Stanford Prison Experiment Summary

Review of Stanford Prison Experiment:

A. Introduction:

a. What is the general topic that the article is addressing?

This article is addressing the, “violence and brutality that still exist within prison” (Haney, et al, 1973, p.2). An example was given in the article about Dostoevsky who spent four years in a Siberian prison. He said, “if a man could survive the horrors of prison life he must surely be a “creature who could withstand anything,” (Haney, et al, 1973, p.2). Sometime ago, we got permission to visit the prison in our city. We visited for a couple of weeks. The purpose of our visit was to encourage the prisoners. One thing I noticed was that the prison system has not changed. Violence, intimidation and the use of force dominates

Some believe that the uncultured characters of the inmates are to blame for the situations in prison; they forcefully argued that being in prison is a sign of character failure.

2. Another school of thought put the blame squarely on the feet of the prison authorities. They believe that the sadistic nature of the guards, that because the pleasures derived by the guards from hurting other people, and watch them suffer physically and mentally lead has led to this unchanging cruel life in prison.

B. Methods

a. Briefly describe the methods: who were the participants?

A newspaper ad was placed on a national newspaper, requesting male participant for a prison experiment. The participants of this research are men volunteers who answered the newspaper ad to be part of a prison experiment. Then from these people “guard” and prisoners” were randomly selected.

b. What did they have to do in this study?

The researchers of this study created and maintained a prison like environment The selected

“guard” and “prisoners” were placed in their respective duties. Daily the behaviours and character of both the “guard” and the “prisoners” groups were observed, measured, recorded, and analysed.

c. What were the measures that were

Strengths of the research

The availability of research materials, well trained researchers involve in this study, and unambiguity in the research methodology was a huge strength to this study.

F. Limitations of this Research

The study was done in a fake prison, therefore the findings cannot be generalized in real prison condition.

Tip: This research could have been done in a real prison. This will give us a full knowledge of the purpose of the study.

G. A form of Conclusion:

In my own conclusion, this research finding explained the psychological factors that are fuelling hostility in prison. The result and recommendations will assist government authorities, and prison managers to develop a comprehensive training programme for the guards and the prisoners aimed at empowering them towards improving the conditions of the prison.

Reference

Haney, C., Banks, C., and Zimbardo, P., (1973). A study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison, naval research reviews (September 1973), retrieved from