Stanford Prison Experiment Essays (Examples)

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…

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, conducted in 1971 at Stanford University. The idea in question was whether the social and physical behaviors in prison life was conducted because of the people in the environment or whether the situation in itself applies a general stress of how to react to such an environment.

"What happens when you put good people in an evil place?" (Zimbardo, 1999) and "Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?" (Zimbardo, 1999) are only the starting points of this…

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 on their behavior.

Interestingly, Zimbardo and the other directors seemed to be aware of their ethical transgressions. On visiting day, they purposefully cleaned up the prison to sterilize its appearance and make the parents feel appeased. Their actions clearly show they were aware of the sadism inherent in the prison experiment and were covering it up. Oddly, Zimbardo seems less than remorseful even in retrospect. The Stanford prison experiment left as much of a legacy on creating ethical standards in psychology…

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, who has made a closet enterprise of his study) have attempted either to distance themselves from the experiment. The chief consultant on the project, Carlo Prescott, recently wrote to the Stanford Daily describing the shame he felt over his participation in the project, describing it as a "theatrical exercise." Other elements of concern in the study include the method of experimentation on human subjects. As we have previously noted, informed consent was inadequate for the degree of abuse and harassment the…

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 esearch. 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…

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 "wanted show the dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values that can happen to guards immersed in such a situation." The object of the experiment was "to create an experiment that looked at the impact of becoming a prisoner or prison guard," (Cherry, n.d.). The research had a focus, but its focus was relatively open-ended in terms of specific hypothesized relationships between dependent and independent variables. Zimbardo (2012) reflects on the experiment and claims it was a "dramatic demonstration of…

Among the dozen investigations of the Abu Ghraib abuses, one found that the landmark Stanford study provided a cautionary tale for all military detention operations. In differentiating the comparatively benign environment of the Stanford prison experiment, this report makes obvious that in military detention operations, soldiers work under demanding combat conditions that are far from benign. The insinuation is that those combat conditions might be anticipated to produce even more severe abuses of power than were observed in the mock prison experiment (Zimbardo, 2007).

Discussion

The Stanford prison experiment is but one of a host of studies in psychology that reveal the extent to which peoples behavior can be transformed from its usual set point to deviate in unimaginable ways. If the goals of the criminal system are simply to blame and punish individual perpetrators then focusing almost exclusively on the individual defendant makes sense. if, however, the goal is…

Human Aggression and the Stanford Prison Experiments

Studies of human aggression tend toward myriad and often competing conclusions about that which drives us to behave ethically or unethically, about the forces that incline us toward altruism as opposed to those which incline us toward aggression, about the impulses to behave according to internal values and the pressures to bend to contextual authority. Perhaps few studies on the subject have penetrated the question with more troubling results than the Stanford Prison Experiment. Overseen by human psychology professor Phillip Zimbardo in 1971, the experiment would see Zimbardo assuming the role of Prison arden, converting a basement space in an academic hall into a prison and casting young college students as prisoners and guards. The resulting events are nothing short of revelatory, illustrating a tendency for both prisoners and guards, and even Zimbardo himself, to be consumed with the appointed experimental roles. It…

Human Experimentation

The Stanford Prison Experiment

The concept of a human's dual nature and the presence of a darker side of morality has always been a fascinating study throughout history. While obert Louis Stevenson attributes this Jekyll-Hyde phenomenon to a more repressed desire within the minds of the people, Philip G. Zimbardo takes it to a further step. Both talk about the evils within a person that comes out via prompting (for Stevenson, this is through the use of a mere potion, for Zimbardo, it is because of environmental constraints). Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment is a prime example of such experimentation on duality, a human experiment that -- akin to Jekyll's testing upon himself -- went dreadfully wrong.

The Stanford Prison Experiment sought to explore two types of problems: one was the creation and development of a psychological state within the constructs of a provided physical environment; the other was…

Perils of Obedience" and the "Stanford Prison Experiment"

Both "The Perils of Obedience" and the "Stanford Prison Experiment" essentially demonstrate the potential for 'evil' in ordinary citizens when placed in situations where stark authority is pitted against the individual's own moral imperatives (Milgram) or when deindividuated potential perpetrators are given total power over powerless victims (Zimbardo). Though the experiments differed vastly in design and methodology, the point of both experiments was to observe how far an individual would go in inflicting increasing pain on a victim.

