Stanford Prison Experiment

Improved Essays
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a research developed by Philip zimbardo. The experimental prison was held at Stanford University in a basement where no sunlight Or contact to the outside world was available. This experiment went down in history as one of the most Best-known psychology experiments ever developed. The Psychologist selected 24 college students to undergo the experiment. 12 students were randomly chosen to be prisoners and the other 12 word guards. The 12 that were prisoners were forced to be confined in a makeshift jail cell. The guards were not allowed to physically harm to prisoners what could otherwise create feelings of fear powerlessness and boredom.This social experiment was able to turn levelheaded college students …show more content…
As time went on eventually the researchers themselves started to lose sight of the true goal of this experiment. Zimbardo Who was a prison warden overlook the abusive behavior the prison guards were having on the students. It took undergraduate at the time Christina Maslach To point out the errors of this experiment and put it to a stop. the Stanford Prison experiment is an example of how Power can play in a situation with human emotions. Because the guards were Given the control and power of the prison, they All of used their authority and acted in ways that they would normally act. The prisoners were placed at a position where they were powerless, Or stool follow what the guards say without their own free will most prisoners became obedient, passive, and depressed. Throughout the experiment I feel the ethical standard varied. I believe that some of the rules to the experiment varied between the students on somewhere not. For instance 24 students were picked out and half word to be separated from prisoners and guards at random. That part I can agree is fair because every student has an understanding of the situation before getting into …show more content…
The experiment also shows that good people can also be affected by authority. In the experiment, the teachers were given the list of questions to relay to the students behind a wall. The teacher is told that whenever the student gets a wrong answer he is supposed to apply electric voltage shocks to the student. Whenever the student gets a wrong answer higher the voltage Watts is increased. As the voltage got increasingly higher the student start to complain about how painful the electric shocks are getting. Most of the teachers were worried for the safety of the students and asked if they should stop the experiment, but was told to keep continuing by the professor. The teachers were also encouraged by the professor 's to keep continuing by informing them that whatever that happens in the experiment would be fault the professor even though the teachers are the ones that are inflicting the pain. Most of the teachers continued at first but as the voltage got higher and higher Got worried for the safety of the student. More than half of them stop at a certain point, but 65% of the teachers continued to the highest voltage. More than half of the school teachers conformed under the rules and regulations of the authority over them. Which shows how much power can make good people do things that they shouldn

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    This piece is an outline of the Stanford Prison Experiment. To start the collection of resources, I decided to choose one that would most benefit someone unfamiliar with the Stanford Prison Experiment. It covers the general idea and procedure of the social experiment. I wanted my first source to be completely objective and to give anyone unfamiliar with the experiment an overview. This article would benefit a student writing a synthesis because it provides objective, straightforward facts.…

    • 1748 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Zimbardo’s account of the Stanford Prison experiment provides his intent to determine whether the power of the situation or another unknown variable sourced report of brutality in prisons. The Stanford prison experiment allowed Zimbardo to embark on a six-day prison experiment to determine the control a prison environment possesses over the human psyche. Zimbardo examines the power of situations to alter ordinary men into sadistic machines, and Szegedy-Maszak provides a logical explanation for heinous actions; however, Zimbardo and Szegedy-Maszak fail to factor in individual responsibility and the perils of dehumanization. Both Szegedy-Maszak and Zimbardo agree that certain situations maintain the power to turn ordinary people into monsters or sadists. Szegedy-Maszak states that the feelings and turmoil of the soldiers were “exacerbated by difficult living conditions and constant danger” (Szegedy-Maszak 76).…

    • 1221 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This experiment help prisoners receive their basic rights and shed a light on prison guards abusing…

    • 861 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    This is evident through The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted by Phil Zimbardo in the basement of the psychology building at Stanford University in 1971. For the experiment, twelve individuals, in the role of a guard, were instructed…

    • 1571 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Milgram’s experiments created great controversy. They showed how vulnerable humans were to the will bending power of authority. This idea especially stuck around the time the experiment took place, the early 1960’s. America was still somewhat fresh off of World War II, and Americans were shocked to see that they were just as capable of being pushed to do things that went against their morals as Germans were under Nazi authorities. Milgram was thorough in his studies by including multiple permutations of the original where he tested subjects responses to different forms of authority.…

