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Zimbardo 's Standford Prison Experiment

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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

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