There were several common ethical issues thrown up by both experiments. As Zimbardo says, "The line between Good and Evil lies in the center of every human heart...not in some abstract moral, celestial space..." (Sonoma State University eb site) Similarly, Milgram observes, "Conservative philosophers argue that the very fabric of society is threatened by disobedience, while humanists stress the primacy of the individual conscience."…

Social Psychology Studies: Explaining Irrational Individual Behavior by Understanding Group Dynamics

Social psychology is, as its name suggests, a science that blends the fields of psychology, which is the study of the individual, and sociology, which is the study of groups. Social psychology examines how the individual is influenced by the group. It looks at the influence of group or cultural norms on individual behaviors, thoughts, and feelings. However, because group norms are believed to change behavior, social psychology can be very difficult to document; the presence of the observer is believed to change behavior. As a result, social psychologists have developed a number of different studies aimed at investigating the interaction between group expectations and individual behavior. These studies offer insight into human social behavior, particularly into those social behaviors that seem to defy expectations and well-established social norms.

While there have been numerous social psychology studies since the…

In fact, during the study, the guards became more sadistic when they thought no one was watching them. Zimbardo notes, "Their boredom had driven them to ever more pornographic and degrading abuse of the prisoners" (Zimbardo). This may be the same reason guards at Abu Ghraib tortured and humiliated their charges, and the study seems to indicate this could happen in just about any prison anywhere, if the guards have enough power. The world should pay more attention to this study and its implications. As another writer notes, "The young men who played prisoners and guards revealed how much circumstances can distort individual personalities -- and how anyone, when given complete control over others, can act like a monster" (Alexander). This is what happened at Abu Ghraib, and chances are it is happening all around the world as well. In an interview about Abu Ghraib, Zimbardo notes the prison environment…

ole and Evolution of the American Prison System

Explain the Primary ole and Evolution of the American Prison System and Determine if Incarceration educes Crime

The United States constitution is the fundamental foundation of the American criminal justice system. Given that the document is now over two hundred years old, it constantly experiences numerous amendments and interpretations. As a result, the criminal justice system over the years experienced alterations in order to reflect the needs and beliefs of each subsequent generation. The configuration of the modern prison system has its basis in the late 1700's and early 1800s. The development of the modern prison system aims at protecting innocent members of the society from criminals. The prison systems also deter criminals from committing more crimes through detaining and rehabilitating them. However, more and more deluge of white-collar crimes and other crimes, burdens the American criminal justice system and the prison…

In the American Disease: Origins of Narcotic Control, David Musto notes that throughout the twentieth century, America's drug wars have regularly scape-goated minority groups, like the Chinese with opium, marijuana among the Mexicans, and cocaine among the African-Americans (McCormick 2000).

The National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals reported in 1973 that "the prison, the reformatory and the jail have achieved only a shocking record a failure. There is overwhelming evidence that these institutions create crime rather than prevent it," yet during the next two decades both state and federal legislatures implemented increasingly stiffer penalties and mandatory minimums claiming that prisons were an effective tool for crime control, and longer prison terms would reduce crime by deterring or incapacitating criminals (McCormick 2000). However, at the end of this period, after the average prison sentence had tripled and the prison population at more than quadrupled, a National Academy of…

If anything, the fact that ordinary civilian students proved capable of such conduct on other civilians, even without the psychological stresses of a wartime combat zone and genuinely hostile prisoners, suggests that the risk of similar abuse in genuine wartime situations is much higher.

In Abu Ghraib, mixed units with different levels of training were operating in a hostile combat zone where they were subject to hostile action (i.e. mortar attacks) by the same forces from whom their prisoners were captured. Whereas at Guantanamo detention facilities guards worked in an environment of 1-to-1 prisoner-to-guard ratio, the Abu Ghraib facility sometimes required working in a 75-to-1 ratio of prisoners-to-guards (DOD, 2004). Zimbardo's study already demonstrated that anonymity is one conditions capable of "... stirring the crucible of human nature in negative directions." The other factors listed by Zimbardo include diffusion of responsibility, dehumanization, peers who model harmful behavior, bystanders who do…

Business (general)

Please list sections according to instructions

Exercise 1.1: eview of esearch Study and Consideration of Ethical Guidelines

Option 1: Stanford Prison Experiment

Go to: http://www.prisonexp.org, the official site for the Stanford Prison Experiment.

What do you think the research questions were in this study? List 2 or 3 possible research questions (in question format) that may have been the focus of this experiment.

What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? Does natural or innate evil exist, or is evil situational? Are certain people simply born "bad apples" or are they made evil by "bad barrels"?

