Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a Psychology experiment conducted by Phillip Zimbardo to simulate imprisonment in the Stanford basement. The was performed to achieve the result that a humans environment can take over a persons interpersonal characteristics and make that person act out of line. The experiment had healthy college students take part in a two week job that pays $15 a day to simulate imprisonment effects. The experiment ended abruptly due to concerns of ethics and the student’s health. Our environment affects our behaviors and values hand in hand. 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.”(Social Psychology 125) In relation to this experiment, college students looking for some quick cash got placed in a fake prison to provide some results. As the experiment went on, the guards began to exert their dominance as prison guard in various ways. The guards began the process of degradation on the prisoners and

The Prisoners were being engaged in abuse and degrading torture to influence their self-perception. The Guards were very effective in their ability to manipulate the prisoners and make themselves feel like low human beings that are just a number in the prison institution. Phillip Zimbardo established a safe guard of somewhat to let participants go if the experiment was really effecting them in a harmful way. He only let this happened to the first prisoner who suffered. After that incident, he let it be known that the prisoners cannot