ipl-logo

Stanford Prison Experiment Essay

1499 Words6 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo, aimed to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power and authority within a simulated prison environment. The experiment sought to explore how individuals' behavior and attitudes might be influenced by the roles they assume.

Zimbardo and his team set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University's psychology department. They recruited 24 male participants who were deemed mentally and emotionally stable for the study. The participants were randomly assigned either the role of a prisoner or a guard.

Once the experiment began, the participants quickly adapted to their assigned roles. The guards, who were given uniforms and symbols …show more content…

The Stanford Prison Experiment provides compelling evidence of how social structure and the roles individuals are assigned can significantly shape their behavior. Here's how the experiment demonstrates the power of social structure in influencing individuals:

1. Role Expectations: The experiment assigned participants to specific roles (guards or prisoners) that came with inherent expectations and behaviors. The participants quickly internalized these roles and adjusted their behavior accordingly. The guards embraced their authority, while the prisoners adapted to their submissive positions. This demonstrates how individuals conform to societal expectations and act in ways that align with their assigned roles.

2. Social Norms: Within the simulated prison environment, new social norms emerged. The guards and prisoners adopted behaviors that were not characteristic of their personal identities outside the experiment. The guards became increasingly authoritarian and abusive, while the prisoners became passive and compliant. This shift in behavior reflects the influence of the social norms established within the context of the …show more content…

When individuals feel anonymous and indistinguishable within a group, they may feel less accountable for their behavior. This diminished sense of personal accountability can lead to a diffusion of responsibility, as individuals may attribute their actions to the collective identity or the expectations of their roles.
In the Stanford Prison Experiment, the deindividuation of the participants likely played a role in the adoption of behaviors that aligned with their assigned roles, rather than their personal values. The guards, for example, felt less constrained by their personal moral compasses and more influenced by the role of authority they were assigned. This contributed to the increase in authoritarian and abusive behavior observed among the guards.

It is important to note that deindividuation can have both positive and negative consequences. In this experiment, the negative consequences were evident, as deindividuation led to the adoption of harmful and abusive behaviors. However, deindividuation can also lead to positive outcomes, such as increased prosocial behavior in situations where social norms promote altruism or collective

Show More
Related
842 Words | 4 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a social psychology study that aimed to investigate the effects of power and authority on human behavior. In the experiment, participants were randomly assigned roles as prisoners or guards in a simulated prison environment. The results of the experiment showed that the participants' behavior was heavily influenced by their role and the power dynamics at play. The guards became increasingly authoritarian and abusive, while the prisoners became submissive and

Read More
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
1092 Words | 5 Pages

During the fall of 1973, Phillip Zimbardo conducted his famous Stanford Prison Study where he recruited 24 undergraduate students to either become prisoners or guards in his experimental prison: the “Stanford County Jail". The recreation of this prison was conducted to study how an individual’s status and/or label changed depending on the social role they had to fulfill. The participants included 12 guards and 12 prisoners, each given proper uniform to wear, such as providing the prisoners with a smock that contained ID numbers on both sides and a chain with a heavy ball around their ankle. Both groups were also given detailed instructions on the requirements they had to complete in order for the individual to assimilate to their character.

Read More
751 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1350 Words | 6 Pages

Kerwin Pasia PSY-359 Social Psychology November 16, 2014 Dr. Tina Ayers Website Activity 4: Stanford Prison Experiment In the Stanford Prison Experiment, a test is done upon the morality of human beings to see how the behavior of people are like when they are given complete power and authority and how people react when they are imprisoned and expected to abide by the demands of complete authority. Society has become accustomed to police enforcement. Being a form of authority, people perceive it just or as expected actions in response to criminal activities.

Read More
2191 Words | 9 Pages

Back in 1971 there was a prison experiment that took place in Stanford University and it explains clearly why these cases happen in the prison and jail environment. Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist did this study to show what kind of behavior happens when they people are given authority and it also shows how they use their power affecting the situation they are put into. In this research paper we are going to visit the case of Los Angeles Men’s central jail and find out what went wrong. We will also take a look into what happened in Abu Gharib prison and see if this is an ongoing trend in the correction facilities. We will then look back on the Stanford Prison study conducted by the psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 to see if this experiment truly proves that behavior does change resulting in the abuse of the inmates by the officers.

Read More
810 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
1154 Words | 5 Pages

Children are brought up with the notion that conforming to a group is a positive thing, no matter the cost. Being brought up that way affects how susceptible people are to authority. In Zimbardo’s experiment, the more time the subjects spent in their roles, the easier it became for them to go along with it. For the guards, once they tested out their newfound authority, they couldn’t get enough! They used it to humiliate the prisoners, keep control of the prison, and gain that sense of satisfaction that came with doing their job right.

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
599 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More
1010 Words | 5 Pages

What does it mean to be in a role of a prisoner and a guard? We answer this question by examining two main experiments, The Stanford Prison and the Milgram Experiment. Both emphasize the different experiences of power relationships, and how a certain amount of power can change a person based on the situation and the person. In the Stanford prison experiment, Philip Zimbardo created a prison-like environment for college students to research the effects of power structures and labeling in a prison setting.

Read More
940 Words | 4 Pages

The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo happened in 1973. It displayed how trivial emotion and behavior are; Zimbardo intended to show that the situation rather than disposition factors caused negative behavior and thought patterns by conducting a prison simulation with regular individuals to play the role of guard or prisoner. The power imbalance would contribute to decision-making when their behavior isn't reprimanded or even rewarded. The participants volunteered to receive extra credit when viewing an advert in the newspaper. The volunteers were judged to be emotionally stable and physically healthy without any history of mental illness including minimum conduct with the

Read More
767 Words | 4 Pages

When the teacher protested administer a shock, the experimenter was to give a series of orders/prods to ensure they continued. Two-thirds of the participants continued to the highest level of 450 volts. Stanley Milgram tested his experiment with 18 variations of his

Read More
426 Words | 2 Pages

The Stanford Prison Study The Stanford Prison Experiment was a social psychology study conducted by Stanford University psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971. The study was designed to investigate the psychological effects of power and authority on individuals and was intended to last two weeks. However, it was terminated after only six days due to the extreme behavior of the participants (Leithead, 2011).

Read More
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.

Read More

More about Stanford Prison Experiment Essay

Related Topics

Open Document