What is "reality" in a prison setting? This study is one in which an illusion of imprisonment was created, but when do illusions become real? How quickly and easily will 'ordinary men' adjust to the roles as prisoners, guards and…

He goes so far as to say that disobedience may be the thing that eventually saves the human race. His argument is that if people blindly follow the commands of the leaders of their nations, and the leaders of their nations have a reason to bomb one another, then the human race will be eradicated because those people obeyed the commands to push those bomb-sending buttons (Fromm). According to this argument, disobedience must at the very least be considered valuable and worth contemplation.

Fromm supports his claim regarding the value of disobedience with examples from two very popular myths. The first is the Hebrew myth of Adam and Eve, the first human beings to walk the earth. The story is told that Adam and Eve disobeyed a command to stay away from the fruit of one particular tree in their home, the Garden of Eden. hen they disobeyed this command,…

social psychology: Stanley Milgram's shock experiments and Philip Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment. Both experiments were conducted, at least partially, to help explain why seemingly normal people became Nazi collaborators in the World War II era. The experiments help demonstrate how individual authority over another allows individuals to exercise their own proclivities for cruelty and how being under the direction of authority figures causes people to engage in behavior that they find distasteful or cruel. The paper also examines Jane Elliot's Brown Eye / Blue Eye experiment and what it says about the establishment of hierarchies.

Milgram and Zimbardo

After the end of World War II, as more and more information became available not just about the atrocities committed by the Nazis, but also about how seemingly normal individuals acted as collaborators to aid the Nazis in their pursuits, psychologists and sociologists became fascinated with how seemingly normal people could be…

These are scripted roles with known dialogues that the audiences can understand. No improvisation is needed. At the same time, people idolize the line between good and evil is unbreakable. They are on the good side and kept from the others on the bad (Kawasaki, 2007).

However, such a view is deceptive. It is very possible and probable that the ordinary person can be encouraged to join the other side and no longer listen to or obey law, norms, conformity and responsibility. "That line between good and evil is not an abstraction but 'cuts through the center of every human heart,' according to poet and former Stalin era prisoner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (as quoted Kawasaki, 2007). What must be done, argues Zimbardo, so that such situations as that in an Iraqi prison do not occur, is to inculcate children with the understanding that they have the power to be heroes, do…

Ethics is a term that is commonly used to refer to appropriate rules of conduct or moral guidelines that govern people’s behaviors and actions. Additionally, ethics is a terms that refers to standards or norms for differentiating between right and wrong (Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching, n.d.). As a result, ethics has become an important component in research because researchers have a moral responsibility to safeguard their research participants when conducting a study. Experiment ethics has become a common feature in modern research practices because of the role and significance of the moral responsibility that researchers have as they conduct their study.
One of the most famous and compelling psychological researches that highlight experiment ethics is The Stanford Prison Experiment, which provided a simple narrative regarding human nature (Resnick, 2018). According to McLeod (2017), this research was conducted to examine how willing and ready people would adapt to…

y that time, several guards had become sadistic and the behavior of the prisoners provided clear indications of psychological breakdown. Interviews with study participants suggested that merely the perception of their respective roles influenced their behavior. More importantly, the groupthink that prevailed within the group of prison guards overcame any individual personal reluctance they may have had to treat their prisoners so harshly (Macionis 2003). The Significance of the Phenomenon of Groupthink on Individual ehavior:

Like deference to authority, groupthink is a natural human tendency that likely evolved as a necessary component of human social relationships that were essential to the early success of our species (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2005). In modern context, however, groupthink represents tremendous destructive potential because in the extreme, it involves the complete suspension of individual judgment and perception. In benign situations groupthink is evident in popular culture, such as in the cycle of fashion trends,…

Since they were conducted, the American Psychological Association (APA) has established rules and strict guidelines for ethical experimentation that would not allow the kind of deception used at that time. In both experiments, the subjects experienced numerous after-effects including depression, anxiety, and tremendous guilt and they received psychological counselling afterwards.

In the case of the Zimbardo experiment, it is understandable why the prisoners would have suffered from the experience, but it is less obvious why the prison guards and the subjects in the Milgram experiment would. The Milgram subjects in particular did not actually cause any harm to anybody because the setup and the shocks were completely faked. Still, the realization of what they were capable of doing shocked them and caused them tremendous shame, guilt, and anxiety. The members of the Zimbardo experiment have held periodic reunions with Dr. Zimbardo over the years and he filmed a documentary detailing…

Ethical esponsibility

There are several ethical responsibilities that psychologists need to consider when conducting a research with adult human participants. The first is to follow APA (American Psychological Association) ethics standards for rights of the participants (Zechmeister, n.d., p. 53). Second, the researchers must conduct a risk-benefit analysis before carrying out the study. Third, the researchers must take informed consent of the participant, which is the critical ethical responsibility in every exploration. Fourth, maintaining the participant's confidentiality is another major ethical task. Privacy should be maintained in order to gain true data from the respondents. Fifth, deception should be avoided. Last, a quick but comprehensive debriefing should be given to the human adults so that any possible misconceptions could be avoided.

