ipl-logo

Was The Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical Or Unethical?

528 Words3 Pages

Stanford Prison Experiment
Was this experiment ethical or unethical?
“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.

I believe that the SPE was unethical and should not have been able to be conducted. If you look back at the experiment and read about it, or watch the movie, you can see that it was not even a true experiment. There was no variable, hypothesis, constant, or a change. Zimbardo was just keeping people locked up. But at that time what Zimbardo was doing was not against any laws. …show more content…

Once the guards got the prisoners out of the cells they would humiliate them, make them workout, and be locked in a closet called “The Hole” as punishments. After 36 hours into the experiment Prisoner #8612 had started to suffer from acute emotional disturbance, disorganized thinking, uncontrollable crying, and rage. Later during a prison count Prisoner #8612 started to go crazy and was telling the other prisoners "You can't leave. You can't quit." So he was later released and allowed to go home. This shows some of the causes of the

Show More
Related

  • Randy Gragg

    1016 Words  | 5 Pages

    The experiment took place at Stanford University in August of 1971 in the basement of the psychology department. The Stanford prison experiment wanted to explore the adverse effects that oppression from prison guards would have on

    Read More

  • Philip Zimbardo's The Stanford Prison Experiment

    1572 Words  | 7 Pages

    In the six days that the experiment ran they saw the personalities that the prisoner and prison guards took.

    Read More

  • Jane Elliot's Essay: The Eye Of The Storm

    517 Words  | 3 Pages

    I believe that the experiment is considered ethical because it only affected the children emotionally for a very short

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Stanford Prison Experiment And Philip Zimbardo

    751 Words  | 4 Pages

    In summary, the purpose of the Stanford Prison Experiment was supposed to demonstrate that powerful situational forces, much like Abu Ghraib, could over-ride individual dispositions and choices, leading good people to do bad things simply because of the role they found themselves

    Read More

  • Zimbardo Violation Of Research Ethics

    409 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ashley, I concur that the Stanford Prison Experiment did, in fact, violate research ethics. I believe that Zimbardo’s research experiment violated the ACJS code, specifically, the experiment did expose participants to more than a minimal risk of personal harm, and the research purposes were not fully disclosed to the participants. Zimbardo himself also admitted that his research experiment violated these standards. I further believe that Zimbardo made several errors in his research including the fact that he gave himself a position in the experiment as “prison warden”. Clearly Zimbardo should have had another person play this role so he could remain independent, an error Zimbardo also admits to having done.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast The Milgram Experiment And The Stanford Prison Experiment

    810 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • History Of Psychology: The Stanford Prison Experiment

    284 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the most infamous experiments conducted in the history of psychology was the Stanford Prison Experiment. The main objective of this experiment was to see what effects would occur when a psychological experiment into human nature was performed. As I read through the material provided, I noticed that my thoughts on the matter were similar to many; that it was a complete failure as a scientific research project. However, his findings did provide us with something much more important that is still being talked about today; insight into human psychology and social behavior.

    Read More

  • Essay On Stanford Prison Experiment

    599 Words  | 3 Pages

    They also concluded that the environment of the prison played a vital role in the way the guards treated the prisoners. It is believed that this experiment changed the way some U.S. prisons are

    Read More

  • How Did Philip Zimbardo Conform

    1676 Words  | 7 Pages

    After the experiment, the students who played the guards were interviewed and found to still be shocked by their behavior within the fake prison environment, unrecognising that side of them or that they were even capable of doing such evil and abusive

    Read More

  • When The Emperor Was Divine Thesis

    882 Words  | 4 Pages

    The actions that took place in that experiment were recorded in Zimbardo’s “The Stanford Prison Experiment.” The men who participated in the experiment also found themselves losing track of time. Zimbardo describes prisons as “machines for playing tricks with the human conception of time. In [their] windowless prison, the prisoners often did not even know whether it was day or night” (p. 109).

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment: Unethical Or Not

    746 Words  | 3 Pages

    The experiment was executed well. Yet, there are unethical practices happened during the experiment. First, the participants were not fully informed about the experiment. The researchers did not explain to the participants the processes in conducting the experiment. The participants were not informed that they would be arrested by cops in their homes.

    Read More

  • Stanford Prison Experiment Literature Review

    1129 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Stanford Prison Experiment: Can Normal People Behaving Evil?

    858 Words  | 4 Pages

    Normal People Behaving Evil The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment to see if normal people would change their behavior in a role-play as a prisoner or a prison guard. The experiment was conducted by Dr.Philip Zimbardo in 1973 at Stanford University that caused numerous amount of trauma to prisoners by prison guards in their role-playing position which forced Dr. Zimbardo to officially terminate the experiment six days after it was introduced. Due to the cruel aggressive behaviors from the guards, the experiment led to a question, "Do "normal" people have the capability of behaving badly?" The answer to that question is that most likely an individual who behave normally will have the capability of expressing evil behavior due to the environment that they are surrounded.

    Read More

  • Jane Elliott's Argument Analysis: The Blue Eyed Experiment

    724 Words  | 3 Pages

    The blue eyed – brown eyed experiment in my opinion is indeed ethical. The issue at hand with this experiment is will it cause permeant future psychological damage. Jane Elliott conducted this experiment with her third-grade students which some would say it is too harsh of an exercise for a group that young; She wanted to teach her student that discrimination is wrong which have been a topic they discussed from the first day of school but felt the student would become confused with the fact she just honored Dr. king in the month of February and now she had to explain to them that he was assassinated because of discrimination. Jane Elliott agreed that this exercise can do Psychological damage if not conducted correctly but the benefits are remarkable.

    Read More

  • What Is The Cognitive Dissonance Theory Of The Stanford Prison Experiment

    1231 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Was The Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical Or Unethical?

Open Document