ipl-logo

Essay Comparing The Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo

1182 Words5 Pages

Profound immorality and wickedness, especially when regarded as supernatural force, are the definitions of evil. The forces around you play a part in what you do and how you act. People are naturally good, but the society that we are built around has rules and regulations that we must follow, as if we’re good. The strongest quality of how good people act in bad situations is their position or circumstance. The 1972 Andes Flight Disaster, Phillip Zimbardo’s conclusion to human nature, and the Stanford Prison Experiment show signs of the situation and position a person is in that affect their actions. Humans have a thought in their brain that makes them have the need to survive, no matter what. The 1972 Andes Flight Disaster was a situation where …show more content…

The Stanford Prison Experiment shows people who are put into positions that cause them to act differently from themselves. 12 people are selected for an experiment and randomly split into two groups: 3 guards and 9 prisoners, and they dress them like their roles and give them the gadgets they normally use in that role. “Within a very short time, both guards and prisoners were settling into their new roles, with the guards adopting theirs quickly and easily. Within hours of beginning the experiment, some guards began to harass prisoners. They behaved in a brutal and sadistic manner, apparently enjoying it. Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented. The prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders; they were given pointless and boring tasks to accomplish; and they were generally dehumanized. The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behavior, too. They talked about prison issues. ”The prisoners assume the roles they are given due to the environment, and so do the guards. They also assume their traits and power to act and do things according to their allotted roles. These guys have seen movies with cops and seen how they act; they were in a position of power and were using them. This situation made them want to be like the guards they'd seen. The effects of being put into situations with a role you’ve seen before you want to copy it to do it right; the situation and information affect your

Show More
Related
406 Words | 2 Pages

The Stanford prison experiment was led by Philip Zimbardo with the purpose of studying the psychological effects of being a prisoner and a prison guard. The participants of the research study were male college students. Once selected, a coin toss determined which males would be prisoners and prison guards. The experiment took place at Stanford University, where a mock prison was crafted. Zimbardo acted as the warden or superintendent of the mock prison.

Read More
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

Read More
540 Words | 3 Pages

They were to be addressed by and answer to only their identity numbers. They also had a small chain around one ankle to remind them that they were inmates in a correctional facility. They felt they were dehumanized by the guard’s actions. In

Read More
800 Words | 4 Pages

The prison guards had a set routine which they followed when bringing a new "inmate" to the prison. First of all, the prisoner was brought to the basement, and there they were supposedly deloused. The prison guards began exerting force and building a fear-based authoritative relationship with the prisoners by stripping them of their clothes during the delousing process and they began humiliating the prisoners, and this process was known as the "degradation process". The prisoner guards ridiculed the prisoners appearance, specifically their

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

From the results of his study, Zimbardo explains the Lucifer Effect and how morally righteous people can do malicious things. The effect of both the one’s current

Read More
640 Words | 3 Pages

More than 70 students applied for the experiment. They chose 24 men and paid them $15.00 a day. Their neighbors, friends, and family were told they were arrested for crimes such as armed robbery or theft. They were randomly assigned guard positions or prisoner positions. “In reality, the Stanford County Prison was a heavily manipulated environment, and the guards and prisoners acted in ways that were largely predetermined by how their roles were presented.

Read More
612 Words | 3 Pages

The guards abused their power. They enjoyed the power of controlling others. It was the unlimited power that made them control the prisoners and made them become

Read More
687 Words | 3 Pages

I have found similar instances where good people were put in trying situations, pushing them to turn their actions evil. The findings to the Stanford Prison Experiment suggests that good people will be affected by “evil” and as such their actions would reflect, which I have found to be true in the cases of Raymond Tensing, Joseph Stalin, United States creation of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and ____. On July 19, 2015 Samuel DuBose was stopped by a University of Cincinnati police officer, Raymond Tensing for a minor

Read More
947 Words | 4 Pages

The long-term effects of the Stanford Prison Guard experiment are that it has showed that social roles are a dominant strength in human nature. The guards and prisoners lived as though they were actually guards and prisoners.

Read More
666 Words | 3 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 and led by Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor. The questions of the experiment were what happens when you put good people in an evil place; does the situation outside of you come to control your behavior, or do the things outside of you such as your attitude, values, and morality allow you to rise above a negative environment, and how do we respond to authority? It past psychology experiments it had already been shown that people have a respect for authoritative figures. People will listen to a person who is an authority even if it goes against their morality. This was the basis of the Stanford Experiment.

Read More
1572 Words | 7 Pages

Even though there are people willing to risk it all to go back to the life they had, there are some that become submissive and stop fighting. In Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Stanford phycology department. They recruited college students to run a mock prison so they could study the effect of becoming a prisoner and a prison guard. In this experiment that was supposed to run for two weeks ended up being stopped by the researchers on the six day because it was getting out of control. This is stated by the heads of the experiment Philip Zimbardo, Craig Haney, W. Curtis Banks, and David Jaffe in their report of the experiment.

Read More
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

Read More
150 Words | 1 Pages

In 1971 at Stanford University, Philip Zimbardo conducted the very famous prison study. In this experiment 24 boys were chosen to be split up into the rules of prisoners and guards. The experiment was set up to study how people conformed to their rules in a prison setting. During the first day, the students had trouble fitting into their initial rules, but by day two there was prisoner rebellion. The guards were not allowed to physically harm the prisoners, so they used more of a psychological punishment.

Read More
1021 Words | 5 Pages

The Power of Evil Throughout history, evil has been portrayed as a characteristic flaw that one has been born with. Historic events, such as the holocaust, have lead many to wonder what goes on in the minds of the people who abuse power for the worst. Although many believe that some people are born with a capacity to inflict evil, studies have proven that under certain circumstances anyone could contain characteristic flaws to obtain the capability to extort their evil to cause pain and suffering. Others believe that most men and women in the world are not born with the capacity of inflict evil.

Read More
888 Words | 4 Pages

The guards began teasing them and making them “sing” their numbers and assigning punishments as needed, such as pushups and jumping jacks. The guards took role almost all day everyday. The prisoners, tired from being woken up, broke out into a rebellion on just the second day. They put their bed springs against their cell doors the guards used force to get the prisoners back in their place. They threw prisoners in the pit for hours at a time, denying them food, water, and social contact.

Read More

More about Essay Comparing The Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo

Open Document