Preview

Dr. Philip Zimbardo: The Stanford Prison Experiment

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
359 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Dr. Philip Zimbardo: The Stanford Prison Experiment
In 1971 Dr Philip Zimbardo and a team of psychologists conducted an experiment of a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University. The experiment was set out to study the influence of social roles in human behavior. In our daily lives we are expected to fulfill the social expectations of our “roles”, our roles will have different expectations depending on the situations we are faced with.
The psychologists designed an experiment to find out how much we are truly influenced by the social expectations of different roles in this case the roles of guards and prisoners. They set out to study behavior of people who are faced with a bad situation; it studied the psychology of human aggression. “Zimbardo had two specific questions in
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo
    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page

    Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo

    The Stanford Prison Experiment was an experiment that Philip Zimbardo evented. He wanted to study the human response of captivity, of the prison life. Zimbardo randomly assigned roles to the prisoners and the guards. Each role was uniquely identified. For example, he gave the guards sticks and sunglasses and the prisoners were arrested by the police department and were forced into the basement of the jail which was converted into the psychology department that was converted into a makeshift jail. Zimbardo wanted the experiment to be as realistic as he possibly could have made it, therefore, he assigned each role to help do so. Testing each individual and then assigning them to roles would of gave inconclusive readings and therefore, it was…

    • 164 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    How Did The Stanford Prison Experiment Affect Zimbardo's Behavior
    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages

    How Did The Stanford Prison Experiment Affect Zimbardo's Behavior

    In discussions of the Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo in 1970, one controversial issue has been whether or not the experiment should have ever been attempted. On the one hand, Dr. Zimbardo and his colleagues argued that the experiment gave them a deeper understanding of human suffering and a greater empathy for their fellow man (Ratnesar 2011). On the other hand, one of the former guards contended that the experiment made him more hostile and less sympathetic during his time as a guard and that the circumstances significantly altered his perception of what was appropriate behavior. Others even maintain that the prison experiment degraded the prisoners so greatly, empowered the guards to such a great extent, and even affected Dr. Zimbardo’s behavior and mannerisms so dramatically that it thoroughly altered their sense of…

    • 1846 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Zimbardo-Ghraib Prison Experiment
    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Zimbardo-Ghraib Prison Experiment

    Authority and Identity usually lead to compliances and conformity and these techniques usually occur in real life situation too. To test out if human being would lose their moral and social values when they lost their individuality, Philip Zimbardo conducted an experiment in 1971 to see how readily people would conform to the roles of guard and prisoner in a role-playing exercise that simulated prison life (Zimbardo - Stanford Prison Experiment, 2008). This experiment was called The Stanford Prison Experiment and it was conducted at Stanford University. While the real life situation that was being mentioned, connected and relevant to Zimbardo’s experiment is the Abu Ghraib prison abuses. Abu Ghraib prison was a U.S. Army detention center for…

    • 266 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Drawing on Appropriate Evidence from Chapter 5, Describe How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways.
    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Drawing on Appropriate Evidence from Chapter 5, Describe How Groups Can Influence People in Positive and Negative Ways.

    A controversial experiment by Zimbardo (1971) (Spoors et al.) shows how a groups of males were separated into two groups of guards and prisoners in a make shift prison. After six days of a two week experiment it was stopped. The guards became abusive while the prisoners showed signs of emotional disturbance.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Milgram and Zimbrado
    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Milgram and Zimbrado

    Difference #1. A major difference between Zimbardo’s and Milgram’s studies is that, in the prison study, only one experimental manipulation was performed — being assigned to the role of prisoner or guard. This is a major limitation because we cannot know, as we did in the Milgram study, which factors in the situation were most important for the behaviors observed. There is no doubt that each participant’s self-definition as prisoner or guard was important, but it might have helped us to develop a deeper understanding of how such a self-definition can be maintained if Zimbardo and his colleagues had varied other factors in the situation. For example, would wearing normal clothes, which might have caused increased feelings of individuality, have resulted in decreased role-playing? Would a decrease in the reality of the simulation (perhaps by removing the bars on the doors, or having campus security “arrest” the prisoners) have done the same? It would have been very interesting, for example, if we had found that none of these factors were important — that, instead, it was simply the assigning of an arbitrary social role by an authority figure and the…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Prison Experiment: Zimbardo And Le Bon
    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment: Zimbardo And Le Bon

    Have you ever noticed that certain people act and behave differently when they are with crowds versus when they are alone? Being in a large crowd can really impact individual to act in a certain way that they seem to fit in with the group and sometimes do things more anonymous as it is in a large crowd. Both Zimbardo and Le Bon believe that bystanders are less responsible and more likely to commit violence than when people are alone. Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist and a professor at Stanford University; he researches the cause of evil in people by doing a Stanford prison experiment. Zimbardo states about how evil can cause good people easily by the peers that they are surrounded by and the culture and traditional way changes can affect people…

    • 1535 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo
    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page

    Stanford Prison Experiment Zimbardo

    One of the infamous experiment in the history of psychology was the Stanford Prison Experiment. Its creator, Dr. Zimbardo, main objective was to see what effects would occur when a psychological experiment into human nature was performed. As I began to perform some research of my own, I noticed that my thoughts on the matter were similar to many; that as a scientific research project, Mr. Zimbardo’s experiment it was a complete failure. However, his findings did provide us with something that was much more important that is still being talked about today; insight into human psychology and social behavior.…

    • 176 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo And The Stanford Prison Experiment
    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Zimbardo And The Stanford Prison Experiment

