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Summary Of The Zimbardo's Prison Experiment

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The Zimbardo’s prison experiment, also known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, main purpose was to investigate the influence of situational factors on behavior (Brady & Logsdon, 705). This ‘constructed situation’ involved young, male volunteers being cast in the dichotomized roles of guard and prisoner in a simulated prison environment (Bottoms, 163). The experiment was use to see if brutality truly existed between the guards and the prisoners. The findings were quite upsetting. The young males went through an ordeal that eventually lead to psychological abuse.
The young adults were treated like actual criminals, even arrested at their own homes. They were later brought into the pretend jail and booked. Many individuals would assume by working …show more content…

Some of the prisoners’ started acting irrationally and they started telling lies on each other and some even started siding with the guards. Witnessing this type of behavior was quite strange I couldn’t understand why the prisoners would tell lies on each other. Perhaps the prisoners felt by doing this they would no longer receive such harsh punishment but that wasn’t the case at all. The prisoners did whatever it took to please the guards. The more submissive the prisoners became the more hostile the guards’ behavior got. The prisoners took the abused over and over. The guards wanted complete control over the prisoners but that type of behavior didn’t last long at all. After thirty six or so hours some of the prisoners showed signs of severe psychosomatic disturbance and had to be released shortly after (Brady & Logsdon, 706). A few hours later a few prisoners retaliated and blocked themselves into their cells. It would appear that the prisoners got tired of the harassment and therefore acted out. The guards took back control of the situation and detained the so called ringleaders. The agitators were placed in solitary confinement and shortly after the prisoners’ behavior changed dramatically. One prisoner became absolutely hostile and started screaming uncontrollable. Perhaps because the prisoner was isolated he became anxious and was unable to control his unnecessary outburst. To me solitary confinement is a form of psychological torture. All alone in a room all that is left to do is to go crazy and that’s exactly what happened to the prisoners. The prisoners’ conditions were too severe that they had to be released. The experiment was designed to last for two weeks but after six short days the experiment was terminated (Brady & Logsdon,

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In the prison the prisoner had their cells. The cells were just a room with a bed and a toilet, and there were cells to punish them There was a cell named the dark cell, the cell was only 15 feet by 15 feet the prisoners would be locked in that cell for days depending on what they did and how bad it was. When the prisoners were in the cell they could not talk to anyone. For food the prisoners only got a bread and water once a day, they were stripped in their underwear in the cell. The cell had a cage like outter layer for when the prison guards would give the inmates food, they wouldn’t try to escape.

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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

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Before they would die, the prisoners would be treated like “automatons” and “filthy sons of bitches” (Wiesel 81). Wiesel writes, “Pitch darkness. Every now and then, an explosion in the night. They had orders to fire anyone who could not keep up. Their fingers on the triggers, they did not deprive themselves of this pleasure.

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They would become lost in thought, and their faces showed a certain sadness that I had never seen before." (Wiesel 52) The emotional distance exhibited by the guards serves to further dehumanize the prisoners and to make them feel isolated and

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The guards were instructed to maintain order anyway they wanted without using physical violence. Zimbardo wanted the guards to seem intimidating while the prisoners were made to look inferior and were to be referred to with their ID number only. After the prisoners were assigned their roles and the guards took their post was the effect of the experiment finally setting in. On the morning of the second day the prisoners began to rebel against the guards by ripping off their ID numbers and barring the doors while taunting the guards. This event was the first step down the slippery slope that would follow.

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Prisoners become distraught after having their privileges taken away. They were humiliated in front of their neighbors and inside the prison. They were identified by a made up number instead of their names. The environment was depressing with limited outside contact. The prisoners could not distinguish the difference from reality and the fictional prison which led them to retaliate against the guards.

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In the six days that the experiment ran they saw the personalities that the prisoner and prison guards took.

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They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are

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The Stanford Prison experiment was created by Psychologist / Professor Zimbardo to further educate himself about the social structure of life and how people adapt to their surroundings. He created this experiment in which he gathered students from the university, out of those students who applied to be apart of this experiment, ten students became prisoners and eleven became guards. This experiment started off well, zimbardo gather information and learned a few things. He then started to realize that the actors that took on the guard role took it to a whole other level, they became more into their roles. They took torturing to a whole other level causing numerous individuals with the prisoner roles to have psychological problems, emotional

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In the same sense, the prisoners went from nervous, innocent men to rebellious and chaotic men. By the end of the experiment, it was obvious that the participants acted in a way that best represented who they were in terms of the prison. Because the guards had an overflow of pride and power, they became evil as they used it to their advantage and abused the prisoners. The prisoners became evil as they turned their lack of power into a form of protest, which caused a great amount of

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The prisoners went through the same schedule every day and if they didn’t follow regulation, they were sent to spend isolation for days,weeks, or even months. Prisoners slowly went insane as “The Rock” beat them down to nothing. Thirteen escape attempts involving 33 men all ended tragically. But one attempt involving Frank Morris, Allen West, and Clarence and John Anglin will always be

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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.

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They were stripped naked and had all their personal possessions removed. They were only given a prison dress and has a chain on their right foot. On the other hand, the guards wore identical khakis. They were instructed to do whatever they thought is right to maintain law and order in the prison. But they are not given a permission to abuse the prisoners physically.

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The experiment mainly focused on the participants appearance, for example prisoners were dressed into prison clothes for feeling more demeaned and humiliated, however at the same time guards were dressed into like real guards with sunglasses for appearing more detached and less humane. The results were terrifying because the guards took the matter seriously and sometimes harassed the prisoners with the help pf physical punishment, or even

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