Review the website. What most interested/surprised you? What did you learn? How does psychology relate?
Welcome to the Stanford Prison Experiment web site, which features an extensive slide show and information about this classic psychology experiment, including parallels with the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. What happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph? These are some of the questions we posed in this dramatic simulation of prison life conducted in the summer of 1971 at Stanford University.
I have heard about this experiment before, but was not aware of how much planning and studying went in to creating the experiment. One thing I found particularly interesting was that they were able to humiliate the prisoners. While I was aware that this was just an experiment, I found that detail mentally barbaric.
The cognitive behind the prisoner's thinking declined rapidly. Many prisoners were losing control of their emotional balance, due to the extreme stressful situations.
They were to be identified by number and number only, creating an environment where the prisoners virtually had no identity.
Being branded as a number instead of a person and shaving their heads, seemed to take the biggest toll on the prisoners. With no sense of individuality, the prisoners psychological state began to unravel. The guards reported episodes of acute emotional disturbance, and also uncontrollable crying spells. While they never physically harmed the prisoners, the mental demand the environment created was close in tolerable.
As the experiment progressed, we find many things and behaviors of the prisoners were comparable to a real life situation. The prisoners planned an escape. This began to effect the guards, who did not really know how to asses their role. This action by the prisoners made the guards begin to take their role more seriously, and they saw the prisoners in a different light. The guards became angry, and paranoid about the prisoners, thinking that they could possibly harm them during the experiment.
This experiment showed that the amount of stress in a prison environment where mental abuse, humiliation, and degradation, are present, plays a significant role in both the mental state of the prisoners, but for the guards as well. The social psychology behind the experiment demonstrated that the roles of a prisoner and a guard can be easily obtained when the conditions are right.
The experiment also showed that the psychological effects of being in a prison can be devastating. Three prisoners had lost control of their emotions after only 3 days, and by the fifth day, almost every prisoner had some sort of psychological issue to deal with.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is an excellent example of how mental abuse, among other things can change the identity of a prisoner completely.
I found this website to be highly informational about The Stanford Prison Experiment since I had briefly learned about it in one of my Psychology courses and was not aware of the thought put into this experiment.
I was not surprised that the guards eventually stretched their authority to an extent that their right to coercion overtook their moral responsibilities of being prison guards as well as caring human beings. I was surprised, however, on how the prisoners became so emotionally distraught even after knowing they were in an experiment. I can see how being isolated, feeling tricked and untruthful of other prisoners, as well as denied any basic human rights while losing your physical identities connected with your inner identity (hair style, name, etc.) would cause a psychological unbalance, but to that extreme is nerve racking.
I learned that when anyone is given power over others, they have the choice to do it respectively or go above and beyond of abusing that power by overtaking others emotional or physical state. What I don't understand is why anyone would actually want to harm others to gain respect for them, but I do understand that when feeling threatened, many people will respond with threat to 'get even'. I also learned more about how when someone is viewed and treated by others based on things that don't personally identify who they are, they themselves lose that identity and connection with reality that they've known their whole life. Learned helplessness is not only easy to feel, but can happen so easily in such a helpless situation that one does not know how to react logically or calmly.
The cognitive aspect of this experiment was using random selection and then random assignment of participants as well as eliminating anyone who was psychologically disturbed to avoid disturbances within and the study. Also, when the prisoners began to feel helpless and rebelled, the guards realized that physical harm wasn't enough and cognitively used psychological harm to separate the prisoners. When it is obvious the guards wanted to maintain their power over their prisoners, they also wanted to rid the fear of being overpowered by the prisoners themselves.
Social psychology was so corrupted by behavioral psychology in this situation because the guards should have worked some negotiations out with the rebellious prisoners to have a mutual understanding of each other instead of causing more problems by using force and abuse. Their violent and controlling behavior did not solve anything over the issue of gaining respect from the prisoners and maintain their authority.
This experiment was a great insight to what goes on in real-life prisons and how emotionally, psychologically, and physically abusing it is. That is, when abuse (psychological and physical), humiliation, favoritism, and isolation are used in prisons to maintain guard authority. Identity is so important to each individual that they will do anything to keep that importance from being degraded or abused, leading to violence or psychotic reactions.
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The Stanford Prison experiment is legendary in psychology and has a significant impact on understanding how people can alter into sadistic and inhumane individuals. Such individuals have emerged throughout history such as the S.S. soldiers in Nazi concentration camps and the treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. In this experiment, the credited psychologist Dr. Zimbardo hoped to answer the following questions; what happens when you put good people in an evil place? Does humanity win over evil, or does evil triumph?
In this experiment, evil sadly triumphed in which the randomly assigned prison guards progressively became sadistic, inhumane, and attempted to dehumanize subject prisoners. In response, the randomly assigned prisoners showed symptoms of emotional disturbance, depression, and disorganized thinking. Many prisoners also experienced learned helplessness and some uncontrollable crying, and rage. The experiment that was supposed to last two weeks lasted only six days due to the inhumane and unethical treatment towards the prisoners.
The Stanford Prison experiment’s intent was to help explain how people could ever treat other humans so horribly. The results from the experiment show that when people are placed in a certain role and are to perform actions accommodated with the role, the role may consume them. For example, in this experiment the volunteer students were asked to role-play a prison setting. The experiment was just supposed to be role-playing but the students went well and beyond the expectations. The student guards, who prior to the experiment had no history of violence, became very sadistic and aggressive while role-playing. They most likely experienced cognitive dissonance during their role playing, but were most likely able to externally justify their actions. They justified them by actually believing that their behavior and actions no matter how inhumane were a part of the experiment. Many even seemed to believe that the setting was real and that the prisoners were actually bad and deserved their punishments.
