Phillip Zimbardo’s Standford Prison Experiment is one of the most amazing psychological experiments of all time. It showed that the human mind can be manipulated and changed if the amount of power one has is not under control. In this essay I am going to talk about variables that affected the experiment, ethics, personal relation and what I learned from it all. An ad was put out for volunteers for an experiment, which would pay fifteen dollars a day. Many applied but in the end after checking criminal records, and mental evaluations, Zimbardo chose twenty four males, who all were equally qualified as to not contaminate the experiment. He then randomly assigned the participants different roles, either being a guard or prisoner. Guards were briefed on what they could and could not to do the prisoners, and how the prison system was going to work. Prisoners were arrested at there homes and charged with armed robbery, they were then drove to the police station, finger printed and brought to there temporary prison. The home made prison in the basement of the collage, consisted of three rooms made into prison cells, with 3 cots each for the prisoners to sleep. The experiment was suppose to last fourteen days but due to unexpected results it had to be shut down after only six. In this experiment the independent variable would be the roles, in which the participants were assigned, along with the simulated prison environment, with the dependent variable being the outcome
The experimental study that I chose to write about is the Stanford Prison Experiment, which was run by Phillip Zimbardo. More than seventy applicants answered an ad looking for volunteers to participate in a study that tested the physiological effects of prison life. The volunteers were all given interviews and personality tests. The study was left with twenty-four male college students. For the experiment, eighteen volunteers took part, with the other volunteers being on call. The volunteers were then divided into two groups, guards and prisoners, randomly assigned by coin flips. The experiment began on August 14th, 1971 in the basement of Stanford’s psychology building. To create the prison cells for the prisoners, the doors were taken
The guards began to use physical punishment. They also would force the inmates to sleep without a mattress or sleep naked. The inmates were in cells built for three people. They had to share a bucket for excretion and defecating. The guards refused to dump the buckets causing the sanitation to be very poor. At one point in the experiment Zimbardo heard the release prisoner was going to help the others escape he moved the prison, but he never tried to help them escape. When Christina Maslach, Zimbardo’s future wife, said that she believe the experiment was not moral he discontinued his research on the sixth day. The results show obedience to authority and behavioral
1.What are the effects of living in an environment with no clocks, no view of the outside world, and minimal sensory stimulation?
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.
Philip Zimbardo, who categorizes himself as “good” fell victim to the situation of the “Stanford Prisons Experiment” (SPE). Even though it was a mock prison environment, Zimbardo fell heavily invested in his role as superintendent and lead investigator of the SPE, whose main concern is to make sure the SPE continues running, led him to accept that his actions were normal. Which in turn allowed him to ignore his moral conscience; allowing for the suffering from the participants surrounding the SPE. When Zimbardo came to the decision to end the program, disconnecting from his both his roles he was able to realize that he was not in control, that the situation had controlled his logic affecting his actions. Zimbardo states, “The negative
Social psychologist, Philip Zimbardo, has lead one of the most infamous experiments in the modern history with the Stanford Prison Experiment. The immense popularity of the experimental research on situational power, although having cultivated great recognition, has overshadowed the multiple contributions and accomplishments that Zimbardo continues to assume in his lifetime. Many of Zimbardo’s recognitions have been brought upon due to the Stanford Prison Experiment, yet in this paper will extensively examine Zimbardo’s psychological career from the beginning to the current date to recognize his notable influence in the field of Psychology, specifically the field of Social Psychology. This brief review of Zimbardo’s lengthy career will include various facts and personal accounts of Zimbardo’s regarding his life and work. Zimbardo’s lifetime of work has mainly focused and researched the multiple flaws of human’s beings, and it’s through his findings that society is truly able to progress forward positively. Zimbardo’s long career exemplifies that of an unrestricted devotion; he has and still works to better society through its various flaws, making him undoubtably impactful.
The Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment has to be one of the cruelest and disturbing experiments I have witnessed since the Milgram experiment. This experiment was pushed far beyond its means and went extremely too far. I know experiments in 1971 weren’t as thorough and strategic as today's but I know today's rules and regulations never allow cruel and unusual punish just to test out one’s theory’s. I don’t believe criminologists should be permitted to conduct replications of Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. I also know that the ACJS and other organizations who set the rules and guidelines for experiments would not promote or condone an experiment that is dangerous and is unethical such as Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment. There were no boundaries or a level
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
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.
Every person’s opinions and skills are valuable. It is important to be well-rounded and understand an individual’s views on particular topics. By being considerate of other’s feelings, there will be less conflicts. So far in my BA 105W group, we each have our own ideas and input when we work together. The vibe within our groups makes it easy to throw our ideas out there knowing that the others will add more to the ideas instead of attack each other. Like any other teams, there are times when we cannot come to a conclusion and would have to reason why we believe this idea is better than the others. Also, diversity within a group is very important. Groups and teams that consist of diversity are more successful because of different backgrounds
Ancient Egypt had a strong and well-organized government for many reasons. Pharaohs are exemplary when it comes to representing a well-organized government. They are the top dogs of Egypt. These rulers had dynasties which ruled over Egypt, sort of like the Caracalla dynasty of Rome. There were over 30 dynasties in Egypt. An instance of a dynasty was king Ramesses the second. Additionally, there were rules to being a pharaoh and how these rulers are proclaimed. This shows well-organized government because it is preventing people from randomly declaring themselves pharaoh and keeps the citizen of Egypt in line. One rule, for example, is that a Pharaoh could have many wives, but only one could be the great wife. The great wife’s son would be the
This paper serves to summarize The Zimbardo Prison Experiment, better known as The Stanford Prison Experiment which was conducted by Phillip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. The purpose of the study was to conduct research in order to better understand the psychological components of human aggression and submission to include conformity and obedience in a prison environment with a select group of subjects playing roles as either prison guards or inmates, however, I should note, according to McLeod, S. (2016), The Navy’s intent or purpose for the experiment was to better understand how to train members of the armed forces on how to cope with stress associated with captivity as opposed to making American Prison systems more humane. Another interesting point of note is that Zimbardo conducted this experiment shortly after World War II, and the Vietnam War where concern was raised as to some of the atrocities carried out in those wars where “ordinary” people conducted heinous acts per instruction from so-called authoritative figures. Experiments with similar objectives were carried out by Stanley Milgram and others. (Jones, A. D., & Milgram, S. 1974)
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
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.
The independent variable in the experiment would be the cell phone use by the college students. The dependent variable is the academic performance.