Zimbardo Prison Ethical Summary

Barbara Sorensen

PY101

Ethics Analysis

2/14/2017

Zimbardo Prison Study Ethics Analysis

Standard 1: 3.05 Avoiding Harm

a) One of the standards that was violated in this video was 3.05; Avoiding Harm. This standard states that psychologist will take precautionary action, so they will not harm their patients or anyone they work with. They will also work towards minimizing harm where it is seen, but can be avoided.

b) Through the whole general video many of the the prisoners accepted physical and psychological abuse. The most interesting part is that the experiment not only impacted the prisoner but Zimbardo too. Two of the prisoner quit the experiment early stopping it after only 6 day. So the video all the in general was unethical as Zimbardo

There were many “unnecessary” way the subjects were harmed. For example, prisoner #8612 began suffering from acute emotional disturbances, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying and rage. This subject should have been dismissed from the project immediately, but was instead bribed to continue his participation in the experiment. In the case with this prisoner, you would have to dismiss someone who has been clearly harmed by the experiment. Similarly, inmate #819 had stated that he wanted to see a doctor, rather than the priest and was denied access to a doctor, which in my opinion is unethical and immoral. He began to cry hysterically and was clearly disturbed. He was instead sent to a different room. In my opinion, he should have been dismissed from this project at this time. Inmates immediately began chanting and verbally abusing the inmate. Prisoner #819 continued to cry but was then comforted by Zimbardo, who finally dismissed him from the experiment, clearly many hours too late. Zimbardo clearly harmed the subjects of his experiment both physically and emotionally. I don't feel Zimbardo kept an eye on the prison guards like he should have. He had an inclination that the guards were starting to abuse prisoners and should have supervised their behavior better. It wasn't until later that he viewed videotapes of the guards who were abusing the

When the parent came, they guards and supervisor cleaned up the prison and prisoner. They were threatened that if they complained about prison the visiting hours would be cut short. Clearly they were aware of the abuse and didn’t wanted to hide the risk, obligations, and limitations their family member in prison had. Standard 8.06 clearly states you have to make all that clear to the person or in this case the family member as well. For Zimbardo himself to bribe prisoner #8612 was unethical in my opinion and was clearly a break of voluntary participation. Standard 8.06 was violated I got the impression that many of the prisoner subjects were urged to continue against their will. The use of better meals and more freedom was a clear attempt to keep the research subjects participation, even though they wanted out. This violated part A of the standard, by bribing the subject wth freedom and better