While viewing the website I found interesting aspects both within the experiment and in real life. The first aspect was part of the reason why the experiment ended earlier; the researchers found through videotapes that the guards were escalating their abuse of prisoners in the middle of the night. They practiced more pornographic and degrading abuse of the prisoners due to boredom and the absence of researchers. This aspect shocked me. I knew the subject guards were progressively becoming more sadistic and inhumane but to this extent? This was only an experiment and both the prisoners and the guards were there for the same reason, as subjects to an experiment. It is scary to think that only after a few days of role-playing average American men can change into individuals that would commit such horrid acts such as this.
Another act that surprised me was the riot at Attica Prison in New York. The prisoners held guards hostage in order to demand basic human rights. Basic human rights should be provided to everyone, even prisoners. Prisoners have and are being punished by having many of their rights such as freedom taken away. Take away their basic human rights and it is as if they are not human at all. This depressing act highlights just how much being placed into roles can affect our personality, beliefs, and most of all our actions.
Finally another interesting aspect was the correlation between personality and prison behavior. The only correlation was a finding that prisoners with a high degree of authoritarianism endured the authoritarian prison environment longer than did other prisoners. According to The Social Animal (Aroson, 2011) authoritarian personalities include individuals who tend to be rigid in their beliefs and conventional values; intolerance of weakness in themselves and others; suspicious, highly punitive, and unusually respectful of authority. This being stated, these individuals who endured the environment longer, could have due to their intolerance of weakness in themselves and their possible respectfulness of authority.
Overall the Stanford Prison experiment provided substantial findings in the roles and expectations placed upon people and how it may change them. The experiment may also help explain how people such as the S.S Nazi guards and the guards at Abu Ghraib become violent and sadistic. With further research and continuous educate about this psychological phenomenon, people may resort to less harsh punishment and some may show more empathy towards others. Perhaps then someday, basic human rights will be provided and respected for everyone.
Terms: sadist, dehumanization, external justification, learned helplessness, cognitive dissonance, random assignment, subjects, depression, role-playing, abuse, correlation, personality, authoritarianism, empathy
The Stanford Prison Experiment is a classic in psychology. I remember watching a breif video about it in my Intro to Psych class. It was very interesting to read more in depth about. I never knew there was so much effort in planning this and so much more going on with the prisoners and prison guards.
I think what was the most surprising was how the role really took over the participants behavior. The psychologist were able to find 24 out of 70 applicants for this study. 24 participants that were the healthy, intelligent, and middle-class males. It seems that they were pretty much the same, until they got divided randomly into prison guards and prisoners.
Through out they whole experiment the prisoner's thinking was practically very disturbed. All though they they knew in their minds that this was just an experiment all of them took it to heart forgetting that this was just a study. The time it really got to them was probably when they assigned a number. Rather than being called your name they called you by your number. Which took you sense of individuality away.
In this experiment we saw that many things and behaviors started to be like a real prison. The guards who were just the same kind people of that the prisoners were just starting to take their role to an extreme level. They got into their character very well. Which surprised me because they really did not have a clue on what they were suppose to do at the beginning.
With this experiment easily learned when someone is put in power they will automatically take control of it and that when put in a position of helplessness they act according to it. The prisoners learned their helplessness that contributed to their emotional distress, their lack of reality, and their identity roles. I feel like I have also learned that in many ways these people didn't even know what they were getting themselves into, but the psychologist did. They put these students in harmful conditions therefore it really isn't ethical.
This relates to psychology in a big way. Especially, social psychology, which all know is about understanding individual behavior in a social context. Social psychology deals with factors that lead us to behave in a given way in the presence of others, and look at the conditions under which certain behavior or feelings occur. The prisoners and prison guards are a perfect example of this because they were put in to these certain roles that influenced them and influenced each other. I also learned 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 a very important factor factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior. Therefore, the roles that people play can shape their behavior and attitudes.
I have heard a lot about this in my other class’s over the years. It is a very interesting experiment not exactly the most ethical but this was also around 40 years ago things more things were allowed. Something I found interesting was how the students playing the guards were given no training or rules. The guards made up their own rules. In a real prison guards and train and given specific rules to go by. I fell like this experiment is very interesting to learn about. It has many ethical issues with it that is for sure. Something that dose surprise me is how Zimbardo was not only the experimenter but also the warden. I would have thought that Zimbardo would have understood that putting yourself into your experiment is usually never a good thing to do. From what I have learned in the past the head guard was trying to play his role the ways he saw someone in a movie play it. I think that this is a very interesting point that if someone tires they can be someone completely different. The guards were not in the prison 24/7 so when they were outside they acted normally. Some guard had thought that the head guard was getting a little too carried away with some of the things happening in the prison but did nothing about it. They just went along with it. This kind of thing has happened in the past with the military personnel at a prison I can’t remember the name at the moment, but a lot of them said they did the things they did because they were ordered to. It’s interesting to see how people react when they are put in to certain situations. If you were to ever hang out with any of the participants in this experiment they probably will not be acting the same way they did in the experiment. The strain of the experiment got to some people and they had a meltdown they couldn't handle it anymore. It has a huge psychological toll on people both the guards and the prisons. There was a interview later on between the head guard and one of the prisoners and the prisoner said that the experiment had change him the way he thinks about the world. About what men are capable to do to one another.
There was a lot of information on this website and throughout the entire slideshow that you never initially learn about the standford prison experiment.
I think for me and I believe for many others it is hard to imagine people becoming that involved in something that they know is an experiment. Reading through the processes and what happened it's hard to believe that these prisoners felt that degraded that they truely believed that they had done something wrong and they deserved every punishment they were getting. Their initial rebellion and slow evolution into complience shows that the human spirit really is something that isn't absolute, you can be broken just like anyone else. It shows a great deal of vulnerability in people and that authority can sometimes make us not ourselves. Eventual acceptance by the prisoners of their punishment and fate was the last straw in seeing themselves as not worthy of basic human rights or treatment.
