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Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical Issues

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The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted by Professor Philip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971. The prison experiment was designed to explore the psychological impact of the prison environment on prisoners and prison guards. Professor Zambano was interested in finding out whether prisoners and guards and have personalities that make conflict inevitable and whether the conflict was due to sadistic personalities of the guards or more to with the prison environment.
The study took place in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology which was turned into a mock prison and the study was compromised of 24 male college students who were paid to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to be a guard or prisoners and the prison simulation was kept as real as possible with prisoners being treated as they would be treated if they were in an actual prison and the guards were able to give out punishment of those prisoners who they deemed non-compliant. The prisoners faced harassment, physical and psychological punishment from the guards and in some cases, were put in solitary confinement.
The study faced a lot of criticism due to ethical issues associated with the study. There was physical and psychological abuse associated …show more content…

The participants were not given all the facts about what exactly they were signing and consent forms were not properly completed.1 If modern ethical guidelines were followed the Stanford Prison Experiment would have never been allowed to take place. Although the participants were informed they would be shocked to be arrested at home and strip searched upon entry into the prison — and strip searching without consent is a complete violation of rights. Some of the prisoners involved in the study were not protected from psychological harm they experienced from being in the study, such as humiliation they suffered from the

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