Homework: Read the article below about the Stanford Prison Experiment. Afterwards,
write a full paragraph summary of the article (approximately 6 sentences) in which you
touch on how the experiment was set up, what happened during the experiment, and what
we learn from it.
From www.experiment-resources.com
STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT
This infamous Stanford Prison Experiment has etched its place in history, as a notorious
example of the unexpected effects that can occur when psychological experiments into
human nature are performed.
by Martyn Shuttleworth (2008)
Like a real life ‘Lord of the Flies’, it showed a degeneration and breakdown of the
established rules and morals dictating exactly how people should behave towards each
other.
The study created more new questions than it answered, about the amorality and darkness
that inhabits the human psyche.
As a purely scientific venture, the experiment was a failure, but it generated some results
that give an insight into human psychology and social behavior. The ethical implications
of this study are still discussed in college and undergraduate psychology classes all across
the world.
In the days of the Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo abuses, the Stanford Prison Experiment is
once again becoming relevant, showing that systematic abuse and denial of human rights
is never far away in any prison facility.
This study is so well known that a Hollywood movie about the Stanford Prison
Experiment is going to be released in 2009. The experiment has also been the basis of
many similar studies, over the years, but these have had much stricter controls and
monitoring in place.
BACKGROUND
In 1971, the psychologist Philip Zimbardo tried to show that prison guards and convicts
would tend to slip into predefined roles, behaving in a way that they thought was
required, rather than using their own judgment and morals.
Zimbardo was trying to show what happened when all of the individuality and dignity
was stripped away from a human, and their life was completely controlled.
He wanted show the dehumanization and loosening of social and moral values that can
happen to guards immersed in such a situation.
METHOD
To conduct the Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo constructed a mock correctional
facility in the basement of Stanford University.
