Mock Prison Experiments

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a clear example of how humans can adapt to specific social roles and behave differently under the pressure of control. The experiment illustrated the concepts of deviance and social control through participants behavior. Although the prisoners were not really prisoners, they believed that they were. The behavior of the prisoners began to morph along with the experiment. By day two, the prisoners were showing deviance by barricading themselves inside their cells. The environment and treatment of the prisoners were likely causes of the disobedience. Similarly, the guards showed signs of social control throughout the experiment. Guards were able to show control over the prisoners through various actions, such

It was a great experiment because we know that people would do it they were on the other end and having that power and authority to demand someone. It was scary to actually see how they became with the position in becoming a guard. I have seen many cases on the news where guards are so mean to the inmates and also where they beat them and take advantage of them because if the inmate stands up they would probably be beaten more or send to solitary. In the experiment I also notice most of the inmates rather be an inmate then an actual

The prisoners were emotionally and mentally harmed during the experiment. The prisoners started to lose their identity, and instead started identifying themselves as their number. One participant even went on a hunger strike for the time that he was in the prison. Another participant had to leave the study because he became excessively disturbed as time went on. After the study was done, people had trouble separating what the people did in the study to how they were in real life, which caused a problem when they all had to meet after the trial was over. This ethical violation is very apparent because Dr. Zimbardo did have to end the study before the two weeks was done.

The conclusions generally outlined the relationship between the young men assigned as prisoners or officers within the experiment, to the disposition hypothesis that is status quo for most prisons. A distinct pattern in authority was noted throughout the experiment, implying whenever the guards felt their authority being threatened, they would use extensive measures to regain power over the prisoners. Such measures were used as humiliation and degradation. Once the prisoners were ultimately dehumanized within their own mindset, power would be temporarily restored back to the guards until the next situation occurred. Eventually, the riots began to die off while the new life of imprisonment was accepted. Prisoners were no longer a team hoping

After the discussion and understanding of “The standard prison experiment” by David Bornus and “The revisiting the Stanford prison experiment: could participant self-selection has led to the cruelty?” by Thomas Carnahan and Sam McFarland, I have come to the conclusion that the aim of the “standard prison experiment” was to show a psychological study on how correctional officers would react when given complete authority.

In my opinion, I believe that the Stanford Prison study led to more harm than the Immunization study because according to prisoner Mr. Ramsey, “the experiment should never have taken place as it had no true scientific basis and was ethically wrong” (Leithhead, 2011). The abuse in this study was so harsh, that they had to end the study early due to “ a string of mental breakdowns, an outbreak of sadism and a hunger strike”(Leithhead, 2011). This study was conducted to see if the violent behaviors are as a result of the roles of ‘prisoners’ and ‘guards’ or is it solely based on the individual’s personality. What made this study so dangerous is the face that almost everything felt so real, the guards looked real, the prisoners looked real and they both played the part that they were assigned to. The guards were asked to do whatever it takes to ensure that the law was kept, without any physical violence (Zimbardo, 1973).

They were booked in at a station through the usual routines. They were then driven blindfolded to the simulated prison. Once they arrived they were stripped completely and sprayed with delousing preparation. After being given their uniforms and having their mugshot taken, the warden welcomed them and read them the rules of the prison. The dehumanizing experiment required every prisoner to learn their I.D numbers and the rules established by the Warden. Not only that but they were also given only 3 bland meals a day, 3 supervised restroom passes daily, and 2 hours daily either reading or writing. They were also accounted for three times a day to see that everyone was

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a test done in Stanford University in the 1970s by a team of psychologies led by Zimbardo to see the effect of people when they are given legitimate power and how people would react to an abusive authority. The scientific method involved using a student selected at random who had no psychological issues to act as either a prisoner or as a prison guard. The basement of the University was setup as a prison, and lastly, the researcher acted as the prison superintendent. The prisoners could come and lay their complaints to the superintendent who was in charge of seeing the function of all prison guards and had the power to end the experiment if need be.

The participants consisted of all male college students who were in good physical and psychological condition who signed up for the experiment and agreed to all its stipulations. They randomly assigned 11 students to play the role of guard and 10 to play the role of prisoner. A mock prison was built and participants were arrested, booked and imprisoned 3 men per cell. Measures collected consisted of both groups behavior and interactions being observed, recorded, video-taped then analyzed. Also, the use of questionnaires, mood inventories, personality tests, daily guard reports, mock parole hearings and post experiment interviews were conducted.

The Stanford Prison Study: A Successful Failure The Stanford Prison Study has previously made some appearance in my life on my last year English course. Although the idea of analyzing and reviewing the article is the same, the Naval review paper seemed to have a little more insight into the project. The experiment itself was meant to measure levels of aggression in individuals confined to environment in which they were separated in two groups, authority and subordinates. A prison mock setting seemed to be the perfect place to conduct the experiment.

For example, prisoners wore smocks with no underclothes, were called by their prison number, not by their name, and prisoners’ right ankle were chained to remind them of the oppressiveness of their environment (Zimbardo, 1999). In a real prison, prisoners do not wear smocks, and they are allowed to wear underclothes. They are also called by their names, and their right ankle is not normally chained unless for transportation purposes. Despite the criticism and the lack of ethics in the study, the Stanford Prison Experiment remains an important study in our understanding of how situations and roles can influence human behaviour. The Stanford Prison Experiment will, without a doubt, continue to be a model experiment explained, researched, and discussed throughout psychology textbooks for generations

The Stanford Prison Experiment addressed the psychology of behavior. The experiment specifically addressed the influences of behavior in regards to imprisonment. I recently saw a documentary about the Stanford Prison Experiment and I was shocked that subjects were subjected to such cruelty. The subjects were young intelligent students who likely had never encountered such abuse. Sadly, in the 1970s experiment rules and regulations were severely lacking. Students who volunteered for the two-week experiment were assigned roles of being a prisoner or guard. The determination of who was chosen as a guard or a prisoner was solely dictated by a simple coin flip. The students who were selected at random to be guards were instructed to instill a sense of sadness, lack of freedom, and fear in the prisoners. Guards were allowed to use physical force, but they were not allowed to use torture. “The point to be emphasized is the manner in which a concrete institutional structure can radically reshape individual behavior” (Cooper, 1985).

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by Dr. Philip Zimbardo of the Stanford psychology department in the summer of 1971. The goal of the experiment was to witness how power and control – or lack thereof – can affect the behavior and personality of an individual in a group setting (specifically in a prison environment). It was also meant to display how roles, labels, and social expectations might affect such a situation.

The movie was all about a study on how people would behave in a simulated setting of a prison. It starts off with an advertisement in the newspaper looking for subjects to be a part of an experiment, where participants assume the identities of inmates and prison guards in an empty jail, the subjects are promised a payment of $1,000-a-day for two weeks. After several interviews were conducted measuring the test subject’s responses to a number of different violent scenes, twenty-six subjects are finally chosen and are split into two categories: six of them as guards and twenty of them as prisoners. All of these men are considered to be the most psychologically stable and healthy of all of the applicants. The groups were deliberately selected to exclude those with criminal backgrounds, psychological impairments, or medical problems. They then are driven to an isolated building set up as a prison. The research conductor outlined basic rules of the

The experiment was conducted to resemble a prison and study the reactions of the guards and prisoners. The durations of the study was intended to be two weeks but with the extreme stress reactions it was only held for six days before having to shut it down. Five kids, had emotional breakdowns within five days of the experiment. The experiment held twenty four male college students and randomly assigned them to be guards and others to be prisoners. With the power the guards had, they dehumanized the prisoners and showed sadistic behaviors. The guards were not taught how to play there role, they just acted upon instinct, showing little to no empathy. They were left with power and no one to watch over them causing the behaviors that followed.