The guards were easier to picture them getting into the experiment but also harder because it seems to be a common theme in history that people become overwhelmed with power and sometimes lose themselves and their morals in the fact that they have so much power. But also what I found interesting was that the guards didn't have to stay 24/7 in the prison but were still just as effected and came to believe that the experiment was just as real as the prisoners. You would think that maybe since they were given the chance to leave after their shifts and go back out into the real world that while there they would realize that they were part of an experiment instead of actually going on shift as a prison guard, but it seemed to me that this experiment had taken priority in their own lives because they volunteered to stay on for extra hours with little pay and no extra pay and never showed up late or skipped a shift, this implies that they believed that this was their real duty was to keep these "trouble makers" inline and that they were the only ones capable of doing a good job. This also shows vulnerability in a situation of power for the guards because they seemed to be easily influenced by the power that they were given and in some cases it seemed to change them into an entirely different person. It would be interesting to see if any of these "guards" carried this attitude with them when they got into the real world during the experiment or if it affected their realtionships with people that were what they considered "inferior" to them even after the experiment was over? I wondered if they had any remorse about what they did during the experiment. It was implied slightly that they may have had some remorse at the end of the experiment after talking with the prisoners but would they do anything different? If the experiment had gone on for longer I wonder if any of them would have developed a relationship with the prisoner that was more like a colleague then a guard and prisoner. You sometimes hear about prisoners and guards working together or at least discussing like civil human beings and I wonder if the guards had had more time with the prisoners if they may have developed a more civil relationship.
The standford prison experiment is a classic example of abuse that can be suffered psychologically from the conditions that are sometimes common in prison as well as what a position of authority can do to ordinary people if put in extraordinary circumstances.
The authenticity of the experiment surprised me because they really did go into great depth to assure that it felt real by picking the suspects up at their own homes, reading them their rights, handcuffing and taking to the station in front of neighbors on the street who had no idea that this was an experiment. I also thought it was really interesting that they consulted a former prisoner of 17 years who told them his first-hand account about living & social conditions of prison. What surprised me the most was how quickly & easily everyone involved seem to forget that it really was just an experiment. Even though things escalated really fast, I was surprised nobody (and not everybody) spoke up to calm everyone down, reminding them that it was all pretend. Instead, "every aspect of the prisoners' behavior fell under the total and arbitrary control of the guards," showing how the environment influenced their entire psyche and distortion of reality. The fact that the parents and friends who came to visit the prisoners were so easily manipulated & similarly becoming "players in the prison drama" was interesting. The power of authority figures, whether real or knowingly feigned, is somewhat troublesome. Our society & system of law relies upon that unsaid respect and compliance to authority, but when taken into consideration, this strength is also one of the system's biggest weaknesses that allows atrocities like the Holocaust.
Although I was already familiar with this experiment from my Intro to Psychology class last semester, I was not aware of the humiliation they endured by being stripped naked and "deloused with a spray," inferring the guard's belief that they were filthy. This is called a "degradation procedure" and is indeed practiced in real life that emasculates male prisoners. I am not sure what the protocol is for female prisoners. Additionally, I learned that the stereotypical chain and weight attached to the ankle of prisoners is uncommon in most prisons. I always thought that their purpose was to make escape more difficult, but in the experiment, they were used to "remind prisoners of the oppressiveness of their environment," which also makes sense.
Psychology relates right from the beginning when the suspects are first picked up from their homes. The website says that procedures used by the police "make arrestees feel confused, fearful, and dehumanized," putting them in a social situation where they feel inferior. It also discusses the psychological effects the environment can have on mental health & behavior with no view of the outside world. Another interesting aspect of the experiment involved the mass escape plot that the guards overheard the prisoners planning for after visiting hours that night. The social psychologists conducting the experiment focused not on the social psychology of rumor transmission or observing the escape, but rather on the security of the prison & preventing the escape. This part of the experiment gave way to debate on what data researchers should have been trying to collect & discussing possible flaws of experimenter bias. Nevertheless, prisoners still took the experiment very seriously, some of them refusing to eat, others sobbing uncontrollably.
Calculated psychological effects seem to be the root of all the conditions inflicted upon the prisoners from their form of identification being an ID number instead of their name, to their hair being shaved off to minimize individuality. The guards in this experiment were not instructed or trained on how to be guards; they were given completely free reign to "do whatever they thought was necessary to maintain law and order." This is why it was so surprising for everyone to see the transformation that occurred: normal people turned into ruthless, evil guards or helpless, compliant prisoners. The main finding of the experiment was that the environment can have a tremendous impact on one's behavior. Criminals are not innately criminals biologically doomed, and abusive guards are not just people who were born mean. Rather, the environment can influence an individual's behavior in many different ways.
After reading through each slide and watching the videos, I found myself dumbfounded. It surprised me overall. I was so interested in how they made the prison realistic. First off they placed the advertisement stating what the experiment was and ended up with 24 males to participate. These males were mentally stable as well as college students. They are average people with clear intelligence. These men went in knowing what they were doing and that it fundamentally was not real. First, I was interested in how they would get the participants to act based on real emotion with them knowing that it was not real and they did not commit these crimes. How they dismantled each individual self-identity is very interesting. They made it very realistic as far as making them get to the mental state of a prisoner. The most interesting aspect that I found was they were no longer a name only a number. I have been in many prisons in my life time and this never seemed to be present. I know that it is, I just was unaware at how present it was. They also had to wear dresses, which is not the average uniform of a prisoner. How they reacted to the uniforms and chains is very predictable. Psychology is present in the entire study. This is the first reactive psychological aspect. The inmates losing sensory stimulation and becoming the prisoner psychologically changed each individual. Not only were the prisoners becoming their new identity, the guards were also psychologically receiving the role. Empowerment became the major aspect for the guards.