Historical Example of Psychological esearch

One historical example of psychological research that raised serious ethical questions is Milgram Obedience Study (Cherry, 2016). It was conducted after World War 2,…

Psychology of Fear Management

One true tale of horrific prison abuse comes from Abu Ghraib, where guards tortured and psychologically damaged a number of prisoners. In talking about the issues and atrocities that occurred there, the Stanford Prison Experiment was mentioned. The takeaway was how the experiment can and should always serve as a reminder that people can change very drastically when they are put in a particular situation. Most of the guards at Abu Ghraib did not have any past disciplinary problems, anger issues, or other concerns that would have made them unfit for the job they were doing. They were, as much as anyone can be, "normal." Despite that, they tortured and harmed other people, because they had the opportunity to treat others as though they were "less than." It is not possible to say whether every person who had this opportunity would do the same thing, but…

Obedience in Jane Austen's Persuasion

Is obedience a virtue or a vice? Actually, it can be either. As Shakespeare notes, "Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied, / And vice sometime by action dignified" (2.3.21-22). This means that one can obey an unjust order and commit a sin, or one can disobey an unjust order be virtuous. The question of obedience in Austen's Persuasion is a serious one because what hinges upon it is the fate of two individuals who love each other. It is the age-old theme of two people who are in love being separated by some authority figure. Austen explores this tension by locating it in the social context of Bath, where high society flourishes in a state of superficial exuberance. Thus, the question of obedience is tied to the social view of poverty. Anne's family and Lady Russell try to convince her that poverty is the main…

In order to understand the mental health challenges imposed on children growing up in poverty, psychologists propose two different, yet complimentary theoretical frameworks. The first is a Structural Model, emphasizing the structural differences inherent in dense populations. Structural theorists attempt to link structural data with children's mental health and well-being. The other theoretical model typically used to describe urbanization is the Ecological Model. This model highlights how a variety of systems interact to influence children.

The two authors of this article describe possible intervention strategies to improve the influence of urbanization on the mental health and well-being of children. Most of these interventions attempt to include community and family support. Benefits of this type of intervention include the increased availability of support for the children. These support groups can work together, as well as independently, in order to keep children motivated to succeed. Many children in urbanization are unmotivated and…

The same might be said for those who committed torture in the Nazi camps.

Importantly, Austin et al. (2004, p. 161) note that both violence and non-violence are cumulative in nature. It is therefore important to recognize that the existence of violence perpetuates further violence, while the same is true for non-violence. This is also an important recognition in the international sphere.

Schelling (1960, p. 53) notes that international violence an also be manifest in terms of the concept of "limited war." This means that short conflicts could result when agreements cannot be reached within a certain amount of time. On the other hand, the limited war also requires some degree of mutual recognition or acquiescence. Once war begins, negotiation and communication among adversaries become difficult. The recent situation and Egypt and the current situation in Libya appear to be cases in point for this assertion.

Finally, in international relations,…

controversy with regard to the inherent nature of people, as one would often like to prefer that people are inherently good and that it is only in exceptional circumstances that they become evil. Moreover, people like to believe that it would be impossible for themselves to become evil, with an immoral nature only being characteristic to certain individuals that are very different from the rest of the population.

The Lucifer Effect is a theory discussing with regard to seemingly normal people who resort to performing gruesome acts as a consequence of the environment that they have been exposed to. The case of Seargent John M. Russell is a good example of a person who becomes evil due to the circumstances of their environment. While most people would be inclined to believe that the Seargent gave little to no evidence of being mentally deranged prior to the shooting of five American…

Lucifer Effect," which describes the circumstances in which good people are capable of performing evil actions. Through mounting pressure and situations that push them into levels of stress that they are unused to experiencing (and therefore dealing with), otherwise normal individuals can commit some of the most horrific crimes. This paper will discuss how this change occurs in the human personality, what can be learned from Zimbardo's prison experiment, what correlations can be drawn from conditions in Abu Ghraib, and whether I personally could follow commands received by an authority figure.

