Stanford Prison Study Analysis Paper

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The Stanford Prison Study Analysis One of the most well known classic psychology experiments of all time is the Stanford Prison Study. The study was chiefly conducted by Philip Zimbardo. The study is very well known because do to the outcome of the behaviors of people, the experiment was never able to be completed. The experiment began on a early August morning when a mass number of people were arrested for Armed Robbery and Burglary in Palo Alto, California (Zimbardo, 2015). Everyone who was arrested was a volunteer who saw a newspaper ad and wanted to participate in the experiment (Zimbardo, 2015). Zimbardo wanted to use these people to see the psychological effects of prisoners and prison guards (Zimbardo, 2015). A large number of applicants were given interviews and evaluations to eliminate several people who were not capable of participating in the experiment (Zimbardo, 2015). Once the boys were chosen, they were randomly assigned to be a prisoner or a prison guard by the flip of a coin (Zimbardo, 2015). They used the basement of the Stanford Psychology department as a make shift prison (Zimbardo, 2015). When the experiment officially began, each prisoner was brought in and stripped naked for a search (Zimbardo, 2015). The prisoners were then given uniforms, and once they put them on there was a notable difference in the way …show more content…

Less then 36 hours in, Prisoner #8612 suffered from acute emotional distress and rage (Zimbardo, 2015). At first the experimenters thought the prisoner was trying to con them into releasing him (Zimbardo, 2015). It took a long time for the experimenters to really believe that he was suffering and that they had to release him (Zimbardo, 2015). The next day when parents and friends visited, they worked to make the jail look more pleasant (Zimbardo, 2015). They are surprised to see that parents complained about the rules, but complied with them (Zimbardo,