The Stanford Prison Experiment: A Psychological Study

The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological experiment to see what would happen when good people were put into evil environments. The participants were male college students who were randomly assigned to be guards or prisoners. The objective of the experiment was to see what would happen when good people are placed into horrible places. Also, if people not inor with less authority would stand up to those in more authority. My claim is that the Stanford Prison Experiment proves that good people can be easily corrupted by power.

"Cartoon imagery is a major point aspect of Chief Bromden's pathologically skewed point of view"(Nastru). Chief Bromden’s perspective gives the reader an idea of how the hospitals dictatorship was run and how McMurphy riled everyone up to get what they rightfully deserve. Another aspect the reader can understand from this view is that McMurphy was never mentally ill. The Big Nurse believed that his insanity was the cause of all his mischief and chaos.”an individual’s unacceptable behavior derives partly from violating social norms, and not entirely from psychological or biological reasons. What may be considered “normal behavior” in one social group may be determined as “abnormal” in another”(Martin).

This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.

“Over time it destroys them psychologically and brings outrage and sadism and violence and brutality”(Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). If my state was planning on opening up a supermax prison, I would present them with the ways inmates can earn their way out is by self-control, following the direction of the staff, and participate in work-study programs as well as educational programs. Although “supermax prisons subject inmates to extreme isolation and sensory deprivation for extended periods of time, the main goal and focus are to teach them how to obey the laws of the facility and have respect for the staff and other inmates”(Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). In order to released from supermax inmates will have to go under monitoring to ensure that they have gain control of their behaviors

In Dr. Philip Zimbardo’s psychology experiment called the Stanford prison experiment, he came to realization without rules and structure of the guards, they can take matters into their own hands and do whatever they want. The prisoners were deindividualized and were just called by their number on their uniform. The cruel and unusual punishments that the guards inflicted got too out of hand would cause the prisoners to have a mental breakdown and wouldn 't be able to finish the experiment. Zimbardo called this the lucifer effect. In William Golding’s novel “Lord of the Flies” and Sheryl St. Germain’s poem “In the Garden of Eden,” Lucifer and evil are also temptations, which eventually creates the fall of man.

In Ray Bradbury's “Fahrenheit 451”, the character Guy Montag is similar to the prisoner in “The Allegory of the Cave” because, Montag and the Prisoner were brought into the world with forced opinions and thoughts that shaped how they feel and think. Both Montag and the prisoner had nothing to look back on that showed a different opinion, so they were both stuck to believe anyone at face-value. These forced opinions however, were later changed after they were revealed by a character (the old man or Faber) and caused them to shed a whole new set of skin.

The prisoners taken captive with Levi were given these jobs at the detention camps once they arrived that were challenging and dangerous, but the leaders gave no sympathy. A quote that stands out by Levi is, “But this was the sense, not forgotten either then or later: that precisely because the lager was a great machine to reduce us to beasts, we must not become beasts; that even in this place one can survive, and therefore one must want to survive, to tell the story, to bear witness; and that to survive we must force ourselves to save at least the skeleton, the scaffolding, the form of civilization.” Levi illustrates that he, as well as others, have thought the worst thoughts and has had to hold themselves back from doing things they would regret, but they continue to be wise and stout for the end of their misery. Making friends aside from working and sleeping was crucial for survival, and Levi had made a lifelong friend, Alberto. They were “the two Italians” and became inseparable. They were bunk-mates for six months and had been through everything together until Alberto left.

Montag is clearly the prisoner that broke free, later finding out that the ‘shadows’ the government is showing them are indeed cover ups. The shadows represent the heavily censored society because you’re only seeing the shape of things, and not the tiny details. These tiny details are mirrored by how things are censored by the government. If you attempt to picture a three dimensional object after only seeing two dimensional objects then a new plethora of information is unlocked. Once the truth is unveiled the ex prisoner tries to tell others but is stopped by the them, Beatty.

Yet, his body is held captive in a hospital room that serves as a prison. He is closed off from the public because the leaders who rally war do not want the world to see the affects of war on servicemen. Trumbo reveals this by, “He was the future he was a perfect picture of the future and they were afraid to let anyone see what the future was like” (Trumbo 240-241). From Trumbo’s perspective, the government officials who rally war cover up the ugliness of war and the scars that it leaves on people’s lives. Through their use of propaganda and deception they make war into the cheap plastic rings that people buy in quarter

But they fail to realize that the system we have now throws anyone in jail no matter if the person committed the crime or not. They also fail to realize that the current system sentencing isn't organized or fair because there are people out there innocent and people who don’t deserve that time that was given for petty crimes. The current system doesn’t seek for justice, they see everyone who gets arrested as a criminal and feels they should be thrown away for a very long time and that isn't fair. Sentencing reforming is highly recommended due to the outrageous modern sentencing practices we have today. People go to jail or maybe even prison for such petty crimes that doesn't deserve the many years that were given to them.

Criminal Justice: We, The Rainbow Party, believe that criminal justice should be very more different. Instead of the criminals facing time in prison we think they should just go to a rehabilitation center to get treated. Some criminals do the things they do because they have a mental problem and if they are just locked in a place full of other criminals they will only be influenced more harshly and won 't get the help they need. On the other hand, being in a rehabilitation center puts them in a position to be forced to get help and go to counseling. We as a party think prison is a harsh place were a very large amount of criminals come together and either argue and gang up on others or they stay far away in fear of getting raped or hurt.