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Stanford Prison Experiment
The roles we take on in our everyday lives are dictated by several factors. Whether it's the role of mother, son, student, cashier, accountant, boyfriend, wife, or teacher, the roles that make up our identities are varied and we slip into and out of them without any conscious thought. These roles are adopted by us based on expectations and assumptions prescribed to us by ourselves and others. The extent to which we take on a role indicates how thoroughly this component of our experience has been integrated into out identities.
The Stanford Experiment sought to explore exactly how social roles are assumed and executed among groups of people. The context for this study was a simulated prison environment set-up in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford. Male student volunteers were randomly assigned to be either a "prisoner" or a "guard." The researchers then observed how the two groups assumed these roles and incorporated...
These measures were all used to take away any individualistic qualities among the group, so there was a sense of anonymity. The "guards" group was given an all khaki uniform to wear, given a billy-club, and wore reflective sunglasses that prevented prisoners from seeing their eyes. This also had the effect of making the guards anonymous without any unique of individual characteristics. However, the difference between the attire of the prisoners and the guards was that the uniform for the prisoners was intended to promote a sense of degradation and humiliation, while the uniform of the guards promoted authoritativeness.
The changes observed in the participants in the study were astounding. Both the prisoners and the guards fully…
Reference
Zimbardo, P.G. (2009) . Stanford prison experiment: A simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment conducted at Stanford University. Retrieved March 9, 2011 from http://www.prisonexp.org/index.html.
Stanford Prison Experiment Ethical issues are always first and foremost a subject of ambiguous grounds when it comes to experiments that are hinged on human behavior. Whether this is because of the short- and long-term consequences of psychological and physical harm, ethical questions are raised with regards to how much scientific benefit can be accrued from conducting such an experiment. This question remains heavily controversial especially in the Stanford Prison Experiment,
More importantly, they were not guaranteed the right to terminate the experiment at their will. When Prisoner 8621 asked to get out of the experiment he was summarily ridiculed and sent back. It was only when he screamed that Zimbardo was forced to let him quit. Guards were also given far too much leeway in their ability to mentally abuse and thoroughly humiliate the prisoners. There were no checks
Participants in the study did receive a psychological testing battery but in the study it is reported that scores were not known until the close of the experiment. This may mean that the aggressive behavior seen in the experiment was not due to the effect of the situation on the person, but rather the interaction of the person in the situation. Members of the study staff (minus Dr. Zimbardo,
Response to the Stanford Prison ExperimentAfter watching the Stanford Prison Experiment video, it is clear that in spite of being randomly assigned to the role of �prisoner� or �guard,� the subject in this experiment readily accepted their respective roles as well as the corresponding expectations. For example, students playing �prisoners� in this experiment soon mirrored the social expectations of people who are incarcerated, including becoming passive and stressed. Likewise, students
Stafford Prison Experiment is a study and film based on the study detailing the psychological effects people undergo when becoming a prison guard or prisoner. Stanford University held the conduction of the experiment from August 14-20 in 1971. Psychology professor Philip Zimbardo led a team of researchers for the study and funding came from the U.S. Office of Naval Research. The Marin Corps and the U.S. Navy had interest
Stanford Prison experiment was to examine the psychological and sociological effects of incarceration. In particular, researchers set out to examine how prisoners reacted to being bereft of power. Ultimately the experiment illustrated not just how prisoners reacted to being powerless, but also how simulated guards reacted to being bestowed with nearly unlimited power over others. The experiment was therefore exploratory in nature. Shuttleworth (2008) claims that the researcher Zimbardo