Hong's (2012) article begins with a description of a twenty-year, seemingly ordinary Army veteran (Sergeant ussell) suddenly experiencing severe mental stress, going to the mental health clinic on four occasions before finally shooting five of his colleagues in Bagdad. From this introduction into a concrete example of a normal individual acting evilly, Hong segues into Zimbardo's book via a…

ullying

The incidents of April 20, 1999 from Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado put bullying into a new perspective. Two students, Dylan Klebold and Ryan Harris, who were, for all intents, intelligent and well adjusted went on a killing spree. They killed and injured several members of the school including a teacher. (Rosenberg, 2000) Then they turned the guns on themselves. Their plans were grandiose. After the massacre, they intended to flee the country. Once the furor had died down, new information showed that the two students were generally reticent, withdrawn and subjected to bullying by their peers, especially the physically stronger students. Klebold and Harris were emotionally and physically abused. Isolated, they developed a hatred for their fellow students. This manifested in initial thoughts of suicide and then murder. Stories abound about bullying turned to tragedy abound. The Columbine incident was the biggest and got the most coverage.…

Psychology Professor Phillip Zimbardo and ocial tudies Teacher Ron Jones

In 1971, tanford University Psychology professor conducted the now-famous tanford Prison Experiment in which simulated jailer/inmate relationships actually generated many of the very behaviors recognized as being characteristic of real-life situations where group identification and blind obedience to authority release the profound capacity for morally horrendous and brutal behavior that lies within most us on different levels (Zimbardo, 2007). imilarly, several years earlier, Palo Alto high school ocial tudies teacher conducted a one-day demonstration intended to explain the Nazi phenomenon. The exercise took on a momentum of its own, duplicating the principal behaviors of Nazi fanaticism over a fictitious movement called "The Wave" (Macionis, 2008).

Application in My Teaching Approach

Both educators conceived of original ways to examine and illustrate the specific conceptual ideas they hoped to convey to their students in a meaningful way. ince then, they and many…

When ordinary 'beat cops' act unethically, it immediately garners negative media attention because it affects the public in such a visceral and immediate fashion. Police officers are the average citizen's main source of contact with the justice system and so they are carefully watched. However, prosecutors may decide to proceed with a prosecution despite questionable evidence or act unethically in other ways, and unless it comes to the media's attention or there is very stringent oversight over the office from an outside authority, prosecutors' transgressions may go unnoticed. Prosecutors and police officers both have the most serious and complex obligations of members of the justice system: not to get a conviction, but to pursue justice.

What suggestions might you offer to avoid errors in human inquiry?

First and foremost, to prevent errors in human inquiry causing errors in judgment, it is essential that members of law enforcement staff are cognizant…

Psychology of Gender

In psychological circles there is a case made famous by a psychologist by the name of John Money, who dedicated his life to the study of sexuality. This case is so well-known, that undergraduate psychology students are as familiar with it as they are with the Stanford Prison experiment. efore the year 2000, it was simply known as the "twin's case" or the "John/Joan case." Nowadays, the psychological community uses the name of the little boy who was anonymously famous, written about, and studied extensively for almost 20 years: David Reimer. In a deeply heartbreaking and shocking work of nonfiction, John Colapinto retraces the steps that David Reimer took as a baby boy, to a sex-assigned girl, and back to manhood.

Although David Reimer was born a healthy and anatomically correct boy, an accident during babyhood put him in a special category with other numerous cases that…

Zimbardo experiment and its results.

The Zimbardo Experiment was one of the most insightful psychological experiments related to prison and correctional culture. It helped to elucidate various mechanism of power and the manipulation of power that are at work within prisons. It helps to explain instances of brutality and debauchery that oftentimes are found within correctional facilities. The results of this experiment were so shocking, convincing and deplorable that the man who conceived of it terminated it six days prior to its purported finish date. This experiment roundly reinforces the adage that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The premise for Professor Phillips' Zimbardo Experiment was relatively simple: he would get college students from around the Stanford area to impersonate security guards while simultaneously recruiting similar college students to act like inmates. It is important to emphasize the non-partisan nature of these students. They were selected fairly randomly and…

Experimental Critique

You have just answered an advertisement to participate in an experiment from researchers at Yale University. You enter a professional looking building and are met by a professional looking man in a white lab coat. You have been paid $4.50 (which would have easily filled up your gas tank in 1961) to participate in a memory and learning experiment. The experiment requires that you play the role of "teacher" and another volunteer plays the role of "learner" (at least you think that he is a volunteer). The goal is to teach the learner to learn and recall a list of words. Sounds pretty simple, does it not?

