Stanford Prison Experiment Philip Zimbardo
Table of Contents Description of the experiment, and information about Zimbardo 2 Method 2 Incidents that took place during the procedure 3 The end of the experiment 6 The conclusion and the criticism of the experiment 6 The Conclusion 6 The Criticism 7 References 8
Description of the experiment, and information about Zimbardo
The Stanford prison experiment was an experiment conducted by a group of researchers and led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo was born in New York City on March 23, 1933. He completed his BA in Brooklyn College with a triple major in sociology, anthropology and psychology in 1954. He got both his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1955 and 1959 respectively. Also he was a psychology …show more content…
According to the shift plan there were 3 guards on duty on every shift but when this event took place guards from other shifts decided to voluntarily work some extra hours in order to restore the calm and quell the uprising. Thereupon they unleashed an attack with fire extinguishers against the prisoners without been supervised by any member of the research group. When things came back to normal prisoner #1037 asked Zimbardo to let him leave and he was given the feeling that he wouldn’t be allowed to leave, although Zimbardo never said that, according to Zimbardo the fact that he was the leader of the revolt and he told the other prisoners that they weren’t allowed to drop the experiment and leave the facility converted the experiment in to a real prison in the prisoners’ mind. After that the guards decided that handling nine prisoners with only three guards on duty on every shift was challenging, so one of them suggested that they should start using psychological tactics to control the prisoners. In order to do so they set up a new cell called “privilege cell” in which the prisoners who weren’t involved in the revolt were put and treated with special rewards, like better quality meals. Although the "privileged" inmates chose not to eat the meal in order to stay uniform …show more content…
Also other critics been made suggest that the experiment lacks of generalization due to diversity of the factors, as the participants were mostly white and middle class males. There is also criticism been made referring to the ecological validity of Zimbardo’s prison experiment stating that even though the members of Zimbardo’s research team and himself did their best to recreate a prison setting, it isn’t possible to mimic in a perfect way the whole range of environmental and situational variables of prison life. Despite some of the criticism, the Stanford Prison Experiment remains an important study in our understanding of how the situation can influence human behavior.
References
(2013, 05). Stanford Prison Experiment. Wikipidedia. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Shuttleworth , M. (2008, 06). Stanford Prison Experiment. Explorable. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://explorable.com/stanford-prison-experiment
Zimbardo, P. Frequently Asked Questions. Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://www.prisonexp.org/faq.htm
Cherry, K. (2013). The Stanford Prison Experiment. About.com Psychology. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/stanford-prison-experiment.htm
Description of the experiment, and information about Zimbardo
The Stanford prison experiment was an experiment conducted by a group of researchers and led by psychology professor Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo was born in New York City on March 23, 1933. He completed his BA in Brooklyn College with a triple major in sociology, anthropology and psychology in 1954. He got both his M.S. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1955 and 1959 respectively. Also he was a psychology …show more content…
According to the shift plan there were 3 guards on duty on every shift but when this event took place guards from other shifts decided to voluntarily work some extra hours in order to restore the calm and quell the uprising. Thereupon they unleashed an attack with fire extinguishers against the prisoners without been supervised by any member of the research group. When things came back to normal prisoner #1037 asked Zimbardo to let him leave and he was given the feeling that he wouldn’t be allowed to leave, although Zimbardo never said that, according to Zimbardo the fact that he was the leader of the revolt and he told the other prisoners that they weren’t allowed to drop the experiment and leave the facility converted the experiment in to a real prison in the prisoners’ mind. After that the guards decided that handling nine prisoners with only three guards on duty on every shift was challenging, so one of them suggested that they should start using psychological tactics to control the prisoners. In order to do so they set up a new cell called “privilege cell” in which the prisoners who weren’t involved in the revolt were put and treated with special rewards, like better quality meals. Although the "privileged" inmates chose not to eat the meal in order to stay uniform …show more content…
Also other critics been made suggest that the experiment lacks of generalization due to diversity of the factors, as the participants were mostly white and middle class males. There is also criticism been made referring to the ecological validity of Zimbardo’s prison experiment stating that even though the members of Zimbardo’s research team and himself did their best to recreate a prison setting, it isn’t possible to mimic in a perfect way the whole range of environmental and situational variables of prison life. Despite some of the criticism, the Stanford Prison Experiment remains an important study in our understanding of how the situation can influence human behavior.
References
(2013, 05). Stanford Prison Experiment. Wikipidedia. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Shuttleworth , M. (2008, 06). Stanford Prison Experiment. Explorable. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://explorable.com/stanford-prison-experiment
Zimbardo, P. Frequently Asked Questions. Stanford Prison Experiment. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://www.prisonexp.org/faq.htm
Cherry, K. (2013). The Stanford Prison Experiment. About.com Psychology. Retrieved 05, 2013, from http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/stanford-prison-experiment.htm