The first rebellion was the true test of actual stimulation and functional stimulation. The use of fire extinguishers was a surprise to me, I understand punishment being an aspect of prison, but this was further than I was expecting. They used solitary confinement as punishment. Shortly after they turned to psychological punishment, and this showed many motivational aspects of psychology. Using privileges gave inmates motivation to behave in a goal directed behavior. This might have been the first sense of them having something to live for, to look forward to. The simplicity of privileges were based on humanistic needs. I found it interesting to see them use such a foundational source. Then the switch of prisoners based on their label of good and bad had to totally mess with the inmate’s psychological state. Breaking alliances is common in prisons, and the way of going about it seems unethical. This study made me realize the necessary steps a prison takes for safety strictly based on them. The first break out of emotional disturbance was essential to show the researchers that this is no longer only a study. The release of the prisoner showed how deep his reaction was. The second rebellion did not happen, however, the repercussions were still valid.
Parent visitations were another area of this study that intrigued me. The parents even noticed how in-depth the study was getting and still broke down into the same state as the prisoners. By the time that they left, they too saw themselves as corrupt parents of criminals. This is further proven with the visit of the Catholic Priest and his call home. Overall, this no longer was a study that was active within the inmates and their behavior. It was mental within the inmates, guards, parents, priest, parole board, and even the researchers. It amazes me how much happened in such a short time. This study makes me interested in how the study would have ended based on the use of other components. I also wonder how much time it took for the people included in the research to gain back personal identity. Psychologically how the study reacted was predictable; however, I was surprised at how fast we react to the change of our environment and our needs being met.
I was so happy that we got to review this website on the Stanford Prison Experiment because I feel as though it is a topic that has been covered in almost all of the psychology courses that I have taken prior to this one. It is always fun to cover it again and learn things that I may have missed before!
What interested or surprised me the most was how quickly the men involved in the experiment fell into their roles of guards and prisoners. It is unreal to me that the experiment was supposed to last for two weeks, which really is not all that long to begin with, but got cut short and ended on day six because of how psychologically damaging it was proving to be for both the guards and the prisoners. I couldn’t believe that some of the guards started acting in sadistic manners and got pleasure out of coming up with newer, harsher ways to punish the inmates. I also could not believe that the prisoners were able to fall into a pattern of learned helplessness and hopelessness so easily. They convinced themselves that the situation they were in was real and that they could not drop out or escape it. It seemed somewhat surreal to me that all of this took place in less than one week.
Something else that interested me was when it discussed the inmates’ parents coming in to visit them. It said that the parents even fell into their roles and that they sort of believed that their sons were actually in prison. They followed the rules the guards set up for visiting times, and they acknowledged and accepted the fact that their sons had no way of getting out or escaping. The experiment became real to the parents, just as it had become real for the guards and the prisoners.
Something I learned from going through and reviewing this site on the Stanford Prison Experiment was that there was only one person throughout the whole thing who showed up at the experiment and said that it should be stopped because it was having terrible effects on everyone involved. It shocked me to learn that literally only one single person came forth and spoke out against the experiment while it was happening. It is crazy that nobody else would question whether or not the experiment was humane, moral, and healthy for the young men involved.
Another thing that I learned from going through the website was that none of the guards dropped out of the experiment, whereas a few of the prisoners did. It’s interesting that the guards enjoyed their positions of power enough to show up on time and not drop out of the experiment for any reason in particular. The reason that some of the prisoners dropped out was because they were going through acute psychological disorders that had developed through taking part in the experiment. It is wild that average, normal people could be so psychologically affected from a prison simulation.
Psychology relates in numerous ways to the Stanford Prison Experiment. It is apparent right from the very beginning when the young men replied to the newspaper ad and were psychologically evaluated to see whether or not they could take part in the experiment. They knew what kind of experiment was going to take place, and all of the psychologically incapable people were weeded out. When the men taking part in the experiment were arrested from their homes, it took a psychological toll on them. They were put up against a cop car and were read their rights. They were handcuffed and were then taken to the “prison” where they were strip searched and humiliated, and finally given a number that would replace their name. These tactics can be very stressful for the inmates because they dehumanize them and introduce them to the fact that they are not in charge of their lives anymore. They completely erase the prisoner’s individual identity.
Feelings and emotions play a large role in both the prisoners’ and the guards’ mentalities. For instance, the prisoners want to assert their independence by rebelling against the guards and making them feel like they still have some control over their behaviors. To act against this, the guards feel as though they need to make the prisoners see that they are the ones in control and that they have to submit to the guards and do as they say. This causes some incongruity between the guards and the prisoners until both of them fall into their specific roles. When they finally do take on their roles, they begin to feel as though what they are experiencing is real, and this leads to the feelings of learned helplessness by the prisoners and the feelings of power and sometimes even sadism by the guards. A couple of the prisoners had to drop out of the experiment due to acute emotional disturbance.