This is the basic premise for one of the classic experimental studies in psychology: Stanley Milgram's (1963) Behavioral Study of Obedience. Milgram was influenced by the trials of Nazi war criminals, particularly Adolf Eichmann, who had claimed that they had only…

George Herbert Mead is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures of American sociology. His pioneering work in social psychology helped to establish the reputation the Chicago School of Sociology. His teachings also laid the groundwork for the philosophy of pragmatism in the United States.

This paper focuses on Mead's sociological theory, particularly his contributions to social psychology. The first part of the paper summarizes the key points of Mead's social theory, including an evaluation of his work. The next part then examines how Mead's work can be expanded into other areas of sociological inquiry and sees whether his theories continue to have relevance today.

Mead's Sociological Theory

In his book Mind, Self and Society from the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist, Mead criticizes the then prevailing psychological theories that sought to explain the emergence of consciousness based solely on an individual standpoint. For Mead, a person's consciousness…

Even when some people decided enough was enough, the authority figure would tell the 'teacher' that the full responsibility was that of the experimenter, the 'teacher' would not be responsible and thus the shocks continued.

There is some basis to believe that people simply want to please others whom they believe to be superior to them. There is also the need to conform to certain group rules in order to feel that we are accepted. However, Zimbardo also claims that people don't need a group to influence us; he believes that there is a lot of influence that comes from a single source -- another person, which was the case in the Milgram experiment. There was not a group urging these 'teachers' on; there was one man in a laboratory coat whom the 'teachers' believed to be of some kind of powerful and intelligent person.

The shocking results from the…

Milgram's study illustrates that many who have had the responsibility taken from them are although not happy but content to continue with a procedure as long as they are not directly held responsible, thereby giving rise to an obedience through social bonding and situations (Hayes & Orell PG).

In this situation in a comparison with the Tuskegee experiment and Milgram's experiment it can be argued that the members of the medical team were acting under orders from the government and therefore were blameless in their experiments as were the teachers in theory only following orders, obviously this form of passing blame can be seen be as a paradigm in ethical understanding as we are all cogent beings with the ability to reason and question yet it seems when a person is actively allowing himself to take the blame as such then all reason as to ethical understandings of what is…

Although the San Francisco police do not carry stun guns they do carry Tasers, and Tasers work on the same mechanism as those of stun guns shooting darts that deliver electric shots to stun suspects. It is said that 334 individuals died from these electric shots during the years 20001 to 2008. If that is so, the AHP can publish the results on its page pointing out that the effects of so-called not-so-lethal stun guns are actually quite lethal indeed.

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The Belmont eport

The basic ethical principles to be considered in all human research studies involves:

1. espect for persons -- This involves two categories: (a) that all people regardless of ethnic, gender, mental, physical and any sort of distinction should be treated with dignity and respect, and accorded their autonomous right to do as they wish. (b) That individuals who are more vulnerable should be accorded special…

newdemocracyworld.org/ar/Pogo.htm).Reported by John Spritzler, this is what Zimbardo and Milgram found:

The usual points of reference in psychology are two classic studies that attempted to explore the capacity for evil residing in "normal" people. In 1971, Stanford psychologist Philip Zimbardo created a simulated prison and randomly assigned students to be either guards or prisoners. ith astonishing speed, the "guards" indulged in forms of torture and humiliation not unlike those horrifying us today. This followed on earlier experiments by Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram on obedience to authority. Milgram recruited volunteers to participate in what he described as a study on learning. An actor sat in a chair that students believed was wired with electricity. Each time this actor would give an incorrect answer, the students would be directed by Milgram to deliver a larger shock. As the subject in the electric chair seemed to suffer more and more, 2 out of…

normal I offer. hy? Because I potential a false flag attack London Olympics worth researching. Okay,'s deal. You write a paper length normal extra credit assignment explained Extra Credit Unit.

Conspiracy theory or terrorism? -- The 2012 London Olympics

There has been a lot of controversy in the recent years regarding conspiracies and how some of the world's most influential individuals are actively engaged in a plot to exploit mankind. False flag attacks are believed to be attempts performed by these individuals with the purpose of justifying their intervention in particular areas that they are interested in. This year's London Olympics represents one of the most intriguing opportunities for certain actors to put their strategies into work, considering that the world's attention is focused on the event and that the number of people present there would surely draw significant responsiveness from an international public concerned in penalizing individuals and groups…

" hile there are factors like peer pressure and authority that come into play, some research claims to have isolated significant features of an individual's character that make them more likely to commit acts of fraud, bribery and falsification in the corporate context (27, 2009). For example, those people with "high levels of ambition were more likely to transgress moral codes, competitively stab colleagues in the back and make dubious decisions relating to asset-stripping, disinvestment, and so on" (27, 2009).