    • 1487 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The experiment started off with the volunteers adopting their roles quickly and easily, with guards exercising control, and the prisoners being compliant. Soon, the prisoners began adopting realistic behavior where they would abandon their solidarity and seek to benefit from other inmates infringements. With the prisoners being dehumanized with pointless orders, insults, boring jobs, and physical punishment (push-ups), it was clear that the guards began to act tyrannical in their environment. On the mere second day, there was a rebellion. Prisoners ripped off their numbers and barricaded their doors to seek protection and distance to insult and mock the guards.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Conducted in August 1971 by Professor Philip Zimbardo, the Stanford Prison Experiment was an experimental study using students to evaluate how an individual’s behavior can be shaped when put in certain situations involving power. The students chosen to participate were assigned randomly as either a prison guard or a prisoner and were placed in the basement of the Psychology Department at Stanford University to conduct the experiment. Despite being planned to run for two weeks, the experiment only lasted six days due to it becoming too brutal and raising the chance of endangering the students involved mentally. The students chosen to be the prison guards used a variety of methods to try to control the students that were acting as the prisoners.…

    • 1020 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This experiment went wrong and led to mental problems. These problems became so extreme that the experiment was discontinued after 6 days instead of 2 weeks. The Stanford Prison Experiment called into question the idea of Good vs Evil. The experiment showed how situational journey can cause an individual to “compromise” their beliefs. This change in behavior lead to psychological conflict among the “guards” and “prisoners.”…

    • 869 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Milgram experiment was done by Stanley Milgram to see how people would respond when an authority figure told them to do something that went against their conscience. The subject was told to give shocks, which went up in voltage, to a learner who was in on the experiment, unknowingly to the subject. Psychologists estimated that 1% of the subjects would go to the end of the board; however, 65% of the subjects did. This proved that people are capable of doing anything, as long as it comes from a legitimate authority no matter how inhumane it could be. The Stanford prison experiment was done by Philip Zimbardo to see how good people respond when they are placed in a bad environment.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It was under Philip Zimbardo’s leadership that the Stanford Prison Experiment took average, everyday boys, like Prisoner number 8612, and made them believe they were trapped in a real life prison. It was August 14th, 1971, a Sunday morning when the prisoners were arrested. Each of the nine boys were taken from…

    • 2175 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Of the 75 people who answered the ad, 24 were selected after answering a battery of questions regarding their family, personal and mental health history. The 24 selected were judged to be the “most stable…most mature, and least involved in anti-social behaviors” (Haney et al., 1973). These subjects were informed they would be randomly selected to play the role of ‘guard’ or ‘prisoner’ and that ‘prisoners’ should expect to be under close surveillance throughout the experiment, as well as lose some of their civil rights during their ‘imprisonment’. ‘Guards’ believed the purpose of the experiment was to study the behavior of prisoners. They were given a pseudo orientation during which they were informed of their work and administrative duties as ‘guards’.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Belmont Report

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stanford prison experiment was done to see if it is the people that occupy it and run the prison that make it inhuman. Or if it is the conditions that the people are kept in that make it brutal for the inmates and the people that work there. When it comes to testing these types of experiments. Where the subjects are exposed to an environment that can be harmful to them. There is a set of ethical guidelines that must be followed.…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In order to obtain candidates for the experiment, an advertisement was placed in the newspaper for anyone who wanted to participate in the study of how life was in prison. Seventy-five men were interviewed for the roles, but of those seventy-five, only twenty-four were chosen. They were selected at random to take and perform the roles of either prison guards or inmates. The experiment was meant to last two weeks’ time, but at the end of just six days, it was apparent that it should come to a close. Phil Zimbardo, the conductor of this experiment, was a teacher of psychology at the university.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    On August 14, 1971 Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment called the Stanford Prison Experiment took off. Young men were offered $15 a day to take part in a mock prison experiment in the basement of the Stanford University Psychology Department. The men were divided into either prison guards or prisoners, this experiment was only to last two weeks. Upon the prisoners arrival at the make shifted prison they were stripped off their clothes and sprayed with disinfecting spray. Each prisoner was issued a dress as a uniform with their prison identification number on the back and front.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Stanford Prison Experiment What prevented "good guards" from objecting or countermanding the orders from tough or bad guards? The good guards were unable to object or countermand the bad guards because of the fear of what it would do to the guards’ authoritative role in the eyes of the prisoners. If they showed disunity as guards the prisoners could take advantage of the unstructured and create chaos within the walls of the prison. By objecting to the bad guards, they take the risk of the prisoners not taking the guards orders seriously.…

    • 1004 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays