Stanford Prison Experiment Philip G Zimbardo

In 1947 he was sent to Shawshank Prison where the story revolved around Andy’s transformation to prison life and his journey as an inmate in the prison. The movie was produced by Niki Marvin and directed by Frank Darabont. • The subculture that I will be analyzing is corruption and physical abuse depicted by the guards and warden at Shawshank prison. • The physical abuse and corruption started very early in the movie, Andy Dufresne’s first night in Shawshank an inmate was beaten to death by Captain Hadley because of his outbursts late at night. Captain Hadley plays a major role in the physical abuse at the prison.

Each male participant was randomly assigned a role as a prisoner or prisoner guard as the experiment required each participant to have a role in their prison life. The prisoners were arrested and taken to the prison that was used for this this experiment, while the experiment with the participants as prisoners and prison guards proceeded Philip Zimbardo and his team bugged the prison cells to see what the prisoners discussed amongst themselves which was private. They monitored the prisoners and prison guards, this experiment conducted showed that the participant’s behaviours changed due to the role they were selected as. The experiment only lasted 6 days as to the 2 weeks that it was meant to last, this was due to the prison guards becoming too abusive and the prisoners becoming traumatized over all the Stanford Prison Experiment planned had gotten way to out of control and real for all

The differential perception of the same situation "the prison experience" from people who are initially comparable (from the same population) but arbitrarily assigned to play different roles.” Purpose: “A simulated prison will be established somewhere in the vicinity of Palo Alto, Stanford, to study a number of problems of psychological and sociological relevance.” Taken from: http://pdf.prisonexp.org/geninfo.pdf Participants: Educated, male, American university students, with no prior psychological issues. Procedure: Convert the basement of the Stanford Psychology Department into a mock jail center, where barred windows and doors had been put into place, making the simulation of prison as real as possible, with one “solidarity” room for misbehaving prisoners. Advertise the experiment to look for volunteers. Once applications arrived, Zimbardo conducted several psychological tests on the volunteers to minimize the differences between the participants as well as screen for potential psychological differences (sadism, etc.) Randomly allocate the role of guards

The Stanford Prison Experiment was conceived by Phillip Zimbardo with the aim of the Experiment being to observe and analyse the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was funded by the United States Office of Naval Research who wanted to study anti-social behaviour 24 individuals were chosen for the experiment, all of them college age males (The story: An overview of the experiment, 1999). The individuals were assigned the role of prisoner or guard at random. With the aid of a consultant, the basement of Stanford University was converted into a realistic prison environment, with multiple cells, a solitary confinement chamber and a two way intercom, allowing guards to listen in on what the prisoners were saying. The prisoners were arrested without consent and subject to standard police procedure, being fingerprinted and then blindfolded and brought to the simulation prison.

The “prisoners” in the experiment have to deal with poor sleeping conditions, physical and verbal abuse and ruthless guards, while in a real prison, prisoners experience similar but more extreme conditions. In the film 13th we see examples of how prison guards act in a real life situation. Brutality and humiliation are common place in this environment especially when race is involved. Both of these scenarios are vastly different, the 13th dealing with the prison system from a racial standpoint as well as a breakdown of how the prison system works once you are in it, while the Stanford experiment focuses on how people react under the extreme conditions of a prison environment. Both situations have to deal with the breakdown of men and how they are reprogrammed to conform to the new set of laws they must now live

The Shawshank Redemption, an American drama, directed and written in 1994 by Frank Darabont is a classic even famous today. The film tells the story of Andy Dufresne, a banker who spent nineteen years of his life in the Shawshank state prison for the murder of his wife and her lover. The film, clearly exemplifies the hardships of the incarcerated inmates through characterisation in the form of Brooks Hatlan and Andy. This further creates institutionalisation as a means to redemption of one’s soul. Through the use of cinematography, imagery and shadowing, the director has been able to create the idea that incarceration acts as a catalyst to being instutionalised.

The power given to prison guards over prisoners can puts prison guards in the position to become evil. A great example of prison guards turning evil is seen through the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was conducted using normal mentally stable volunteers and assigned them to be either a prisoner or a prison guard. The roles were selected at random. Once the people who were assigned as guards received the power in the prison, they began to perform humiliating acts towards the prisoners; humiliating acts such as striping the prisoners naked and other sexually graphic acts.

Dickens revealed how the jails were where the, “Dire Diseases were bred [and how the they] came into the court with the prisoners,” eventually infecting the judge too. The absurdity that the judges believe they are safe from illness even though the prisoners are ill exposes the horrific state of law by exposing the irony in the court. The sickness shows irony for the judges own prisons are so disgustingly kept that the prisoners being brought in are the reason the judges themselves get sick and eventually perish. Furthermore, by personifying the illness as able to multiply on its own shows how horrific the state of the law is in England by giving a sense that the disease is physically growing and infecting the people of the courtroom. The horrible conditions of the court parallel the mob in France by exposing the state of

The short story centers around ‘The Apparatus’, which is the main ‘power’ device, and the characters’ roles are based in relation to it. A notorious British Politician, Lord Acton, famously said, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, which contributes to the idea that the power the apparatus has, leads to the downfall of The Officer through the absolute corruption of the old Commandant and The Officer’s regime on the colony. Franz Kafka’s writings lead readers to believe that they contain ‘Kafkaesque’ qualities. Merriam Webster defines ‘Kafkaesque as having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality’ (Webster). In the Penal Colony does indeed possess a fair share of these qualities, however, when broken down, the elements of sovereignty, rebellion, and textuality are all

The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Journey Into Authoritarian Leadership Over the years, scientists, psychologists, and doctors have used social experiments to further their understanding of our surroundings. Social experiments are studies of the human mind and psyche through various environments. In this case, a social experiment called the Stanford Prison Experiment is what opened new doors for the comprehension of human behavior, how we act when we are in power, as well as offered a glimpse into the flaws in our legal system. This experiment was conducted in 1971 in Palo Alto, California. As stated in the name of the actual experiment, it was a simulation of how it was like to be imprisoned.