Stanford Prison Experiment Effect

Ethics in psychological research and testing is one of the most important issues today. The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted over 40 years ago, brought these ethical issues into the limelight and remains one of the most controversial studies in the history of studying human behavior. This paper aims to define ethics, describe risk/benefit ratio, provide a brief background on the Stanford Prison Experiment, and evaluate the impact it has had on psychological research.

The guard attempted to hide this situation from the people running the experiment because of them “being too soft on the prisoners.” Another guard, not aware he was being observed, paced around the “yard” while the prisoners slept, watching his “captives” and aggressively hitting them with his nightstick. A majority of the prisoners still involved in the experiment started to accept the loss of their identities and the abusive treatment they received, because of the belief that they “deserved it.” The guards formed a corrupt but unified team that used their power to inspire fear and complete control over the prisoners. The prisoners, in response, became mentally compromised and developed depression, feelings of helplessness, and feelings of psychosis.

The study was cut short on August 20th, 1971. Prisoners began to break down emotionally and they tried to find ways to cope with it. The guards had total control of the prison and the prisoners had become isolated individuals. The experiment ended

Method of conduction- To conduct the experiment Zimbardo and his team chose university’s basement of psychology’s department and turned it to a mock prison. The surroundings of prison were made like the surroundings of prison in real life. Cells of prison were not big, walls and windows were barred. In this experiment Zimbardo acted as prison’s superintendent and he also played his duties of a researcher.

Zimbardo decided to run an experiment where he would turn a basement under the Stanford campus into a mock prison where he would interview several participants where they would randomly get assigned either guard, or prisoner. Zimbardo aimed to see how everyone pertained the roles they were placed in. Interviewing 75 potential participants, Zimbardo only chose 24 male college students which they received payments of $15/day. They had two reserves in which were the back-ups just in case any of them wanted to drop out. The prison simulation was kept as real as possible. The participants were “arrested” taken to the police station booked, finger printed, and photographed. Then being blindfolded they were taken back to the campus in the basement where Zimbardo created the mock prison with real barred doors and windows along with bare walls with small cells. Once the “prisoners” arrived, they were stripped naked and given the prison clothes and bedding. The prisoners had their own number which they were only referred to. They wore just a smock with no clothes under along with a nylon cap and a chain around their ankle. Guards were given a stereotypical khaki outfit with whistles, handcuffs, and mirrored glasses working 8 hour shifts a day with three people working each shift. Physical violence was not permitted to the guards. Observing the behaviors of the guards and prisoners, Zimbardo realized how everyone was

In 1971, psychologist Philip Zimbardo and his colleagues created the experiment known as the Stanford Prison Experiment. Zimbardo wanted to investigate further into human behavior, so he created this experiment that looked at the impact of taking the role of a prisoner or prison guard. These researchers examined how the participants would react when placed in an institutionalized prison environment. They set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University’s psychology building. Twenty four undergraduate students were selected to play the roles of both prisoners and guards. These students were chosen because they were emotional, physically, and mentally stable. Though the experiment was expected to last two weeks, it only lasted six days after the researchers and participants became aware of the harm that was being done.

Professor Zimbardo also played the part of the prison warden. All 24 were college students looking for some extra money during the summer break. The professor and his team randomly chose the volunteers to be either guards or prisoners, and would pay them $15 dollars a day. Before the study began all the participants had a psychological evaluation to ensure they were physically, and mentally healthy. All of the 24 selected participants were healthy, intelligent, middle class men.

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).

Psychologists have been interested in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment for decades. A vast amount of information can be taken from this short six-day study. In retrospect, we are able to observe the ethical issues within the study. From this, we are able to identify what should not be done in a study. It also enabled Zimbardo’s research team to see how realistic effects could be placed upon those in this mock prison.

As soon as all the subjects in the experiment got into their roles, the guards immediately began to assert their authority over the prisoners. They felt compelled to harassed and dehumanize the prisoners because Zimbardo told them to do whatever they needed to in order to get the prisoners to obey. The prisoners began to rebel against the abuse the guards put down on them. They sensed their well-being was in peril, so they fought against the guards. This caused the guards to become more aggressive with their punishments and abuse toward the prisoners.

A brief description of the experiment and its purpose. Zimbardo was intent in disovering whether the cruelty reported amongst Americain guards in prisons was because of thesadistic natures of the guards or influenced by the prison atmosphere. Zimbardo decided to convert the psychology building basement of Standford University into mock prison in order to study the roles a individuals would play in a prison environment. He recruited 21 male college students, who were screened for psychological normality and compensated $15 per day, to take part in the 14-day experiment as pretend prisoners and guards.

The Stanford prison experiment was a study conducted by Professor Phillip Zimbardo about psychological effect on prisoners and prison guards. He conducted the experiment because he wanted to find out whether the brutality of guards in American prisons was due to sadistic personalities of the guards or the behaviors of the guards towards the prisoners had to with prison Environment. The study elicited pathological reactions from many of the participant. The purpose of the study was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels and social expectations in a simulated prison environment.

In the Stanford prison experiment, I believe that there are three reasons why the guards and prisoners behaved the way they did. The first reason is that the researchers provided them with costumes, that made the guards look superior and the prisoners look like prisoners. The guards wore khaki shirts and pants, they also had reflected sun glasses and had wooden sticks. The prisoners wore smocks, stocking caps and chains. The costumes that they wore made them feel, as though they really were guards and prisoners. The second reason is that the guards wore reflected sunglasses, that made it hard to see the prisoners’ eyes. The guards could not see the pain and suffering in the prisoners’ eyes and that made it easier for the guards to be inhumane.

The psychology wing at Stanford University has a stigma attached to it, of which every psychologist has learned at some point in their career. We all see prisons as an everyday thing: people do bad things, they get thrown in, they stay there for a length of time. However, in 1971, there were some at Stanford who believed there was something deeper to be studied there, so they took on the experiment that would unexpectedly propel their psychology program to infamy and change the lives of those who participated forever.

In 1971, Stanford Researchers, led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment to understand the relationship of the prison environment on behavior (Thistlethwaite & Wooldredge, 2010). The intentional focus on the experiment was how people react in a powerless situation, not specifically aimed at just the guards (Ratnesar, 2011). The experiment's subjects were volunteers who were split into two groups - “guards” and “inmates.” The prison was a makeshift jail built in the basement of Stanford's psychology building. The guards were given very broad authority in maintaining order and control of the prison. The inmates were stripped of their identities by wearing prison gowns and caps and were referred by only their inmate number, not by their names. During their detainment, they were sleep deprived, kept to a strict routine of bathroom breaks and offered three meals per day. Over the course of thirty-six hours, the boundaries of the