    Most people desire some sort of power. Whether it is political power or economic power, this yearning runs our society. Some people use their power to benefit others, and other person inappropriately use their power to degrade and diminish. As explored in the Stanford Prison Experiment, Philip Zimbardo states people change with they are given “power without oversight” (Zimbardo, The Psychology of Evil, TedTalk). Though the students were considered “good apples,” the combination of situation and the system caused the guards to lose their identities and to abuse their power in inhumane ways. The results of the experiment were derived many observations and conclusions about the subjects; however, Zimbardo’s switch between running the experiment…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo Experiment Thesis
    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Zimbardo Experiment Thesis

    Phillip K. Zimbardo, who is a professor of psychology at Stanford University, directed the Stanford Prison Experiment, also known as the Zimbardo Experiment. The goal of the Zimbardo experiment was to research how willing human beings would imitate to the characters of correctional officers and inmates in an acting role that replicated life behind bars. But what really happens when you remove the freedoms of human beings and place them in subservient positions and place them in jail cell type settings? The answer is that the mind and physical well-being is drastically and forever changed for the worse, which Mr. Zimbardo’s tests proved.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Stanford Prison Experiment Summary
    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Stanford Prison Experiment Summary

    This study is considered a classic when with regards to prison psychology. According to the American Psychological Association (2004) “Its messages have been carried in many textbooks in the social sciences, in classroom lectures across many nations, and in popular media renditions. Its web site has gotten over 15 million unique page views in the past four years, and more than a million a week in the weeks following the expose of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American Military Police army reservists in Abu Ghraib Prison”. Zimbardo’s research has come to be known as one of the classical example of how circumstantial power has the ability to influence individuals in multiple domains. This experiment is historically one of the prime examples of how even the most “good” person when placed under specific situations can in turn transform into “evil”. It shows just how easily individuality can be stripped away and in turn how the environment can define and dictate ones…

    • 1783 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment
    • 1588 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment

    This study was conducted by Professor Phillip Zimbardo at Stanford University in 1971. Zimbardo wanted to find out if a situation can control the person or can an individual’s beliefs, attitude and values would allow one to rise above their current situation. He wanted to look more in-depth in the behavioral and sociological consequences in the roles of the guard and prisoner. Also, he wanted to find out why and how social situations can overwhelm people. In order to find study subjects, Zimbardo advertised in the paper for healthy, male students and offered $15 a day for up to two weeks. His subjects were predominately white, middle class students with no history of drug use or a criminal record. The basement of Stanford’s psychology department…

    • 1588 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Stanford Prison Experiment Comparison Essay
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Stanford Prison Experiment Comparison Essay

    Experiments have been done for many more years than humans can count on the two hands in which they possess. Two experiments, in particular, were written, “The Stanford Prison Experiment” by Philip G. Zimbardo and “The Perils of Obedience” by Stanley Milgram. These experiments can be controversial for many different reasons, but neither of these experiments were completed under conditions of normality. The information collected in these experiments isn’t exactly based off of real life situations, it becomes difficult not to question the relevance of these experiments.…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ethics of Zimbardo Prison Experiment Essay Example
    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ethics of Zimbardo Prison Experiment Essay Example

    In 1971 Phillip Zimbardo conducted a controversial study know as the Stanford prison experiment. The experiment was a psychological study of human reactions to being imprisoned and how the effects would interfere with the normal behaviors of both authorities and the inmates in prison. Zimbardo and his team hypothesized “that prison guards and convicts were self selecting of a certain disposition that would naturally lead to poor conditions.” Zimbardo used undergraduate volunteers to play the roles of the guards and the prisoners in a mock prison he created in the basement of the Stanford psychology building. He then recorded how both the prisoners and guards quickly adapted to their roles, and soon this lead to one-third of the authorities taking place in sadistic acts towards the prisoners, which was argued to have lead to psychologically harmful situations. Due to the appalling conditions of the prison, both sanitarily and psychologically the experiment ended on August 30, 1971 just six days after it began, which was eight days short of the foresighted fourteen days it was supposed to have lasted. Many similarities in the ethical concerns of the Stanford experiment were found in the Milgram experiment which was conducted in 1961 by Stanley Milgram one of Zimbardo’s high school friends.…

    • 704 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Zimbardo
    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Zimbardo

    The Stanford County Prison experiment by Zimbardo (1971) supports Milgram’s study. Zimbardo (1973) experiment took place in a pretend prison house which was created in the basement of Stanford University. This was to investigate the psychological effects of becoming a prisoner/prison guard. Participants in both studies had a difficult time ending the experiment. The participants felt they did not want to appear inconsistent or leave the experiment. Participant’s behaviour was in control by social/professional forces and environmental contingences, rather than their own personality traits or character power.…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Is Social Psychology Contagious?
    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Is Social Psychology Contagious?

    In this experiment a simulated prison was created where college students were recruited for a two week study and paid $15 a day to either be a prison guard or an inmate. “After a day or two in which the volunteers self-consciously “played” their roles, the simulation became real-too real.” (Social Psychology) The guards took their roles too seriously and “devised cruel and degrading routines.” (Social Psychology) After only six days, the experiment got out of hand and was forced to be shut down. The experiment showed that situational factors powerfully affected human behaviors. This was shown by the many inmates that broke down and had emotional breakdowns and left the experiment because the prison guards took it too far when given a position of authority. The individuals in the experiment were deindividualized and no longer had any self-awareness of what they were doing within the group. Zimbardo’s Experiment clearly showed that “people will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are so strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards.” (McLeod, Zimabardo - Stanford Prison Experiment,…

    • 743 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics