Stanford Prison Study - Essay Example

Stamford Prison Experiment Who, What, When, Where, Why details of the experiment.  The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological study conducted at Stanford University and aimed at finding out the causes of disagreements between prisoners and prison warders. The study sought to know whether being a prison guard or prisoner affects how one behaves. Additionally, the experiment was intended to find the effect that situations have on human behavior. The US Navy funded the study. A team of psychologists led by Philip Zimbardo who also acted as the superintendent in 1971 from August 14 to August 20 did the experiment.

The study involved 24 male college students who had been selected randomly and were considered the best among the applicants in terms of physical and mental stability. The students were supposed to receive a payment of $15 per day. The students were assigned roles as either prison guards or prisoners. Additionally, the guards were dressed in Khaki suits and wore sunglasses to conceal their eyes while the prisoners wore shoddy clothes, had legs chained together, and wore paper blindfolds. The prisoners were arrested from their homes, charged for different claims, and locked in makeshift prison in the basement of psychological department building.

The prisoners were exposed to a real prison life. Prior to the experiment, each of the groups was briefed on what the experiment entailed (Zimbardo, 1972).2) What were the significant findings? What was learned from the experiment? As days passed, the guards became increasingly aggressive and exposed the prisoners to a lot of humiliation and torture. On the other hand, the prisoners responded by resisting the torture by acts such as hunger strike. One of the prisoners suffered real breakdown and the other had to be released after a period of 36 hours.

No matter how the prisoners reacted, the guards retained their demeaning acts. The experiment results revealed the influential role that situations play in determining or altering human behavior. It was due to the situation that the students in the experiment started acting differently. Those playing the role of guards became domineering and aggressive while prisoners became passive withdrawn (Zimbardo, 1972).3) What are the ethical considerations? I.e., were there any ethical violations? What were they and why were they violations?

(You may use your book) The ethical consideration of the Stanford Prison Experiment included informed consent since the students volunteered to participate. However, the Stanford Prison Experiment violated ethical codes including the ethic codes set by American Psychological Association. It was due to ethical questions that the reasons the Stanford Prison Experiment was terminated before its completion. The experiment lacked anonymity since it was video recorded. Another violation was because the participants particularly those students performing the role of prisoners were not protected from harm.

Additionally, the participants were not fully briefed of their experience while participating in the experiment (Zimbardo, 1972).4) What was your reaction to the videos/experiment? When I watched the video on the Stanford Experiment, I was astonished at the extreme of torture the guards exposed towards the prisoners. At some point, the experiment appeared to be an occurrence recorded from real prison as opposed to it being a mock prison. Most astonishing was the extent to which the guard had internalized their roles.

This was evident from their acceptance to continue with the experiment even when the prisoners demonstrated traumatic behaviors. ReferencesZimbardo, P. (1972). Stanford Prison Experiment: A Simulation Study of the Psychology of Imprisonment. New York: Philip G. Zimbardo, Incorporated.