Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment

Prison reform has been an ongoing topic in the history of America, and has gone through many changes in America's past. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. Many criminal justice experts have viewed imprisonment as a way to improve oneself and maintain that people in prison come out changed for the better (encyclopedia.com, 2007). In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). This practice may have worked 200 years ago, but as the world has grown more complex, time has proven that fear alone does not prevent recidivism. In the 19th century, Dorothea Dix, a women reformer and American activist, began lobbying for some of the first prison reform movements.

Philip Zimbardo questioned, “What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?” (Zimbardo, 1971) In 1971 a psychologist named Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment on the effects prison has on young males with the help of his colleague Stanley Milgram. They wanted to find out if the reports of brutality from guards was due to the way guards treated prisoners or the prison environment. Zimbardo offered $15 per day for two weeks to take part in the experiment. The experiment was held in the basement of Stanford University Psychology building; they turned it into a mock prison.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is an enlightening and interesting experiment, although controversial to many. An artificial or mock prison is created and every day, normal people are used to simulate guards and prisoners. The behaviors of both are studied and reported on.

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.

"Prisons are closed institutions. They are established and funded by governments to hold people against their will". This seems to be a known thought amongst society members based on personal beliefs. People often ask themselves if there is a need to reform prisons. The government, citizens, educators, and even prisoners are divided about the right answers. There is disagreement in society about how the purpose of the prison system should be considered. On one hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek deterrence, incapacitation, or retribution to avoid appearing too soft on inmates. On the other hand, the regulations of the prison system may seek to opportunities to re-socialize prisoners or to effect changes in the character, attitudes,

This experiment was conducted in Stanford University by Dr. Zimbardo. During this two week long session, Dr. Zimbardo had several volunteers agree to act as prisoners and as prison guards. The prisoners were told to wait in their houses while the guards were to set up the mock prison, a tactic used by Dr. Zimbardo to make them fit into their roles more. The official police apprehended the students assigned to the role of prisoner from their homes, took mug shots, fingerprinted them, and gave them dirty prison uniforms. The guards were given clean guard uniforms, sunglasses, and billy clubs borrowed from the police. The guards were instructed to maintain order anyway they wanted without using physical violence. Zimbardo wanted the guards to seem intimidating while the prisoners were made to look inferior and were to be referred to with their ID number only. After the prisoners were assigned their roles and the guards took their post was the effect of the experiment finally setting in. On the morning of the second day the prisoners began to rebel against the guards by ripping off their ID numbers and barring the doors while taunting the guards. This event was the first step down the slippery slope that would follow. The guards took matters into their own hands and drove the prisoners out of their cells. The guards began to take on cruel and sadistic behaviors by humiliating the prisoners with menial tasks such as cleaning their latrines with their bare hands. After the sixth day the experiment was terminated because it was immoral to the prisoner group, of which lost three members due to mental breakdowns. It was concluded that many people tend to fit into social norms and don’t consider personal responsibility even for acts that are

Even if the study has received a lot of ethical criticism, the result still helps Zimbardo to make a conclusion that is helpful for his future endeavor in research. Another thing that makes this experiment beautiful is that it can help the police and military offices to train their people in coping the stress of being imprisoned among the prisoners. It would help them to know how that prison environment has a great factor in creating brutal behavior among the

The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in 1971 illustrated the direct relationship between power of situations and circumstances to shape an individual’s behavior. During this study 24 undergraduates were grouped into roles of either a Prisoner or a Guard, the study was located in a mock correctional facility in the basement of Stanford University. Researchers then observed the prisoners and guards using hidden cameras. The study was meant to last two weeks. However, the brutality of the Guards and the suffering of the Prisoners was so intense that it had to be terminated after only six days. During this period, Zimbardo observed the radical change in the personalities of the participants embodying the role of the prison guard, as they changed from ordinary young men to men with a vicious and sadistic character. Zimbardo stated that he was trying to portray what transpired when all of the individuality and dignity was stripped away from a human, and their life was completely controlled. He wanted to demonstrate the dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values that can happen to guards immersed in such a situation (“Stanford Prison Experiment”). This experiment has been used to exemplify the cognitive dissonance theory and the power of authority. In addition, the findings advocate the situational explanation of behavior rather than the dispositional one.

