PSYCH 1205 Stanford Prison Assignment, Essays (university) of Psychology

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UNIVERSITY OF THE PEOPLE

INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY

AN ASSIGNMENT ON STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT

INTRODUCTION

The general topic for this article is called the Stanford Prison Experiment. This is/was a research conducted by an American Psychologist named Philip Zimbardo. According to Wikipedia.com, Philip George Zimbardo (born March 23, 1933) is an American psychologist and a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He became known for his 1971 Stanford prison experiment and has since authored various introductory psychology books, textbooks for college students, and other notable works, including The Lucifer Effect, The Time Paradox, and The Time Cure. He is also the founder and president of the Heroic Imagination Project. The purpose of his “Stanford Prison Experiment” was finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards (i.e., dispositional) or had more to do with the prison environment (i.e., situational) according to Mcleod,2018.

BODY

To study the roles people play in prison situations, Zimbardo converted a basement of the Stanford University psychology building into a mock prison. He advertised asking for volunteers to participate in a study of the psychological effects of prison life. The 75 applicants who answered the ad were given diagnostic interviews and personality tests to eliminate candidates with psychological problems, medical disabilities, or a history of crime or drug abuse. 24 men judged to be the most physically & mentally stable, the most mature, & the least involved in antisocial behaviors were chosen to participate. The participants did not know each other prior to the study and were paid $15 per day to take part in the experiment. Participants were randomly assigned to either the role of prisoner or guard in a simulated prison environment. There were two

dependent on the guards for everything so tried to find ways to please the guards, such as telling tales on fellow prisoners”.

CONCLUSION

People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards. The “prison” environment was an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior. Therefore, the findings support the situational explanation of behavior rather than the dispositional one. (Mcleod,2018)

In my opinion, the strength of this research was how the sampled persons in the research were intuitively responding to each other thus, the guards and the prisoners. The research was too strong to the extent that it had to involve one’s emotions and the mind. I have nothing much to suggest as to how the research should have been done because it was done on a purpose but I think they should have well informed the participants even though they were psychologically sound per the test that was conducted.

From the conclusion above, it shows how humans conform to societal values readily but societal values are always not moral and sometimes evil. It conspicuously depicts that our behavior are more influenced by external environment. In addition, people become less merciful than usual to one another when that person has been given the authority. We adapt quickly when given power but slow to adapt when given instructions. The research was informative because I have learned that situations that we find ourselves in affect our thinking and behavior.

Reference: Mcleod,S.2018. Simply Psychology: The Stanford Prison Experiment Wikipedia.com, Philip Zimbardo