Trevino's (1986) work is relevant when it comes to understanding individuals and corruption. There are a couple questions regarding moral personality that come up: first of all, whether or not a person sees an event or issue as a moral problem; the second is how they decide to act in relation to that problem. Kohlberg's theory of cognitive moral development emphasizes the cognitive or reasoning aspect of moral-decision making (604,…

Portfolio: Patients who express suicidal ideation should always be taken seriously. I have read that the greatest risk factor for suicide in previous attempts. Sometimes suicide can be considered a cry for help, and everyone who expresses some time of suicidal ideation deserves evaluation.

Question 14.2

The form of psychotherapy I find the most appealing is the cognitive behavioral approach. It appeals to me since the focus if reparative and based on a desire to change one's behaviors which contribute to the problem which prompted therapy in the first place. Patients who engage in cognitive behavioral therapy require a certain degree of insight into how their behaviors contribute to their own emotions or feelings. The interaction of mind and body can be especially telling; many psychological disorders have physical manifestations and conversely, many chronic medical problems can also manifest emotional symptoms. Cognitive behavioral therapy allows the individual to recognize patterns…

In this interpretation Heitler accepts the modified Copenahgenist observer created reality, but adds that the act of observation dissolves the barrier between observer and the observed. The observer is a necessary part of the whole. Once observed, the object is now an inseparable part of the observer (leuler). Arntz addresses this bridge between the observer, the observer, and reality by asking "why aren't we magicians?"; indeed, if we create our reality and can change our reality simply through the act of how we perceive it, and how we choose to perceive it, we should be able shape our world and our place in our world. In Arntz' way, he is offering to the reader what so many self-help gurus have done -- put responsibility for one's reality in the hands of the person living that particular reality, and saying, 'here you go, you can change it.' Empowering, yes….but is it…

The exercise was also shared with other groups such as a Stanford psychology department as well as a prison population. The Stanford psychology department looked at the test scores that were collected before, during, and after the experiment and verified the fact that the students performed better when they were in the "better" group as well as after the experiment was over. When the students were part of the group that were being discriminated against, they actually performed worse on their test scores than when they were members of the other groups.

The exercise was reproduced many times and with many different groups of people. The results are all consistent with the experience of the students. It is possible for otherwise good people to perpetuate racism and discrimination without consciously deciding to. The process of discrimination can be perpetuated by social systems and people can be naturally socialized in to…

Survival of Racist Customs and Mores Into the 21st Century: Analysis of the American Correction and Sentencing Trends

Increasing awareness of the US's unsuccessful mass imprisonment experimentation has effected federal and state level modifications aimed at decreasing the nation's detention scale. Experts and policymakers have been suggesting "smart on crime" public safety strategies which support alternatives to imprisonment and decrease re-offense chances[footnoteRef:1]. Despite simultaneous fruitful bipartite dialogues on the subject of decreasing jail populations and bringing improvements to crime justice policies, the nation still struggles with disturbing racial frictions. The latest concern concentrates on frequent reports of law enforcement violence inflicted on non-Whites, some cases ending in fatalities of African-American males at the hands of law enforcers, with scant to no evident provocation. In this paper, the many fields in which racist values and traditions continue in the current era will be examined, with particular emphasis to the American corrective…

4). They contend that most people on death row know they will not face execution, but will draw the legal fight out with appeals for as long as possible, and so, the death penalty is not a deterrent for them or others, because of the unlikelihood it will ever actually be carried out.

In addition, researchers argue that it is impossible to determine true deterrence with using time or similar defendants and punishment, there is no scientific way to conduct these tests effectively. Another researcher writes, "We have not been and never will be able to verify the deterrent effect of executions by conducting a 'controlled' scientific experiment, which would randomly assign either execution or some term of years to similarly situated defendants in similarly situated jurisdictions" (Steiker, 2005). In short, there is no real, reliable model to determine how many lives might be saved by executing prisoners, because each…

The panopticon centralizes the space of the observer while simultaneously mystifying the act of observation, such that the threat may be ever-present even if an actual prison guard is not. In the same way, Foucault's conception of the societal panopticon imposes its standards on the individual, who must conform to the standards of society due to a fear of the possibility of discovery and punishment. According to Foucault, "the Panopticon is a privileged place for experiments on men, and for analyzing with complete certainty the transformations that may be obtained from them" (Foucault 204). The space the narrator finds himself in at the beginning of The Unnamable functions in this same way, except that in this case the object of the panopticon's gaze has not undergone the process of subjectification prior to finding itself there.

