The+Stanford+Prison+Experiment

toc The Stanford Prison experiment was conducted by Professor Philip Zimbardo in 1971 at Stanford University. The aim of this study was to observe the effect of prison life on both prisons and
 * __ The Stanford Prison Experiment __**

correctional officers. The question put forward at the beginning of this study was //“what happens when you put good people in a bad situation?”// (Zimbardo, 1971). The findings of this study were astounding and it has been described as a classic Psychology experiment.

=__ Participants and method __= 70 middle class white males responded to a local advertisement seeking participants to take part in a psychological experiment investigating prison life. 24 out of the 70 where chosen after numerous personality and mental health tests as these were seen to be emotionally stable. The participants were then randomly split up into guards or prisoners.

Zimbardo and his team of researchers had built a make-shift prison at the Stanford universit y basement. The prison consisted of a courtyard, a closet which was used for solitary confinement and 3 cells each with cots for the prisoners to sleep in. After the participants had been notified that they had been selected to take part in the study the participants playing the role of the prisoners were sent home and told to wait on word from the researchers and the participants playing the role of the guards were taking in for a meeting. During this meeting Zimbardo was heard telling the guards // " //// You can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of fear to some degree, you can create a notion of arbitrariness that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me, and they'll have no privacy... We're going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what all this leads to is a sense of powerlessness. That is, in this situation we'll have all the power and they'll have none // ." No actual training was giving to the guards on discipline they were only told they were not allowed physically harm any prisoner. The guards were giving khaki shirt and pants and mirrored sunglasses to avoid eye contact. The guards also carried wooden batons which were never meant to be used for punishment but to establish their status.

The experiment began on Sunday August 14th when the first arrest took place. Each prisoner was arrested by a real police officer and went through the real booking system at the local police station. They were then blindfolded and t aken to the location of the prison. On arrival they were strip-searched and giving their new identity numbers. (Guards must address prisons by number only). They were made were smocks and stocking caps and a chain was placed around their ankles to remind them of their roles.

The guards made up their own set of rules and punishments which were supervised by warden David Jaffe. The guards worked one of the 3 eight hours shifts a day. When the guards were not on shift they were allowed to go about their normal life unlike the prisoners who had to stay in the prison round the clock.

__ Results __
The guards used numerous methods to assert authority over the prison. The punishments started off light with making the guards so a number of push-ups, it went on to depriving certain prisoners of their meals and even went to the extent of sexual abuse. It was becoming clear that the guards were becoming sadistic.

The first sign of rebellious behaviour was seen on the second day when the prisoners in cell 1 barricaded themselves in their cell and took their stocking caps off. They refused to obey orders from the guards so the guards decided that they needed re-enforcements to help deal with the situation. The guards got a fire extinguisher and shot carbon dioxide at the prisoners to get them away from the door. After the prisoners were away from the door the guards broke in, stripped them of their uniform and put them in to solitary confinement. Then went on to harass and intimidate the prisoners.

The guards knew that they had to come up with another way of keeping control over the prisoners. They decided to use psychological tactics instead of physical ones so they came up with “the privilege cell”. Prisoners who were in the privilege cell were allowed eat special food in front of the other non-privileged prisons, wash and brush their teeth. This was supposed to break any solidarity among the prisoners. This caused greater solidarity among the guards. It had become apparent that to the guards this was just an experiment anymore. The guards believed that the some of prisoners were trouble makers and out to get them because of this the guards became more aggressive in their punishments.

After just 36 hours prisoner #8612 began to act “crazy” and appeared emotionally unstable as he went into states of uncontrollable crying. Prisoner #8612 had to be released. (As Zimbardo was the superintendent of the prison he too began to lose a grip on reality and at first believed that #8612 was trying to trick him into letting him go).

#8912’s replacement showed to be another “trouble maker” going on hunger strike because he did not agree with the treatment of the other prisoner. To deal with this the guards locked him in solitary confinement in the dark. The guards told the prisoners that the only way #419 would be released was if they gave up their blankets. All of the prisoners accept 1 refused to give up their blankets. This was used as a bid to turn the other prisoners against #419

After the release of prisoner #8612 there was rumoured to be an escape where #8612 would come back with a group of friends and break the other prisoners out. Instead of recording how the guards dealt with a rumoured escape Zimbardo (superintendent of the prison) held a meeting with the warden and the guards and came up with a plan to foil the escape. Zimbardo had totally played into his role as he showed more concern for the security of his prison than collecting data like a research psychologist should.

Zimbardo invited a catholic priest to visit the prison and talk with the prisoners to see how real the prison was. The priest interviewed each prisoner one by one and was shock that most of them introduced themselves by number. The priest asked each boy what they were doing to get out of prison and offered to contact a lawyer for them. Some prisoners accepted this offer.

__ Conclusion __
This experiment ended after just 6 days, when it should have lasted 14, on the 20th of August. Zimbardo and his team had created a situation where prisoners in their powerless state became withdrawn and began to act in pathological ways. Some guards were even showing sadistic traits. It then became apparent that the experiment had to end. Zimbaro ended the study for mainly for two reasons:

1. 1. All aspects of the experiment was videoed and at night when the guards thought that the researchers were not watching the abuse escalated. Which was said to be “pornographic and degrading”.

// 2. 2. // A young P.hD student named Christina Maslach came to visit the prison to conduct interviews on the participants. She strongly objected when she seen the mental and physical state of the prisoners. " // It's terrible // // what you are doing to these boys!" // Over 50 outsiders had come to visit the prison over the course of the experiment and she was the only person who questioned it morality.

After only 6 days of observation Zimbardo had an understanding of how prison could dehumanize people turning them objects. Looking at the guards this study also demonstrated how a good ordinary person’s behaviour can transform in to sinister and mischievous.

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__ References __
Zimbardo, P. G. (2004 //). [|A situationist perspective on the psychology of evil: Understanding how good people are transformed into perpetrators] //(pp. 21- 50). In A. G. Miller (Ed.), // The social psychology of good and evil //. New York: Guilford Press.

Zimbardo, P. G. (2007 //). [|The Lucifer Effect: Understanding how good people turn evil] //. New York: Random House.

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