Stanford Prison Experiment Philip G Zimbardo

Dr Philip Zimbardo created the Stanford prison experiment in 1971, the aim of this experiment was to find out the psychological effects of prison life, and to what extent can moral people be seduced to act immorally. The study consisted of 24 students selected out of 75, the roles of these 24 men were randomly assigned, 12 to play prison guards and 12 to play prisoners. The prison set up was built inside the Stanford’s psychological department, doors where taken of laboratory rooms and replaced with steel bars in order to create cells. At the end of the corridor was the small opening which became the solitary confinement for the ‘bad prisoners’. Throughout the prison there were no windows or clocks to judge the passage in time, which resulted in time distorting experiences. After only a few hours, the participants adapted to their roles well beyond expectations, the officers starting

“The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip G. Zimbardo was written to explain the results of the Stanford prison experiment. Zimbardo while trying to gain support for his conclusions of the experiment, demonstrated many errors in his writing, and in his own experiment. The errors that Zimbardo commits call into question the validity of his argument, and the experiment. The goal explained by Zimbardo was “to understand more about the process by such people called “prisoners” lose their liberty, civil rights, independence, and privacy, while those called “guards” gain social power by accepting the responsibility for controlling and managing the lives of their dependent charges” (Zimbardo 733).

The Zimbardo prison experiment was a study of human responses to captivity, dehumanization and its effects on the behavior on authority figures and inmates in prison situations. Conducted in 1971 the experiment was led by Phlilip Zimbardo. Volunteer College students played the roles of both guards and prisoners living in a simulated prison setting in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

I was actually interested in watching this movie before I took this class. This may sound weird I have a serious interest in what went on inside prisons and what can make or break someone. The Stanford Prison Experiment was it was held at Stanford University during August fourteenth through August twenty first, 1971. The research group was led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo using college students. Though background information of the experiment and my response to the experiment.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a very thought-provoking topic discussed in various classes. Professor and psychologist Philip Zimbardo conducted this experiment through Stanford University. Twenty-four men were randomly selected to participate in a simulated prison environment and were given roles as prisoners or prison guards. This was done to challenge the moral compass of “good” individuals in a negative environment, which in this case was a prison. Surprisingly, the participants truly embodied their roles. Throughout the experiment, the prison guards enforced their authoritarian power and tormented the prisoners both

Before watching this video and discussing it in class I never heard of the Stanford University Prison Experiment. I don’t think this experiment was very ethic due to the gruesome treatment that went on over thirty years ago in the basement of this university. In 1971 Dr. Philp Zimbardo a former sociologist at Stanford created a mock prison to do an unethical experiment. He wanted to test the power of a cruel environment without clear rules to change and transform “normal” people in a prison life experiment. In 2003 in Abu Ghraib, Iraq military enforcement tortured and beat people that did not want to follow the strict directions given to them. No one of ever knew about the treatment against these people if it was not pictures of proof to help

=“The line between good and evil is permeable and almost anyone can be induced to cross it when pressured by situational forces” (Zimbardo). In August of 1971, psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford prison experiment, which was funded by the U.S military to investigate the causes of dissension between military guards and prisoners. As the experiment commenced participants, college students, adapted to their roles in the prison far beyond the expectations of Zimbardo. Authoritarian measures were enforced harshly to those who were the prisoners, with some even going as far as to subject prisoners to psychological torture. On the other hand, while the guards acted violently and aggressively, many of the prisoners accepted

The prisoners were given demeaning task that dehumanized them. They slowly adopted the role of a real life prisoner, such as obeying the different rules of the prison, they-sided with the guards whenever they had a prisoner that rebelled. The prisoners did everything they could to please the guards, they endured the abused and became submissive. Zimbardo decided to end the experiment when Christian Maslach, conducted interviews with prisoners and guards and she was against the experiment when she saw how abusive the guards were towards the prisoners. She said, "It's terrible what you are doing to these boys!"

The experiment was led by a Stanford Psychology Professor named Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo randomly separated 24 mentally and physically healthy participants into authoritarian guards armed with batons and dehumanized prisoners who were identified by numbers instead of their individual names. This naturally created conflict between the two opposing groups however the experiment soon went out of hand. Soon the guards who were placed in a positon of power over the inmates began to become increasingly abusive and inhumane towards the prisoners. It would be important to note however, the prisoners did within days start to disobey and revolt against the oppressive guards.

The guards abused and took advantage of the prisoners. The prisoners were so miss treated that a few of them left before the study was suspended. After six days the whole experiment, which was supposed to last 14 days, was ended because Zimbardo finally realized how unethical it was to keep the experiment going. Looking at the ethics of the experiment some were followed and some were not.

Philip Zimbardo's experiment on prison life demonstrated how quickly an individual can dissolve their own identity to fit into the social roles expected of them (UK Essays). Those assigned to play the role of guard were given sticks and sunglasses; those assigned to play the prisoner role were arrested by the Palo Alto police department, deloused, forced to wear chains and prison garments, and transported to the basement of the Stanford psychology department, which had been converted into a makeshift jail. Several of the guards became progressively more sadistic, particularly at night when they thought the cameras were off, despite being picked by chance out of the same pool as the prisoner (“Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment”) Psychologist World. The prisoners were humiliated and embarrassed by the guards. The guards were cruel and even made the prisoners do menial tasks. They made the prisoners clean the toilet bowls with their bare hands rather than providing

In summer of 1971, the police publicly arrested 10 students who did nothing wrong besides that they agree to participate for $15 a day in one of the social psychology's most notorious studies since Milgram's house of pain back in the 60s. These students were taken to the Stanford County Prison (a mock prison which is located at the university, where they were set to be held prisoner for next two weeks. In addition, participating in this experiment was 11 students who were to play the role of prison guards. According to the head researcher and acting prison warden, Philip Zimbardo, "The purpose of that experiment was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment."

The Stanford Prison experiment was a psychological experiment conducted by professor Philip Zimbardo on August 14 to August 20 in 1971. The aim of this experiment was to understand the effects on roles, labels and expectations conducted in a prison environment. 24 College students took part in the experiment and were given either the role as a prison guard or a prisoner. Students during this experiment were told that they were going to be assigned roles of the prisoners and guards, they would be observed and that they were expect to participate throughout the entire study.

It didn’t take long for the students to adapt to their roles. This began as early as the first few hours of the experiment, when a few guards began to harass the prisoners. Not long after the prisoners adapted to their new roles as well. The prisoner began taking the rules created by the guards seriously and would even tell on each other. However, the situation again changed and progressively got worse. The prisoners were totally dependent on the guards, and the guards had the control. With the prisoners becoming more dependent on the guards with each passing day, the guards showed more disdain. The prisoner became more submissive due to this, which caused the guards to become more forceful and hostile. As the prisoners were dependent on these guards they tried to find ways to please the guards by various means. Dr. Zimbardo scheduled the experiment to take two weeks, instead it ended after only six days. The reason being that if the experiment continued, someone could end up injured physically or mentally. According to Saul McLeod (2008), if there is a social role that one is expected to play, they will voluntarily obey those expected societal

In 1971 Philip Zimbardo conducted the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) in the basement of Stanford University as a mock prison. Zimbardo’s aim was to examine the effect of roles, to see what happens when you put good people in an evil place and to see how this effects tyranny. He needed participants to be either ‘prisoners’ or ‘guards’ and recruited them through an advertisement, 75 male college students responded and 24 healthy males were chosen and were randomly allocated roles. Zimbardo wanted to encourage deindividuation by giving participants different uniforms and different living conditions (the guards had luxuries and the prisoners were living as real prisoners). The guards quickly began acting authoritarian, being aggressive towards the prisoners and giving them punishments causing physical and emotional breakdowns. Zimbardo’s intention was for his study to last for 2 weeks, however, it