Which of the concepts in these chapters was the most difficult for you? In 5-7 sentences, explain what you think you understand and ask 2-3 questions about things you know you don 't understand.

History has shown many ways that criminals were punished for committing a crime. Some crimes in the past were punished with torturous techniques that were deemed suitable at certain points in human history. However, as time passed, many of those punishment techniques were viewed, by many, as cruel and demeaning, which sparked change in the way crime was punished. Legislation was created to protect the inmate from being punished too severely. However, as many of these institutions began to change and reform prison sentences, many still viewed punishment techniques as “coercive forms of control” (Wright, N/D, p 318). Even though, prisons are meant to control inmates every movement, they are also abusing that power in separating

In Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s The Stanford Prison Experiment, 20 college aged boys are selected to play different roles in a simulated prison located within Stanford.This experiment was thought of and carried out by Philip Zimbardo, a professor of psychology. The boys, who were also students at Stanford, were randomly selected to be a guard or a prisoner. The prisoners were taken by real police officers to the Stanford jail. When the experiment started, most of the prisoners thought of the situation as it was intended to be, an experiment. However, the guards were much more serious. Prisoner 8612 received a large amount of attention from the guards, and could arguably have been the most abused prisoner. At one point, 8612 and another prisoner attempt to break out of the prison, but it failed. After having many

In 1971, Philip Zimbardo set out to conduct an experiment to observe behavior as well as obedience. In Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison experiment, many dispute whether it was obedience or merely conforming to their predesigned social roles of guards and prisoners that transpired throughout the experiment. Initially, the experiment was meant to test the roles people play in prison environment; Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards, disposition, or had more to do with the prison environment. This phenomenon has been arguably known to possibly influencing the catastrophic similarities which occurred at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.The

In the institution of prison there are many difficult Pains that the prisoners face daily. According to Sykes and Messenger there are five main pains of imprisonment. These views are also reflected in the book, “In the Belly of the Beast” by Jack Abbot. Although the three do agree on quite a few things about imprisonment, there are also some disagreements between them that will be talked about. “The Pains of imprisonment”(Sykes & Messenger 1994), leads into how the social system works in prisons. There is a very definite social structure to prison life, unlike the social structure outside of a prison. In The article by Sykes and Messinger we see a very distinct setup of how things work in prison. There are different points to make about this

“Now, you'll all be given sunglasses and uniforms to give the prisoners a sense of a unified, singular authority… And from this point forward you should never refer to this as a study or experiment again,’’ (Dr. Phil Zimbardo). The guards were given power by having a uniform, the ability to make their own rules for the prisoners, changing the way they saw themselves and behaved. “Prisons, they represent… a loss of freedom, literally and symbolically. We're trying to strip away their individuality… Take away all the things that make them them. You see, we're trying to understand how an institution affects an individual's behavior.” (Dr. Zimbardo). All the prisoners went through the weakening of their self-identity, the way they were dressed and called made them small compared to the guards. “You have no right! I'll smash this camera! I'll beat up your fucking guards! You're messing with my head, man. My head! You have no right to fuck with my head!” (Prisoner). Over the course of the experiment, the prisoners face humiliating situations and unreasonable physical punishments from the prison guards, leading to emotional breakdowns. “My problem is that the guards and the people running this experiment are not treating the prisoners like human beings. Mr. Correctional

“Male college students needed for psychological study of prison life. $15 per day for 1-2 weeks beginning Aug. 14. For further information & applications come to Room 248, Jordan Hall, Stanford U.” That was the ad in the newspaper that began the experiment. The Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) was conducted by a man named Philip Zimbardo who was interested in the roles people play in prison situations. This essay supports why the SPE was ethical. The SPE was unethical because it is scaring, humiliating, and inhumane that is why it is unethical.