Impact of Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment on social psychology

¶ … 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 in investigating the causes of conflict among prisoners and military guards. The study offers class examination on the psychology of imprisonment allowing students taking introductory psychology to learn.

The value of the study in relation to social psychology

In 1971 America, college students began protesting against the government. They had enough of the way the government acted on behalf of the country and decided to take action. The protest seemed anti-authority and pro-peace. It marked a significant period in the United States where the youth took action. History shows (in countries all over the world) people take action in the form of protest, especially young adults in college, who are exposed to new ideas and philosophies.

The Stanford prison experiment show youth and the world at large, how individuals become affected by different scenarios and situations. It showed how, regardless of distinct characteristics, people became their roles. They adopted a new identity along with their individual identity. People in a way then became puppets for others in power and in control.

The relevance of the study in relation to contemporary world issues

Some circumstances exert dominant influences over persons and individuals. These influences cause people to behave in manners and ways they ordinarily would not. There is no way to predict in advance the kind of transformation. Studies like these provide insight into why people do the things they do when they assume these positions within an organization like the military or law enforcement or as criminals.

It also provides a further look into situational power, how it involves uncertainty of role boundaries. "Because situational power is often confounded with sociocultural group status, the cognitive biases of individuals who hold positions of relative situational power also serve to maintain existing social stratification…during interactions between members of stigmatized and nonstigmatized groups members of dominant groups are more often in power" (Richeson & Ambady, 2003, p. 177). Essentially, good people can be seduced, induced, and initiated into evil behavior from peer pressure and group mentality. A good example of this is the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq where prison guards treated prisoners horribly.

The value of the study in relation to humanity as a whole

When it comes to the participants of the study, they assumed a level of power and roles that granted them the go ahead to do as they pleased to prisoners or in the prisoners' case, do what they needed to survive. Guards ruled and controlled people. Prisoners lost sense of identity and adopted a pack mentality or "prison mentality" in order to survive. From that, one could say a paradox of power appeared. Less power meant less human.

Humanity in a way creates. Thoughts turn into words, which turn into actions. These actions, as seen in the study, transform people and their character, their identity. When a person goes into prison, they lose their main identity through the process of going to jail. "In most countries as part of the registration process inmates will be given an ID number, which will be connected to their name and all known aliases. From that point onwards all internal and external communication will be addressed using that ID number" (Imprintsfutures.org, 2015). It makes a human no longer a human, but a number, affecting the level of humanity shown on that person.

The problems and ethical concerns the study created

There will always be problems in situations like prisons. Prisoners for example were physically and psychologically harmed. Guards beat them, stripped and humiliated them, and put some in solitary confinement. Among other issues involved incomplete consent forms and surprise arrests. Full details of the study were not expressed leading to misinformation or lack of information. There was also a problem with invasion of privacy because strip searchers were publically exposed.

Current safeguards in place to reduce the likelihood of ethical concerns arising in research studies