Stanford Prison Experiment By Hahney Banks And Zimbardo

The article on the Stanford Prison Experiment titled, A Study of Prisoners and Guards in a Simulated Prison and written by the Office of Naval Research, provides us with the overall information that deals with this controversial psychological study. The study was conducted by

Summary of the Stanford Prison Experiment. The stanford prison experiment is an investigation of how people will adhere to the cliché prisoner and guard roles in a simulated prison. According to Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved from https://www.dowellwebtools.com/tools/lp/Bo/psyched/17/Stanford_Prison_Experiment Philip Zimbardo the head researcher and acting prison warden says, "The purpose [of the experiment] was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment. " What followed was an unimaginable series of events that appeared to bring out the worst in both the prisoners and the guards.

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.

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.

Review of the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment The general topic of this study was to understand the roles that guards as authoritarian figures, and

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a study conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971 to observe the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or a guard (“Setting Up,” n.d.). 24 male college students were chosen to participate in this study and they were randomly selected to be either a prisoner or a guard. The prisoners were treated like actual criminals, being arrested and taken to “prison” (the basement of Stanford University set up to resemble a jail), while guards were to keep the prisoners in line and make sure they followed all the rules set forth. It did not take long for the participants to settle into their roles: the guards becoming aggressive and abusive and the prisoners showing anxiety, stress, and depression. This experiment violated

In conclusion, People would readily conform to social roles that they are expected to play, especially if roles are as strongly stereotyped as these of the prison guards. The prison environment is an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior that we saw (none of the participants who acted as guards showed sadistic tendencies before the study). So, the findings support situational explanation of the behavior rather than dispositional one. The results of the experiment: The experiment was stopped after only six days due to extreme adverse psychological effects of many of the participants.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by a research group led by Dr. Philip Zimbardo using Stanford students during August 14 through the 20th of 1971. Dr. Zimbardo wanted to see how people reacted when they are either put in captivity or in charge of others. The study was funded by the US Office of Naval Research and grew interest to both the US Navy and the Marine Corps for an investigation to the purpose of conflict among military guards and prisoners. In the study, 24 male students were selected out of 75 applicants to take on randomly assigned roles. One of the surprises of the study was how participants quickly adapted to roles well beyond expectations. After the first eight hours, the experiment turned to be a joke and nobody was taking it seriously but then prisoners

The year was 1971 and an experiment that has not been replicated since was concluded early on the campus of Stanford University. A total of twenty-four mentally stable college students participated in this groundbreaking psychology study. The study involved some students to play a role as mock prison guards and the rest of the participants became the inmates. The study was designed to be realistic with the local police “arresting” the inmates followed by issuing an inmate identification number, uniform, and being deloused. A mock prison was setup in the basement of psychology department on the campus.

The research involved a study of prison life where the college student’s volunteers were divided into two groups, half of them assigned as prisoners and the other half as the guards. For a better understanding of the psychology of imprisonment, experienced consultants services were called upon. For instance, an ex-prisoner who had served for seventeen years, Carlo Prescott, whose role was making the researchers aware of what it was like to be in prison. The prison for this experiment was constructed in the basement of Stanford’s psychology Department building (McLeod). A few adjustments were made to the building to make it suitable for a prison.

In the summer of 1971, male college students were seeked for a “psychological study of prison life” led by Philip Zimbardo (Zimbardo). Zimbardo, then a psychology professor at Stanford University, aimed to investigate how willingly people would adhere to the roles of guard and prisoner in a simulated prison. Of more than 75 applicants, 21 law-abiding, physically healthy and emotionally stable students were chosen. They were each to be paid $15 a day and the experiment was set to run for one to two weeks in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. Participants were divided into 10 prisoners and 11 guards by the flip of a coin. Hidden microphones and a camera were used to record much of the interaction between guards and prisoners.

Maria Konnikova, in “The Real Lesson of the Stanford Prison Experiment,” discusses two social psychology experiments: one conducted in 1971 and another in 2007. The 1971 experiment, led by Philip Zimbardo, studied what it means psychologically to be a prisoner or a prison guard. The subjects who took on the role of guards, without being instructed to do so, began humiliating and psychologically abusing the prisoners. The prisoners became submissive and took the abuse with minimal protest. This was taken to mean that people, with little prodding, naturally tend toward tyranny.

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

A STUDY OF PRISONERS AND GUARDS IN A SIMULATED PRISON Craig Haney, Curtis Banks and Phillip Zimbardo Stanford University The topic addressed in this article is called: Stanford prison experiment, a study of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison. Purpose: The purpose of the research described in this article is to investigate the psychological study of prison life experience in prisons by prisoners and the guards and the effects it has on their psychological behavior.

The Stanford Prison Experiment was designed to allow 24 participants (college students) to be arrested in a mock police state scenario without any charges being brought against them. The participants were hooded and put into a prison cellblock with other mock prisoners. The purpose of the experiment was to see how non-criminals would be affected by the prison culture and the oversight of prison guards. Philip G. Zimbardo (2004)