weeks, but it was terminated after a mere six days due to the unethical nature of the behaviour demonstrated by the guards. Due to their newfound levels of authority, the acting guards subjected the inmates to a variety of physical and psychological abuses. Ranging from forced exercise for extended periods of time to sometimes violent sexual harassment, those unfortunately among the suppressed did not experience what they had signed up for. The environments in which they were forcefully placed were often unsanitary and completely unsafe, and their bathroom privileges were even dictated by guards. The prisoners, who quite evidently held zero control over the entirety of the situation, found themselves suffering from heightened levels of anxiety and stress, with some even developing depression and other mental illnesses. The denial of these basic human rights was one of the many ethical implications that came about as the experiment and the corresponding information were released to the public. Trauma doesn’t sum up all that was experienced by those selected as prisoners, and the remnants of the damage can still be felt

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Stanford Prison Experiment Ethically Wrong

444 Words | 2 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) had a main goal to find out how much of an influence a specific setting location could have on how individuals behave. The experiment took place in 1971 and many psychologists used as a reference to analyze people’s mind under certain circumstance. Young individuals were given the roles of prisoner and guard in prison-like setting located at the Psychology department Stanford University. I strongly believe that this experiment was ethically wrong and did not surprise me at all, since the participant in the study were not fully aware of how dangerous the experiment could turn. Furthermore, the guards were acting like real inmate’s officers

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What Are The Dependent Variables In The Stanford Prison Experiment

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“Sanitary conditions declined rapidly, exacerbated by the guards' refusal to allow some prisoners to urinate or defecate anywhere but in a bucket placed in their cell” (“Stanford Prison Experiment,” n.d.). The guards utilized various punishments including disallowing the cellmates to empty their sanitation buckets, demanding them to sleep on the concrete, and requiring certain prisoners to be naked. As the experiment continued, several guards became increasingly merciless, and approximately one-third displayed sadistic tendencies (“Stanford prison experiment,” n.d.). The majority of the guards were infuriated after the experiment concluded after only 6 days. Zimbardo mentioned his own immersion in the

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Compare And Contrast Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo

751 Words | 4 Pages

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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How Does Steinbeck Present Curley's Wife

410 Words | 2 Pages

Despite being the only female on a ranch full of foul-mouthed men, Curley 's wife exploits both her sexuality and her status to demonstrate power throughout the novel. For instance, when first meeting Curley’s wife she attempts to enhance her body for the new men: “She put her hands behind her back and leaned against the door frame so that her body was thrown forward” (31). From Curley’s wife’s actions we learn that since the beginning she finds it necessary to flaunt her body, instead of showing her real personality. Furthermore, she is using her physical attraction to portray an appearance that is automatically seducing in hopes of placing herself above the newly arriving men. After Crooks tells Curley’s wife to get out of the barn, she erupts

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How Did Philip Zimbardo Conform

1676 Words | 7 Pages

These series of events seemed to bring out the worst in both prisoners and guards. Prisoners were losing all sense of personal identity after being referred to as numbers and not personal names this made them feel less important and they successfully believed it to be true. After six intense days of Phillip Zimbardo’s conforming to social roles experiment a graduate student who was only there to take notes and interview was so shocked by what she saw she demanded the experiment end straight away as it was degrading to watch and degrading for all who took part as Phillip Zimbardo and his team watched the situation descend into chaos she was only the voice that spoke up about how bad the experiment truly

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Compare And Contrast Stanford Prison Experiment And Abu Ghraib

1574 Words | 7 Pages

This experiment consisted of a roaster of students who were enrolled to either act as guards or inmates in an imaginary prison setting. This was to test the behavior of humans when put in a non-restrictive authority position over someone with lesser power through labeling. This experiment was set to last for two weeks, but by the sixth day, the guards had become so abusive to the ‘inmates’ that Zimbardo was forced to end the experiment early. Some of the fake inmates had to leave the experiment even earlier due to the abuse they received. After the experiment, almost all the students who participated as guards felt guilty about their actions.

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Stanford Prison Experiment By Philip Zimbardo

669 Words | 3 Pages

Given positions of control, the guards started to use their power in degrading ways. To establish power over the captives, they used a variety of strategies, including physical punishment, psychological blackmail, and verbal abuse. On the other hand, the inmates were stripped of their uniqueness, turned into dehumanized objects, humiliated, treated poorly, and made helpless. Another important point made by Zimbardo's experiment was the effect of deindividuation and responsibility dispersal on the onset of prison violence. The guards' feeling of personal responsibility was diminished by their uniforms and masks, allowing them to act aggressively and abusively in ways they otherwise might not have.

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Attica Prison Experiment Essay

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When those who were classified as the prisoners were arrested it was done unexpectedly to help put them into the mindset psychologists were looking for during the experiment. Off the bat, the people were left clueless and fearful as to what was happening to them. The prisoners were

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Compare And Contrast The Milgram Experiment And The Stanford Prison Experiment

810 Words | 4 Pages

During the 1960’s Stanley Milgram conducted a series of experiments to test how a person reacts to authority. He started these tests in response to World War Two and the reports of the German soldiers who claimed they were “just following orders’ when asked about

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Effects Of The Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

876 Words | 4 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971 and was funded by the US Naval Office. The experiment consisted of 24 volunteer college students who were paid $15 a day to serve as guards and prisoners in a simulated prison environment. Prior to the experiment, each volunteer was given a diagnostic interview to eliminate anyone with “psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse.” The experiment “was intended to measure the effect of role-playing, labeling, and social expectations on behavior over a period of two weeks,” but Zimbardo ended it after six days due to abuse by the guards and the psychological wellbeing of the prisoners. By the second day of the experiment, Zimbardo already noticed behavioral changes in both the guards and prisoners.

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The Stanford Prison Experiment By Craig Haney, Curtis Banks And Philip Zimbardo

713 Words | 3 Pages

Psychological issues began appearing almost immediately, not only for the prisoners but their designated guards. Prisoners began developing anxiety and stress, while guards became cruel, finding more and more ways to torment those they’re meant to be guarding. The experiment was cut short, lasting only six days instead of the scheduled 14, due to how much stress the prisoners were under. In a surprising note, while the prisoners were excited to be released, the guards did not want the experiment to conclude, having enjoyed their positions of power and wanting them to continue the full scheduled length of the

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Essay On Stanford Prison Experiment

599 Words | 3 Pages

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 Stanford Prison And The Milgram Experiment

1010 Words | 5 Pages

In the experiment, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison and asked 75 applicants to participate. 24 men were chosen to participate and were paid $15 per day. Prisoners were arrested at their own homes, blindfolded, and driven to Stanford University's psychology department, where the deindividuation process began. Within no time the guards and the prisoners began to change. In the video

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Stanford Prison Experiment Literature Review

1129 Words | 5 Pages

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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Stanford Prison Experiment Case Study

779 Words | 4 Pages

While the test subjects did in fact consent to the experiment via documents, they developed this false understanding through the experiment that they could not leave at any time, that “there was no way out”. During this time period, there were no existing laws that this experiment violated but it did pave the way for several to be introduced. For example, in the consent form it stated that the prisoners would not experience physical harm, but several days later they were brutally beaten by the guards. A few scenarios such as this one would be considered illegal with today’s legal system. One law that was created after this required federal prisons to separate minors awaiting trial from adults to avoid them suffering from abuse.

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