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Utilitarianism Vs Stanford Prison Experiment

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Kantianism and Utilitarianism Versus the Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in aims to examine human behavior (Mcleod). The study took 24 college students and randomly assigned them to be prisoners or guards in a simulated prison environment: a basement in the Stanford Psychology building. While the experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, it was cut short after only six days due to the guards exhibiting brutal behavior and the prisoners suffering psychologically. While implicit Utilitarian calculations could attempt to justify the actions in the experiment, strict Kantians would have found the experiment morally unacceptable. Utilitarian principles value scientific …show more content…

This experiment gave an insight into human behavior when faced with power dynamics. In a Utilitarian view, this outweighs the psychological damage to the participants because it furthers scientific progress and benefits society. In the Utilitarian perspective, “it is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be a Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, are of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question” (Mill, 10). This implies that it is better to be knowledgeable than ignorant: although the participants faced psychological damage, what was learned from the experiment, both scientifically and societally, outweighs these downfalls. Strict Kantians, on the other hand, would argue that the prison experiment violates their values of respect for persons and autonomy. “Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of another, always at the same time as an end and never simply as a means” (Kant,

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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.

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In the article of “The Perils of Obedience”, written by Stanley Milgram, the experimenter explains that the experiment is to see how far a person could hurt a victim in a situation where he is ordered to do so. Also, in the article “The Stanford Prison

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In summary, the purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment was supposed to demonstrate that powerful situational forces, much like Abu Ghraib, could over-ride individual dispositions and choices, leading good people to do bad things simply because of the role they found themselves

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Second, The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study that was too inhumane to continue because of the behavior of the prison guards when handed with superiority and the mental breakdowns of the prisoners. E: “Now, you 'll all be given sunglasses and uniforms to give the prisoners a sense of a unified, singular authority… And from this point forward you should never refer to this as a study or experiment again,’’ (Dr. Phil Zimbardo).

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The Stanford Prison Experiment was a research study administered by Philip Zimbardo in 1971, which gathered twenty-four men to be put into a pseudo-jail to see the impacts of prison on the guards and inmates. Twelve of these volunteers were randomly selected to be inmates and the other twelve became guards. Not surprisingly, the inmates endured incredible torment and a few of them had psychological collapses due to severe emotional distress. The guards were consumed with their own power and felt little sympathy for the inmates that were under their care and stripped them, whipped them, dehumanized them. The research was expected to keep going for two weeks; however it went on for only six days due to the inmates encountering damaging levels

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Normal People Behaving Evil The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment to see if normal people would change their behavior in a role-play as a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was conducted by Dr.Philip Zimbardo in 1973 at Stanford University that caused numerous amount of trauma to prisoners by prison guards in their role-playing position which forced Dr. Zimbardo to officially terminate the experiment six days after it was introduced. Due to the cruel aggressive behaviors from the guards, the experiment led to a question, "Do "normal" people have the capability of behaving badly?" The answer to that question is that most likely an individual who behave normally will have the capability of expressing evil behavior due to the environment that they are surrounded.

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This experiment basically let boys run wild and humiliate each other. Sadism and degradation play a big role in this study unintentionally. Understanding how good people turn evil may be hard to do before hearing about this experiment, but afterwards you won’t have to ask that question anymore. The Stanford Prison Experiment highlights what happens when humans get

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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 SPE was ethical because it met every standard of ethics in place at the time. The experiment was approved by Stanford's Human Subjects Research Committee, which was basically the only guideline in place to determine if the experiment should happen. It also completely followed the Nuremberg Code and was approved by an Institutional Review Board. After the experiment ended, the American Psychological Association conducted an investigation and concluded that it followed all existing ethical standards. Unfortunately, those were the only conditions that an experiment involving human subjects was required to pass, so the Stanford Prison Experiment was technically ethical.

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Daniel, This is a sound post you made this week. For the first question in your forum answering you went into detail and explained the idea why the prison experiment was ethical in your judgement and opinion. After going through what you typed I agreed myself with what you had to say for it. These students gave full consent to be prisoners, or the possibility to be guards, for an experiment that required them to be in a simulated prison environment for Dr. Zimbardo’s psychological study. The prisoners were pushed to their mental breaking point, in which I too saw was necessary for the experiment to be conducted effectively, and when need be they students were given a pardon.

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But rather how ordinary individuals, who thought themselves to be incapable to commit acts of evil, can become the very evil they thought impossible. Subsequently, he constructs the Stanford Prison Experiment as a mean to explain how such factors can effect how someone may go about in the given circumstance, and how the perception for our moral standards can be overcome. As outlined throughout the book, he illustrates how the experiment transpired in a chronological format. As the experiment continued, he uses specific case examples, and allows the audience to take a glimpse into the past, as the dialogue and inner workings of the participants progressed. For instance, he uses the character of Vandy amongst many, as a way to demonstrate how an individual thought to be sympathetic, still choose to abuse his authority, and became harmful to the prisoners.

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Certain people were prisoners and others were prison guards. During this, the prison guards were allowed to use any form of discipline they wanted. In retaliation, the prisoners lashed out, and it became complete chaos. This experiment test social influence showed us the influence that power can have on people and can alter their behavior. Janis’ notion helps us understand social influence on another level, because as the number of people increase the heavier the influence and peer pressure is.

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The element of lighting is a sophisticated element to a movie. It has the power to control what you see and also overwhelm you when it needs to. During my discovery of this movie, I found that colors told the story just as much as the dialogue. It just goes to show that the most significant films cover all the ends of telling a story through the medium of film. Now the fun part, the analyst of The Shawshank Redemption’s use of light and color in painting the picture of its theme of hope.

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Stanford Experiment: Unethical or Not Stanford Prison Experiment is a popular experiment among social science researchers. In 1973, a psychologist named Dr. Philip Zimbardo wants to find out what are the factors that cause reported brutalities among guards in American prisons. His aim was to know whether those reported brutalities were because of the personalities of the guards or the prison environment. However, during the experiment, things get muddled unexpectedly. The experiment became controversial since it violates some ethical standards while doing the research.

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It showed how normal civilians acted when they were given authority over others. Even the most cordial, intelligent people can take on an evil, machiavellianistic nature when introduced to a dominant role in an individualized setting. This experiment taught psychologists so many things about human behavior and the prison system. It is an event that is taught in classrooms all over the world. While some people question the ethics of the experiment, it paved the way for more understanding as well as the reform of psychological practices

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