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Stanford Prison Experiment By Philip G. Zimbardo

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Philip G. Zimbardo was a well-known psychology; he originated and initiated the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). The SPE was an experimental mock prison. Those who were involved in the experiment were Zimbardo, three graduate-student colleagues: W. Curis Banks, David Jaffe, and Craiy Haney. Along with 21 male college age students who volunteered to be the research subjects. Zimbardo(1973) expressed “We sought to understated more about the process by which people called “prisoners” lose their liberty, civil rights, independence and privacy , while those called “guards” gain social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling and managing the lives of their dependent charges.” (para.6). In other words these social psychologies wanted …show more content…

The guards went from ordinary to barbarous human beings. Zimbardo (1971) shows us words of the guards, written in one of their diaries it shows just how much the guard transformed. A volunteer who was given the role of a guard expresses how he felt, before the experiment began “I don’t feel like I’m the type of person that would be a guard- I’m not a sadistic type of person that enjoys this kind of thing” (as cited in Zimbardo, 1971, para.36). Zimbardo informs that all the 21 volunteers were judged to be emotionally stable, physically healthy, mature, law abiding citizens. In one of the guard’s diary, prior to the start of the experiment he says “As I am a pacifist and nonaggressive individual I cannot see a time when I might guard and/or maltreat another living thing.” (as cited in Zimbardo, 1971, para.44) as the experiment goes on this same guard changes his way of thinking “they were fighting to keep their identity. But we were always there to how them who was boss.” (as cited in Zimbardo, 1971, para.21). Zimbardo (1971) clams the guard’s became ‘sadistic’. They amused and enjoyed themselves by harassing, punishing, insulting the weak prisoners “typically, the guards insulted the prisoners, threatened them, were physically aggressive, used instruments to keep the prisoners in line and referred to them in impersonal anonymous deprecating ways” (Zimbardo, 1971, para.34). The guards

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In 1971, Philip Zimbardo set out to conduct an experiment to observe behavior as well as obedience. In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, many dispute whether it was obedience or merely conforming to their predesigned social roles of guards and prisoners that transpired throughout the experiment. Initially, the experiment was meant to test the roles people play in prison environment; Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards, disposition, or had more to do with the prison environment. This phenomenon has been arguably known to possibly influencing the catastrophic similarities which occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.The

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Philip Zimbardo created the SPE during the year of 1971 (Zimbardo, 2007). Zimbardo was eager to find out why humans turned considerably evil in the face of power. In order to solve his question, he conceived an experiment to find out exactly why. This experiment was designed to simulate exactly what piqued Zimbardo's interest: prison military guards and prisoners. Zimbardo placed an advertisement in the newspaper asking for college students who were willing to play the role of these guards and prisoners for at most two weeks at the price of fifteen dollars a day (Zimbardo, 2007).

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Some of these temporary officers were not interested in making corrections as a career that resulted in high turnover rates. These guards were paid at the lower end of the salary scale and a lack of advancement opportunities that brought dissatisfactions. In order to correct this structural defect, prison officials should offer higher salaries, clear and concise advancement opportunities. Using these techniques, prison official would influence guards to remain longer and have pride in their

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They would become lost in thought, and their faces showed a certain sadness that I had never seen before." (Wiesel 52) The emotional distance exhibited by the guards serves to further dehumanize the prisoners and to make them feel isolated and

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The guards were instructed to maintain order anyway they wanted without using physical violence. Zimbardo wanted the guards to seem intimidating while the prisoners were made to look inferior and were to be referred to with their ID number only. After the prisoners were assigned their roles and the guards took their post was the effect of the experiment finally setting in. On the morning of the second day the prisoners began to rebel against the guards by ripping off their ID numbers and barring the doors while taunting the guards. This event was the first step down the slippery slope that would follow.

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In the Zimbardo prison experiment, participants are arbitrarily chosen to be either guards or prisoners. However, both the guards and the prisoners internalize their roles immediately. The study is terminated after 6 days because the guards began physically and emotionally abusing the prisoners. This experiment “reveals a message we do not want to accept: that most of us can undergo significant character transformations when we are caught up in the crucible of social forces” (Zimbardo, 2007, p.211). The Stanford Prison Experiment shows how latent violent and aggressive personalities are easily realized when one has dominance over submissive personalities.

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He continues with observations of the first day of testing by quoting certain guard’s conversations with each other and prisoners. Proceeding, Zimbardo points out a riot initiated by the prisoners that was quickly snuffed out by the guards. He also emphasizes the point, “We were forced to release prisoner 8612 because of extreme depression…” Following the quote Zimbardo describes diary entries by one guard which explain a dramatic shift in mood in the guards. Zimbardo finishes his article with reasoning behind early termination of the experiment and expressed his regret of running the experiment.

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Normal People Behaving Evil The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment to see if normal people would change their behavior in a role-play as a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was conducted by Dr.Philip Zimbardo in 1973 at Stanford University that caused numerous amount of trauma to prisoners by prison guards in their role-playing position which forced Dr. Zimbardo to officially terminate the experiment six days after it was introduced. Due to the cruel aggressive behaviors from the guards, the experiment led to a question, "Do "normal" people have the capability of behaving badly?" The answer to that question is that most likely an individual who behave normally will have the capability of expressing evil behavior due to the environment that they are surrounded.

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Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo questioned, “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?” (Zimbardo, 1971) In 1971 a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the effects prison has on young males with the help of his colleague Stanley Milgram. They wanted to find out if the reports of brutality from guards was due to the way guards treated prisoners or the prison environment.

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An ordinary normal in a punishment based environment like a prison can completely change a person. Our internal characteristics are no match for outside socializing agents. Our internal characteristics can be challenged day by day and can slowly but surely crumble in a bad environment. Environments take over a person’s internal characteristics as showed by the Stanford Prison Experiment. “The role identities we develop depend on the social positions available to us in society.

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Zimbardo the main psychologist/researcher in this experiment advertised for volunteers to participate. Applicants and were given diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse. The study involved 24 male college students (chosen from 75 volunteers) who were paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to their role. The prison simulation was kept as real as possible.

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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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They were stripped naked and had all their personal possessions removed. They were only given a prison dress and has a chain on their right foot. On the other hand, the guards wore identical khakis. They were instructed to do whatever they thought is right to maintain law and order in the prison. But they are not given a permission to abuse the prisoners physically.

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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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