This experiment showed how psychologically disturbing a prison-like environment can be on both the guards and the inmates. The men took on their roles and acted them out in the ways they thought were most appropriate and suitable, but the acting turned into real life in less than a week. Conformity was present among the prisoners and among the guards as well. The roles that they young men took on began shaping their behaviors and cognitions. Even though the experiment was merely a simulation of life in prison, it took a psychological toll on basically every single person involved in the experiment, whether they were a guard or a prisoner. It is frightening to think that we are without a doubt causing terrible psychological damage to current prisoners that are in real prison systems today, and I hope that someday soon we can figure out a way to promote positivity and humanity so that every person involved can maintain their psychological health.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is a topic that comes up in nearly every psychology class because of how it was conducted and the results that it yielded. In todays world this experiment would never have happened because of the many ethical dilemmas that it presented. However, the 1970s were a different time with much more lax ethical standards that were often pushed by psychologists. Often these boundaries were pushed unintentionally like in the Stanford Prison Experiment that had to be ended in less than half of the intended time.
The two groups being studied, guards and prisoners, were selected through a process of applications, psychological analysis, and then random assignment. This was to ensure equal, unbiased, groups. The end result was a sample of 24 middleclass men; 9 assigned as guards, 9 as prisoners, and 3 backups for each group. The prison experiment was designed to run for a span of two weeks during which the guards and prisoners would be watched to see the effects of a prison environment on human behavior.
What I found most interesting in this experiment was how quickly power was able to influence guards and how the prisoners had lost all sense of self by the fifth day. The onset of the experiment saw the two groups be processed fittingly, the prisoners processed just as they would be in a real prison and the guards where gathered to establish a code of conduct and set of rules for the prison and themselves. Initially the two groups were tentative towards each other, knowing it was an experiment so they followed the established guidelines. However it would take less than two days for this to change.
The student guards in the experience were average middle class young men that did not show a history or propensity for violence. This study helped to point out that it is often the scenario that leads to how people act, especially when violence is involved. These young men had to establish dominance over the prisoners and that is often done through violence and abuse, in this case it was forcing the prisoners to do push-ups, endure isolation, and at times spray them with a fire extinguisher. It was the role of the guard to be the dominant figure, so each student would have to fill that role in order to maintain the social structure. As the experiment progressed some guards became particularly violent while others remained friendlier to the prisoners. Yet they refused to interfere or intervene when the more violent guards took over. This is a great example of social psychology because it is the actions on the dominant that control those around. In theory all of the guards had the same level of authority and power but in actuality there was a hierarchy with the violent guards on top and unchallenged.
The other area that interested me was that the prisoners had lost any and all sense of personal identity in six days. They had become actual prisoners during the experiment, not college age men in an experiment. I believe that it was the drastic measures used to humiliate them that led to the complete loss of self and inability to think outside of the confines of the prison. Having the prisoners wear dresses, have uniform hair (by use of head coverings), and only being addressed by number played key roles in their loss of identity. I also believe that because of the stressful environment the prisoners were only able to focus on the immediate dangers and threats to safety, that they experienced a type of weapon focus that caused them to lose touch with reality because it was over a larger expanse of time than what a person would normally experience. This eventually caused them to forget the fact that they were in an experiment and caused them to believe that they were in an actual prison and would need to be represented by an attorney to bargain their way out.
By reading more about this experiment I learned how fragile the human psyche can be and how it is possible to lose who you are as a person. Under the right conditions the human brain can be manipulated into believing nearly anything. This is true for the both the guards and prisoners in this experiment, as well as the experimenters themselves. The guards began to violate the rules that they had established through a justification of maintaining the social balance, the prisoners lost all sense of identity and merely became numbers, and even the experimenters became consumed in their roles as prison officials becoming more concerned with the security of the prison than studying the social and behavioral factors of the experiment.
Terms: psychology, bias, prison, violence, social, behavioral, weapon focus, authority
I have heard of this experiment before, but I never knew it in such detail. I knew that some participants acted as guards and that some acted as prisoners, but I was unaware at all of the dehumanizing things that took place. I couldn't believe how tied up in their roles everyone got. The prison guards acted in sadistic and demoralizing ways against the prisoners. I was shocked to learn of the things they came up with. For example, they blindfolded their prisoners and made them put on a dress and cap made of material meant for women. They also deprived the prisoners of the right to know what day it was or even what time it was. Another thing that they did was to restrict their time going to the toilet. They made them urinate and deficate in buckets in their cells. To me, all of that in and of itself would be psychologically damaging, but it didn't stop there. When prisoners rebelled, the guards sprayed cold carbon dioxide from fire extinguishers on them to get them away from their cell doors. They even stripped the "bad prisoners" naked and made them go into a different cell cut off from everyone else. The guards then confused everyone by switching who was in the bad cell and who was in the good cell. I was shocked to learn that they actually did this in prisons in the early 70s. I couldn't believe that they even imposed some of this experiment on the prisoner's families and that the families actually went along with it. It tells me that the average person has a hard time saying no to people believed to be in charge. What the guards did was sick, I was surprised not to hear of any more prisoners having psychological disorders afterwards. The only one who showed signs of one was prisoner #8612. It is crazy to believe that normal, mentally healthy men could turn into something that their not, given a certain role.
I can also see aspects of social psychology play out in this experiment. For example, people in both of the groups conformed to what everyone else was doing around them. This is just another example of group think and how it can play out in different situations.
It is weird to see the references they made to the concentration camps and also how we saw the same behavior demonstrated in the Iraqi prison. The psychological damage done to all of these individuals, no matter what the crime is terrible! Especially being in solitary confinement with no contact with anyone. Just that alone could drive someone crazy. Like the real prisoner said at the end, he only thought about killing the guards who did this to him. I can imagine why! The treatment is inhumane, demoralzing, and embarrassing. Especially in the context of the experiment. The college boys took their roles out of hand and even the research psychologist said he couldn't believe how far into his role he was.
It just makes me wonder about the psychology that goes into that kind of thinking. It might just be the idea of having a new role and trying to live up to it. Maybe the boys (guards especially) didn't want to dissappoint researchers. But the way the guards made the prisoners feel is real. The boys actually believed that there was no way out and started to suffer severe anxiety about never getting out.
