The Psychological Consequences in Different Situations - Assignment Example

1. What are the effects of living in an environment with no clocks, no view of the outside world, and minimal sensory stimulation? 

Ultimately, science has proven that in a situation in which total sensory deprivation and lack of stimuli are exhibited, the human will begin to lose sanity and soon die.  As a function of the fact that human beings are social creatures, it is necessary to have a near-continuous level of stimuli, with the exception of sleeping hours of course, in which to allow the mind to extrapolate into a sense of reality.

2. Consider the psychological consequences of stripping, delousing, and shaving the heads of prisoners or members of the military. What transformations take place when people go through an experience like this?

The rationale behind this is to make the individual recruit feel as if they are part of a larger group and that this trial by hardship builds a greater sense of group identity.  If on the other hand only a handful of individuals were required to strip, shave their heads, and delouse, an identification of the fact that only a select handful of individuals should be treated this way and should retain a certain identity is tacitly created.

3. At first, push-ups were not a very aversive form of punishment, but they became more so as the study wore on. Why the change?

The reason for this is due to the fact that the individuals who were asked to perform them became frustrated with the increasing levels of humiliation that were used; i.e. the guards placing their feet on the backs of the prisoners or requiring other prisoners to place their own feet on the back of other prisoners who were tasked with doing the pushups.

4. How do you think you would have behaved if you were a prisoner in this situation? Would you have rejected these privileges in order to maintain prisoner solidarity?

I would have rejected such privileges due to the fact that the entire purpose of the privilege was to win over a subset of the prisoners to the viewpoint of the guards as a way to “divide and conquer”

5. Most prisoners believed that the subjects selected to be guards were chosen because they were bigger than those who were made prisoners, but actually, there was no difference in the average height of the two groups. What do you think caused this misperception? 

The misconception was caused with regards to who actually had the aura of dominance and authority.  The dress code and the manner by which the guards interacted with the prisoners made them appear as if they were bigger and more authoritative than they were in actuality.

6. Compare the reactions of these visitors to the reactions of civilians in encounters with the police or other authorities. How typical was their behavior? 

The behavior was highly typical as our own society has built a type of wall that separates the “good guys”, individuals in authoritative positions of law enforcement, from those that are not.  As such, it comes an as little surprise that the visitors showed such trust and level of deference with regards to the guards on duty.

7. In an exploratory study such as this, one problem is defining what the "data" are -- the information we should collect. Also, what should have been done to minimize the effects of experimenter bias on the outcome of the study? What were the dangers of the principal investigator assuming the role of prison superintendent? 

Experimenter bias is most evidenced with regards to what data was actually collected, what was measured, and with what goal in mind.  As such, it is utterly impossible to completely rid the world of experimenter bias as it is the decision/bias of the individual(s) involved in such choices to delineate what should be focused upon.  As a means of reducing experimenter bias in the future, it would be necessary to ensure that several different individuals weigh the merits of each approach and measurement prior to it being agreed upon and collected.

8. In 2003 U.S. soldiers abused Iraqi prisoners held at Abu Ghraib, 20 miles west of Baghdad. The prisoners were stripped, made to wear bags over their heads, and sexually humiliated while the guards laughed and took photographs. How is this abuse similar to or different from what took place in the Stanford Prison Experiment?

The abuse is quite similar; mostly due to the fact that it perfectly illustrates the extent and rapid onset of human nature and depravity when few if any checks or balances are made with regards to the way in which individuals are treated. 

9. Where had our "John Wayne" learned to become such a guard? How could he and others move so readily into that role? How could intelligent, mentally healthy, "ordinary" men become perpetrators of evil so quickly?

Much of this has to do with the environment within which an individual grew up.  As such, even a seemingly well-adjusted individual that is successful and intelligent/healthy/happy can exhibit the rapid onset of sadistic tendencies as a means of coping with painful memories or bullying/abuse that they may have faced in their youth.

10. In the encounter sessions, all the prisoners were happy the experiment was over, but most of the guards were upset that the study was terminated prematurely. Why do you think the guards reacted this way?

Obviously, the guards were drunk with the power that was provided them and wished the experiment to go on so that they could subject others to the sadistic levels of power and control that they were refining.