Introduction to Psychology Student name University Abstract The Stanford Prison Experiment was a test undergone by Dr. Zimbardo in 1971, using a group of twenty-one (21) men split into two (2) groups of Prisoners and Guards. The experiment was a part of a larger project being undergone by the Office of Naval Research. Dr. Zimbardo was curious about the cause of human aggression and the links it may have to the social roles that people are given. The men quickly adapted into their roles, the guards showing continuously growing aggressive tendencies and the prisoners becoming more submissive. After the experiment, Dr. Zimbardo only managed to reform one prison law where minors charged with felonies
The Stanford Prisoner Experiment Review PSYC 1111 – University of the People The Stanford Prison Experiment was an infamous psychological experiment conducted in the early 1970s by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. He sought to find an explanation for the dehumanizing, deplorable conditions found in many prisons. Psychological theories at the time were based on a dispositional hypothesis in which it was the natural disposition of the guards and prisoners from before they even entered the environment that lead to the behaviours that caused these poor conditions. This experiment was designed to challenge these theories by removing the possible effects of disposition while emulating as closely as possible all other aspects of a prison environment.
Festinger, Pepitone and Newcomb in 1952 came up with an alternative to Le Bon’s theory, which developed further Le Bon’s theory on contagion. This helped in understanding the individual – group relationship that was the concept of deindividuation (Dixon and Mahendran, 2007). In this study Festinger et al explained deindividuation as a process were the individual has a big influence from the group that they belong that he/she does not view themselves as separate but a part of this group and therefore are not judged personally which leads to disinhibited and impulsive behavior to respond to the immediate demands of the situation (Dixon and Mahendran, 2007). Deindividuation is based on the idea that an individual is associated with a group through a common idea; this idea defines the group but not the
The Stanford Prison Experiment was a psychological experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo. Initially expected to last two weeks, it instead lasted a mere six days before coming to an end. The experiment successfully shows that all people, despicable or kind, are capable of truly terrifying things, and also reinforces an already well-known theory, the power of the situation. Thesis: Although the Stanford Prison Experiment had been planned to be a lengthy study to uncover what authority did to someone’s mindset, the two week experiment had been cut to six days by Philip Zimbardo and his team due the violent physiological state of the subjects caused by the environment surrounding them. The extent and range of possibilities in experiments today
The Stanford Experiment The most controversial psychological experiment is the Stanford Prison Experiment. This experiment was put together by Stanford professor Philip Zimbardo who conducted this experiment in between August 14-28 1971. The experiment was conducted to show the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. Zimbardo studies have proven the psychological effects of today’s prison system on the human brain. This experiment was going to have students play the roles of prisoners and guards for 14 days.
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.
Theories of deindividuation endorse that it is a psychological state of diminished self-analysis and a reduced evaluation of apprehension causing abnormal collective conduct, similar to violent crowds and lynch mobs. 3) Identify the times when people are most—and least—likely to help. Altruism is unselfish regard for the welfare of others. Risking one’s life to save lots of victims of genocide without an expectation of personal reward is an illustration of altruism. The bystander outcomes is the tendency for any given bystander to an emergency to be less likely to provide support if other bystanders are present.
1. The Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo Zimbardo’s social experiment in 1971, The Stanford Experiment, is heavily criticised on ethical grounds it provides a valuable insight into the “interpersonal dynamics which occur within the prison environment,” (Haney, Banks, & Zimbardo, 1973, p. 69). The experiment which randomly divided participants between prison guards and prisons dramatically demonstrated over a six day period the demonization that occurs within the prison system, as “the majority had indeed become prisoners or guards, no longer able to clearly differentiate between role playing and self,” (Zimbardo, 2001, p. 274). Whilst Zimbardo’s experiment is recognised as one of the first versions of “Reality TV” due to inclusion
I have chose “ The Stanford Prison Experiment”. The Stanford prison experiment was a study of the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner or prison guard. First of all I chose this Experiment because I was so intrigued with the effects of the human brain. I was amazed in what little time the good and well educated college students turned into completely different people is the short time of just 6 days! This Experiment came to be in the Stanford university on August 14 through the 20th in 1971.
For instance, Dalgleish and Yiend (2006) asked dysphoric adults to recall a specific negative past event. Participants were subsequently either asked or not asked to suppress the memory. The results revealed that thought suppression resulted in the faster recall of negative episodic memories. Moreover, Neufeind, Dritschel, Astell, and MacLeod (2009) investigated the effectes of suppressing memories regarding a distressing video clip on the recall of other autobiographical memories. The results were consistent ith the findings of Dalgleish and Yiend (2006) in terms of faster recall of negative episodic memories.