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Zimbardo's Experiment Summary

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Zimbardo’s 1971 life experiment, which aimed to investigate how people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a simulated prison scenario, crossed many ethical boundaries. An example of this was the presence of harm throughout the experiment inflicted on the prisoners. Various degrees of physical and psychological harm were imposed upon the ten students. This included beatings, harassment, and torment from the guards, which resulted in emotional distress. Another aspect of this was that the consent form signed by the participants stated they would not be physically harmed. Yet throughout the experiment, the guards began to hit and otherwise physically abuse the prisoners. Once it was established that this consent form was broken, …show more content…

This was somewhat adhered to in Zimbardo’s prison experiment. On one hand, the participants were informed before the study began that they did, in fact, have the right to withdraw at any point during the 14-day period of the experiment, but only “through established procedures” (Zimbardo, 2017). This essentially means that the prisoners could ask to leave in a way that did not compromise the prison environment that they were acting in. A few prisoners did discontinue their participation in the trial. However, for the most part, the participants of the study appeared to forget or overlook the fact that they could leave at any time. The students reinforced a sense of imprisonment by repeatedly telling each other that there was “no way out.”. For example, Prisoner #8612, who began suffering severe psychological and emotional disturbance just one day into the experiment, was accused of attempting to “con” the experimenters into letting him out. After a confronting meeting with the primary prison consultant, Prisoner #8612 told other prisoners, "You can't leave. You can't quit." This of course sent a distressing message, heightened their sense of real imprisonment. Prisoner #8612 then began to act "crazy"; screaming, cursing and in a rage, that was out of control. Zimbardo himself said, “It took quite a while before we

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Within 24 hours of the experiment, the prison guards began to humiliate and mentally abuse the prisoners. The prison guards were given little instructions about how to treat the prisoners, except that there was not to be any physical force used on the prisoners. The lack of instructions that

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Essay Comparing The Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo

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Other guards joined in, and other prisoners were also tormented. The prisoners were taunted with insults and petty orders; they were given pointless and boring tasks to accomplish; and they were generally dehumanized. The prisoners soon adopted prisoner-like behavior, too. They talked about prison issues. ” The prisoners assume the roles they are given due to the environment, and so do the guards.

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To keep record of the experiment, the researchers used hidden cameras and microphones to observe the behavior of the prisoners and guards. This experiment was originally planned to last 14 days, but it was stopped after just six days because of what was happening to the participants. Over this short period of time, the guards started to become abusive and the prisoners started to show signs of extreme anxiety. The prisoners and guards were allowed to interact any way that they wanted, instead of being sociable and helpful the interactions were vicious and brutal. The guards behaved aggressively and abusively towards the prisoners, while the prisoners became unresisting and depressed.

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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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Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

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The male students were deceived by the real meaning of the study. The volunteers knew little about the study except it was to research the impact of human behavior in a prison environment. Zimbardo and his colleagues had already separated the participants by forming two groups and a coin decided their fate. One group had the role as prison guards and the others were prisoners.

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Prisoners were stripped of their identities, forced to wear uniforms, and referred to using assigned numbers rather than their names. This deindividuation (the perceived loss of personal individuality) led to a breakdown of social norms and ethical boundaries, with some participants experiencing severe emotional trauma. Another ethical issue with the Stanford Prison Experiment was the lack of proper oversight and intervention. Zimbardo, in his role as the lead researcher, became so immersed in the role of prison superintendent that he failed to recognize the unethical behavior unfolding within the experiment, even as a psychologist. It was only after a graduate student raised concerns about the treatment of the participants that the experiment was prematurely halted after just six days instead of the planned two weeks.

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Specifically, Zimbardo should have either created rules prior to the experiment, or stepped in once the guards began to starve, isolate, and sleep deprive prisoners. While Zimbardo assigned prisoners with numbers, and used none of their names, he still broke the ethical guidelines of confidentiality. It is vital to keep all data and information gathered from participants anonymous, so as not to affect their lives outside of the study (Myers & DeWall 2019). While he did not reveal their names or identifying information, he still publicly arrested the prisoners for anyone to see, such as neighbors, family, or any passersby (Mourinho335, Youtube, 2023). He obtained real police officers to question, cuff, and drive to the Stanford Psychology Building with the participants.

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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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The guards would force the prisoners to criticize one another, which tore down prisoner 416 in the end of the experiment and ultimately lead to ending the experiment. Overall, I think that this experiment had good expectations and goals, but needed a better plan. The men being involved needed to know more about what they were signing up for because many men didn’t know they would be arrested from their houses and treated just as if they were prisoners. This experiment opened a lot of people’s eyes because it put into reality how prisoners are treated in real life.

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Instead when they were asked who they were they simply answered with ID numbers that were assigned to them. As the experiment went on the guards beat the prisoners, sprayed them with fire extinguishers, and striped the prisoners naked and harassed them. They were not being told to do this, but within the seven days of the experiment they began to abuse their power and inflict evil upon the prisoners. A member of the experiment says, “It’s easy for you to say, 'Oh, I wouldn't have acted that way, but you don't know. That's - that's the truth.

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Utilitarianism Vs Stanford Prison Experiment

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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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Major issues that had arisen because of the Stanford Experiment were also caused because of critical pieces of information that were left ignored following its termination. There is no overarching way to know whether the guards momentarily became evil or simply acted that way. If one person began to act in a cruel manner, other people may have followed their lead because it appeared they knew what to do and no one wanted to appear as an outcast. Either way, it still showed how people thought they should act when placed in a prison system. In many ways, Zimbardo failed to state how not all of the guards acted in such a crude manner.

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In 1971 Dr. Zimbardo a psychologist professor at Stanford University conducted an experiment with 24 college student and recruited them to play the roles of guards and prisoners in a mock prison system. This experience was to gain insight of daily prison life between the guards and the prisoner when one has power, which we be the guards. In on the other hand the prisoner who will be the powerless this was the reason to create a prison environment that would fabricated simulation of a real life prisoners and guards daily activities. Professor Zimbardo fabricated a simulation of a jail by converting the basement of Stanford University to a prison. The 24 male causation college students from various colleges in the United States were evaluation for any abnormalities before the experiment they all were normal and capable to do the experience.

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By the second day the prisoners became non responsive and refused to adhere to the rules set down by the guards, and this set off a chain reaction where the prisoners began to rebel more and more to the guards. The guards in turn became more and more sadistic and cruel to the prisoners in an attempt to quell this perceived rebellion. The regular students who were picked for this experiment turned into cruel savages, both from the prisoners side and the guards side. The experiment had to be ended early, because the guards were being so cruel to the prisoners that it became a liability for Zimbardo. By the end of the experiment, most of the prisoners truly felt like they were actually prisoners, and the guards felt like they were actually guards assuming the identities that they had been

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