Stanford Prison Experiment By Philip Zimbardo

In 1973, a psychological experiment was orchestrated and performed by the professor of Psychology at Stanford University by the name of Phillip K. Zimbardo. This experiment was deemed unethical on many levels by countless people around the world. It raised questions about the ability of people who were forced to exist in oppressive or obedient roles and was known as The Stanford Prison Experiment. Philip Zimbardo began to research how prisoners and guards assume obedient and authoritative roles. The so called prisoners were acquired through an advertisement placed in a local newspaper. Seventy five responses made it back to Zimbardo, twenty one were selected, half of them as guards and the other half as prisoners (Zimbardo p. 364). The primary

The applicants were arrested and charged with a felony. Once they were taken down to the station, they were booked and fingerprinted, and each prisoner was left isolated to think about what he did. After some time, the prisoners were blindfolded and transported to what they believed to be the Stanford County Prison. They were all stripped, searched, and given a uniform, bedding, soap, and a towel. In this setting, prisoners lost their liberty, civil rights, independence and privacy, while guards gained social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling the lives of these prisoners (Zimbardo p. 365). Over the course of the experiment, contradictive psychological relations were established between the prisoners and guards. The prisoners began to lose hope and realized that there was no way out. They felt that it is better to do exactly what the guards told them to do. On the other hand, guards had to be authoritative to keep the prisoners and the prison in order. A number of the guards were aggressive and brutal towards the prisoners while a few were more sympathetic, and occasionally did favors for the

They pushed their cots up against the cell doors and barricaded themselves in. The guards sprayed fire extinguishers on the prisoners and stripped them of their clothing forcing the leaders of the riot into solitary confinement. After the uprising, the prisoners cooperated more to the rules that were laid out for them. That was the first and last rebellion from the prisoners. After the prisoners had accepted their roles, they suffered a loss of identity. This led the prisoners to not relate with one another on a personal level and it caused them to try and survive in their environment and concentrate on their personal well being. They lost the need to relate to others and have social relationships. With this loss of normal relationships entailing personal connections and social connections they lost respect for one