The narrator simply exists upon the reading of the novel, and is subsequently unable to…

philosophical questions about, Jean Jacque Rousseau, John Dewey, Michel Foucault and Marin Luther King, Jr. It has 4 sources.

Rousseau and Nature"

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. This education comes to us from nature, from men, or from things."[Rousseau 143].

According to Rousseau out of the three factors involved in a child's development, Nature, is totally uncontrollable. "Nature, we are told, is merely habit."[20] Habits are a product of positive or negative conditioning. As a child grows in reason he uses judgment to modify his natural tendencies but often this process becomes warped due to already embedded habits. Harmony within is affected when natural tendencies conflict with what a child learns at the hands of society and other men.…

The solution that Hardin proposes is that of a coercive method; as always he gives a lucid example to support the point that he proposes. Hardin reminds the reader that society mutually agreed to make it illegal to rob banks, rather than appeal to the sense of responsibility to those who wish to rob banks as a means of deterring them. Bank robbers (real and potential) know that very immediate consequences await them, such as police chases which could end in injuries or fatalities, jail time and other comparable results. These consequences are real and immediate because they're reinforced by the state, the judicial system and by the police force. This form of coercion prevents more people from attempting to rob banks. Our natural resources of water need to be treated as though they're as valuable as banks filled with money. Dumping chemicals such as fertilizers, pharmaceuticals and personal care…

universities, professors retire invited give a Last Lecture. Dr. andy Pausch tradition. What made story, dying pancreatic cancer, knew . His lecture featured Good Morning America television show, millions readers bought copies book form.

A Positive Man: andy Pausch and the Last Lecture

andy Pausch's "Last Lecture" is a great example of the power of communication. It is simply a college professor's speech -- albeit one with great gravitas, as the deliverer is suffering from a terminal illness -- but it has made a worldwide impact due to the frank, humorous, and inspirational story it tells. Pausch's wisdom reverberates in the mind of the viewer long after watching. In delivering this last lecture, he manages to educate his audience about a myriad of topics, not the least of which is the human condition.

One of the most revelatory ideas in Pausch's speech is the notion of the "head fake;" Pausch…

There is the mindset that recruiting and retaining younger, talented yet less expensive workers is a practice that is better suited for managers from comparable generations who understand what motivates workers by generation (Young, 008). There is also the theories of how contingency-based leadership as defined by Fielder and others (Fielder, Mahar, 1979) have also shown how metrics can define the goodness of fit between a given manager's leadership style and the needs of the organizations they serve. Finally the use of balanced scorecard (BSC) methodologies has a significant impact on how companies measure the retention and growth in skills of employees over time. The metrics in each of these cases is managed to a series of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measured for variance over time to ensure managers stay on track towards their goals.

. How do we learn? Identify and discuss the theories to explain the process…

feelings and even behavior was impacted by the social environment the most was probably when I attended my first data governance conference as part of my data management internship. I am a decidedly laid-back person, and for three days I found myself surrounded by "type A" people wearing suits who were exorbitantly concerned with information technology and data. I found this type of social atmosphere, and the people in it, very intimidating and, despite the fact that I was supposed to network with people and find out the true sentiment regarding the conference on the part of the attendees, I mostly kept to myself. I am usually pretty outgoing but all of the technical jargon that was spoken and the demeanor of the people at the conference significantly altered this aspect of my behavior. Whereas other people seemed to be enjoying themselves I did not -- I could not wait…

Within each of these are discriminatory and generalized patterns of learning; and can be incorporated into learning models.

My own learning style is a combination of listening (learning from others) and then doing. It depends on the material; for any tactile operation, I find it easier to understand by touching and manipulating than simply reading in a manual how to perform the task. I believe I make clear use of discrimination in learning; responding to different stimuli with different responses. When the learning task is more scholarly in nature, I tend to combine visual and aural methods with kinesthetic and write down, or outline material.

Burton, N. (March 15, 2012). Hide and Seek: Understanding Self-Deception, Self-Sabotage

nd More. Psychology Today. Retrieved from:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/hide-and-seek/201203/self-deception-series-repression-and-denial

Burton's article is a combination of the psychodynamic and behavioral models of psychological investigation. The major point of the article is that humans are not always rational,…