Stanford Prison Experiment Literature Review

Unit 1 Written Assignment

Literature Review of article on Standard Prison Experiment

Introduction

This article concerns the Stanford Prison experiment carried out in 1971 at Stanford University. The experiment commenced on August 14, and was stopped after only six days. It is one of the most noted psychological experiments on authority versus subordinates. The studies which emerged from this have been of interest to those in prison and military fields due to its focus on the psychology associated with authority.

The author ultimate hypothesis focuses on two aspects relating to authority. The first aspect is that the uniform, from the view of the subordinate is one of absolute authority and power. So much it comes to the point where the guards, the authority, appear to be physically larger. This was found to be the case even when the guards were the same physical size.

The second aspect that should be highlighted from the author’s hypothesis is that guards themselves, the authority was in a specific mind-set which comes with the role, and most significantly the uniform which played a major role. This enabled them, psychology to commit the negative acts against the prisoners in the experiment.

What reinforces this idea the uniforms enabled this is the experiment encouraged negative as well as positive engagement with the prisoners. However most of those involved in the guard roles engaged almost entirely in negative behavior. This certainly reinforces the authors