Overall, I was very interested in reading about this topic. I have heard about it several times, but didn't know everything that went into it.
Terms: psychological damage, behavior, authority, role-playing.
From the discussion of the case within the text and the website, I was surprised that the experiment had to be shortened from two weeks to six days. The entire experiment didn’t even last half of the intended length due to the depression being felt by the “prisoners” and the abuse coming from the “guards.”
The mock prison was designed to be similar to a supermax prison. We can tell this because supermax prisons allow for only about an hour a day outside of their cells and prisoners are constantly kept unaware of their whereabouts within the prison so as to prevent escapes. The website discussed that prisoners were kept in their cells and were blindfolded when they were taken down the hallway to go to the restroom.
It was interesting to read about how they created the feeling of a prison. They discussed emasculating the volunteers and humiliating them. They also used to chains to make them feel the oppressive atmosphere an actual prison would provide. I learned that mentally creating a prison can have more of an effect on individuals rather than being in an actual prison. Also, when the opportunity presents itself, individuals will exert their power on others. One third of the guards were tough but fair, another third abused their power, and one third was lenient. A majority of the guards exerted power over the prisoners even though the prisoners were men just like themselves that hadn’t actually done anything wrong.
Some of the prisoners participated in a rebellion on the second day. This may indicate a higher need for power and autonomy. They didn’t like their loss of control, as evident in their rebellion, so they tried to gain it again. The prisoners lost their autonomy through the limits of restroom use and being referred to as a number. This created dehumanization as well. Social psychology was evident in how the prisoners and guards each quickly fell into their roles. They acted on their expectations of their roles. One prisoner even forgot it was an experiment. Towards the end he broke down crying because the other prisoners thought he was a bad prisoner but when he was called by his name and reminded it was an experiment, his mood lifted and he was able to stop crying. This prisoner, along with the one that left early, experienced a change in their emotional and mental stability greatly.
This experiment was an interesting study in social psychology and prison environments. It is able to give insight into how guards may become more sadistic and why prisoners experience difficulty in being rehabilitated. This is similar to supermax prisons and indicates why prisoners in these sorts of environments may develop more psychological issues than they previously had and lose mental stability.
Terms Used: Depression, Supermax Prison, Power, Need, Power, Autonomy, Social Psychology, Psychological
This is the most in-depth information I have ever read about the Stanford Prison experiment. Although, I have previously heard of how the experiment was conducted. I was awfully shocked at how much effort was put into making this experiment become a reality for the prisoners and guards.
For me, I thought the most surprising part of the whole experiment was how ‘real’ it became. The volunteers’ behavior changed drastically throughout the six days they were conducting the experiment. I honestly think they forgot it was an experiment and the fact that they couldn’t control anything that was happening to them took a toll on their mind and body. All the volunteers made it through a series of intelligent, personality, and back ground checks and the experimenters chose nine males that were most alike. To see how different their personality and behavior became throughout the experiment really shocked me.
The power of the authorities became a key factor in this experiment. They were getting into their role as much as anyone. What really interested me was how the entire thing was an experiment, however, everybody took it so seriously. I would have to say that the lack of sleep and lack of nutrition would have to take a toll on the mind, body and soul. There are so many other aspects that could have factored into this situation as well. I did not know they used humiliation as a punishment in this experiment this procedure was called the “degradation procedure”. As a male, to be totally controlled by somebody else has to take a hit to their ego and self-confidence. I’m just hoping they wouldn’t have used the same degradation procedure for females. I realized how real this study was becoming when the man conducting the experiment said that he would forget he’s the conductor and forgot he was playing a role. I also learned that many of the same tactics and punishment techniques that were used in the Stanford Prison experiment were also used in for punishment in the military. For example, using push-ups as a punishment were first thought of as a bad punishment until they realized the military uses the same type of punishment.
I believe psychology was involved in every aspect in the Stanford Prison experiment. The prisoners lost their sense of identity when they were given an I.D. number instead of using their name, they would lose their eating privileges if they were considered a “bad” prisoner, they made they all shave their head so they would all look the same, at one point they had to get permission to use the restroom. Those are just a few of the ways that psychology affected this experiment. Cognitively, physically, socially and personality psychology were all shown to be affecting the inmates in this experiment and a few of them had to be released just after a couple days because they were showing signs of how badly this experiment was affecting them.
Terms: cognitive psychology, social psychology, power, experiment, authority
The website for this experiment did an excellent job of providing a summary of the events, as well as, video clips from the actual experiment. This experiment has always been fascinating to me, not only because of the fact that this experiment was allowed to happen, but also because of the way in which this experiment was designed and carried out.
The part of this experiment that most interested and surprised me was the way in which the volunteers were manipulated by the realistic nature of the experiment and ended up falling into their roles whether their role was a guard or a prisoner. It was interesting to read about and see the transition between normal every day volunteers into actual believable prisoners or guards. Secondly, I found it interesting that not only did the volunteers become manipulated by the experiment, but so too did the researcher himself. Dr. Zimbardo talked about feeling like it no longer was his experiment but his actual reality. Dr. Zimbardo talked how he was upset when the city police station would not cooperate with him and his prison, instead of looking at it as an experiment and understanding the reasoning behind the police declining his request. Finally, I was very surprised by the prisoners having to release themselves in buckets, as well as, be denied food or other important necessities of life. I understand that those types of things were the point of the experiment; I am just surprised it was allowed. It truly shows how times have changed in the ways of conducting experiments.
Through reading about this experiment, I have learned how much standards and regulations of research have changed over the years. I was very surprised that some of the events that happened were allowed such as denying food, the embarrassment and humiliation of the prisoners, giving the prisoners a bucket to release themselves into and not cleaning it up so that it smelled up the entire area, etc. This experiment truly proves why we have the regulations that we have now.
Psychology relates to this experiment in a lot of different aspects. Psychology is represented in the way in which the volunteers fell into their roles due to the realistic nature of their environment and interactions among each other. Psychology is also represented through the emotional reactions that some of the prisoners experienced due to the confinement and lack of resources that they had. It was obvious that this experiment truly affected the psychological state of the volunteers that represented the prisoners and the guards.
I have heard of this experiment in several of my past psychology classes but none of my teachers went into depth on how rough the psychologists and other students made it for the “convicts” doing the experiment many of my teachers just mentioned that the people who consented to the experiment showed signs of conformity with the aspect of being in prison.
As it mentioned at the beginning of the slide show all the convict test subjects were dehumanized by cutting their hair or wearing the pantyhose indicating that they had no hair, stripped down and washed, and were given numbers which replaced the person’s real name over time. Also the convicts were even slightly feminized by wearing the dress like uniforms. Now all these physical changes played a destructive role mentally on the people participating in this experiment and not just the convicts but the guards as well as the psychologist undertaking this experiment.
Cognitively the people in this study went in different directions mainly because of their roles that they had played. The guards were students as well and many of them were normal students who were friendly and showed no signs of mental disorders prior to the experiment. When the experiment went underway the role of the guard fell into play quite quickly because in just six days the experiment preceded the guards did demoralizing things to the convicts which were very similar to real prisons or even Nazi camps during the world war which many of the guards got most of these ideas from those categories. Some guards got to into their role getting nicknames and controlled everything in their authoritarianism ways even to some other guards they felt helpless. The convicts on the other hand went their own ways some became rebels and other conformed to so much extent that they would do anything the guards said just to not be punished. Since the convicts went under so much grueling perplexities that they almost had a like mind when it came to drills, all becoming distrustful towards the other convicts believing they were informants or troublemakers, and even humiliating those who could not handle the experiment anymore. Also at the end of the experiment the convicts who had been interviewed several months later they still believed that they were actually in prison.
Emotionally the convicts took the brunt of the destruction. It mentioned only two days into the experiment one of the convicts pretty much cracked and started crying uncontrollably. Many of the convicts felt weak and powerless to do anything since the guards did such distasteful actions to them. All the convicts had fear distilled into them especially when put into solitary. The guards on the other had showed much anger towards the convicts which increased over time due to the power that they were holding at the time.
I personally think this is a correct response to someone who is put into a situation such as this experiment since many people hear of how people sent to jail come back worse than when they were put into jail. This experiment also reminds me of several books I read about concentration camps and people who lived through it which all of them said many people did whatever they had to just to survive the ordeal whether it is good or bad to a stranger or someone you know near and dear to your heart. The one thing I was most surprised about was just how fast the people conformed to their environment and also having to clean the toilets with their bare hands.
Terms used: conformity, dehumanized, feminized, cognitive, emotions, authoritarianism, rebellion, convicts, guards, and prison
The more psychology classes I take, the more I realize that the Stanford Prison Experiment is an essential topic to study. Though I had a decent amount of background knowledge regarding the study before this assignment, I was surprised at how thorough the website was in explaining every detail regarding the experiment. This experiment is very interesting to me, so I was excited to expand my knowledge on the topic.
The Stanford Prison Experiment was designed to observe and evaluate the effects of a prison environment on human behavior. A newspaper ad asking for participants (as well as fifteen dollars per day) drew in the attention of about seventy college students. One by one, each student was evaluated and twenty-four were picked for the experiment. Eighteen men were assigned the role of either a prisoner or guard, and this was done at random. The assignment of the participants was intentionally unbiased for the purpose of the study. Though the initial plan was for the experiment to last two weeks, it only lasted about six days due to the unexpected results.
Nobody was prepared for how quickly the prisoners and guards would take on their new roles. The fact that it only took about two days for guards to invest in their newfound ‘authority’, and for the prisoners to pledge complete obedience is absolutely astonishing. Because both sides of the study were aware that they were simply participating in an experiment, they were a little lenient on one another at first. However, as the experiment continued, the participants were further and further engulfed into their particular roles. They had lost all sense of humanity and actually warped themselves into the roles that they were playing. Guards were punishing and even torturing their peers that, mind you, were only acting as prisoners. The prisoners were punished to the point that they actually believed as though they were actually serving some type of sentence. The punishment that prisoners endured was extremely harsh. The ‘bad’ prisoners were stripped naked and even sprayed with fire extinguishers. I was extremely surprised by this element of punishment, especially when I remembered that this was only for a study.
Something that I learned that also surprised me was the role of the parents in the experiment. The participants’ parents were able to come and visit their children. The parent’s also seemed to get caught up in the false reality of the study, acknowledging the rules that were created by the guards. They too believed that their sons were actually imprisoned, just as their sons did. Along with that, it was equally surprising to learn that while each of the participants were aware that they could leave at any time throughout the experiment, only a few prisoners dropped out and no guards. In fact, the guards gained pleasure from asserting authority over their peer prisoners. If I were a part of the study, which could never happen thanks to improved ethical codes, I would have never allowed myself to be treated the way that the prisoners were, nor would I treat the prisoners in such a harsh manner. That is exactly what Zimbardo thought as well. He believed that these American college students would treat prisoners humanely and respectfully, while the peered prisoners would also assert themselves if they felt they were being mistreated. Needless to say, his hypothesis proved wrong.
Probably because only one person complained about the experiment, saying that it should be stopped immediately due to the harmful effects it was having on all of the participants, the study lasted six days. Luckily, this was eight days before the anticipated end-date. Finally, the people running the experiment opened their eyes and ended the experiment for a few different reasons. Much to no surprise, some participants had to undergo therapy treatments because of the psychological issues they had developed over the course of the experiment. And, while the prisoners were happy that the study was over, the guards had a different reaction. They had become so sadistic and invested in their roles that they were upset that it had ended early.
The Stanford Prison Experiment is related to psychology in many ways. The prisoners were set up to be dehumanized from the moment that they were arrested and read their rights. Though they all knew it wasn’t real, it still placed a lot of stress on them and they had to react to the situations that they were being put through. All of the torturing and punishments that they underwent added to that stress to the point where they felt as if they lost their own identity. They no longer had names and were only identified as the numbers they were given. This created an undoubtedly amount of hostility between the prisoners and guards, and played mostly on their emotions and psyches. The hostility grew until the prisoners were subject to the guards’ every word and until they were ultimately helpless. Conformity was also a psychological element in this experiment. Both sets of participants conformed together at the beginning of the experiment. The prisoners bonded together and did as all of their peers did, and vise versa. However, as the experiment prolonged, things started to get ugly. The conformity slowly diminished as prisoners became rebellious and punishments intensified. The biggest aspect of psychology is the reactions of both the prisoners and guards. As the guards became more sadistic, the prisoners lost their identities and began to break down, and in some cases, act out.
All in all, the entire concept of this study was shocking. The levels at which humans crack under the right conditions and authority is simply incredible. Tricking the mind into believing that you are something that you are not, such as a prisoner or guard, and being able to truly conform to these roles in a matter of days proved to be not only attainable, but completely devastating. Luckily, our society has strengthened codes on ethics since this experiment so that psychological experiments that result in mental and emotional distress are no longer administered.
Terms: Psychology, experiment, psyche, emotion, conformity, mental distress, identity, dehumanize, sadistic, rebellion, punishment, hypothesis.
Every time I hear about the Stanford prison experiment, I can't help but think of the Cherokee proverb of the two wolves. It is the most eloquent, accurate statement I have ever heard of the nature of humanity and good and evil. The Stanford prison experiment is infamous. It shows up in television all the time, it even has a movie devoted to it, called the Experiment. It's dramatized, but it has some depictions that are somewhat true to form.
The Stanford Experiment itself has a few problems. I never really understood the wearing of women's clothes with no undergarments part of it. It was meant to emasculate the people, perhaps in an effort to speed up the time it took to have that powerless, vulnerable feeling that comes with prison. In forcing the experiment, they may have skewed it. Even the website says that as soon as the dresses were on, the inmates changed behavior almost immediately.
Really, an experiment of this nature almost has to be long term. They could then afford not to speed up the dehumanization process, and maybe have a lesser degree of dehumanization overall. It absolutely has to have specific guidelines that restrict the behaviors of the guards. Even in prison, felons have a greater degree of rights than were offered to these prisoners, though at the time they did not. Now, if a prisoner can prove abuse, there are people who ideally, are supposed to intervene, usually the medical staff of the prison. I feel like the ideal solution would be to implement a system of checks and balances.
I like the idea of at least three wardens, a medical warden who oversees the medical staff whose job is to ensure the well being of the people in the prison, a security warden who ensures the security of the prison and the well-being of the guards and a guard who keeps the balance, and an ethics warden who manages the policies and procedures to maximize protection of all parties. The system is harder to corrupt, but not invulnerable. It would be better than what we have now, however.
Back to the experiment. Even if they could get enough volunteers over the summer, they would have a somewhat more accurate picture of what prison was like. There's no reason not to shave the heads, hair grows back, though getting the consent for that could be tricky. Make it part and parcel of signing the contract. Both of these things would require a much larger incentive than fifteen dollars a day, granted, adjusted for inflation that's something like $85 a day.
The story of prisoner #819 tells the error pretty strictly. Though they later try to fracture solidarity, in this one aspect the prisoners spoke with a single voice. What prison has this ever happened in? They terrorized the prisoners so much that they would unite against one who was making waves to such a degree, or perhaps it was almost animalistic behavior. They had found their omega, a being who displayed weakness and who the powerless prisoners could torment and exert power over. That would explain why he was crying in the first place, why he was more emotionally distressed overall than the other prisoners. There's a lot undocumented up to this point that could tell us the why and how he specifically came to be this damaged individual.
The Warden and the making up their own rules was a failing in my book too. There are specific guidelines that are used, and I understand that there's wiggle room but wiggle room is far different from having undergraduates with no experience in this particular matter design the rules. The random counts in place of bedchecks at morning and at night astound me.
The section that mentioned racism was interesting to me, the idea that the guards would intentionally foster a dangerous environment for prisoners in order to fracture any hope of solidarity. I understand that it makes their job safer, but all the same it speaks great volumes to the problems of the prison system.
The escape plot and some of the suggested tactics makes me think of how far these people fell into their roles. What made the roles so strong, how they fell into them and intentionally tried to act like a Warden rather than a psychologist. The Doctor in charge of the experiment failed to differentiate his role from the role of the superintendent of the prison. If a doctor can't make the distinction then how are students expected to do better than that.
The part that strikes me as strange is the prison chaplain smacks of a person who is playing a role in the prison system. I wonder if that extends to all uniformed careers. Does putting on a police uniform impose bits of this ideal archetype of a police officer, or at least the individuals reflection of said role. At that point, we'd almost have to build each role we have in our society to a paragon.
Why does prison affect these people in these ways? The prisoners, I understand. The guards, to an extent, but the doctor in the experiment, the priest serving as chaplain. Even the prison consultant when placed as head of the parole board manifested signs of the man he hated the most because he was put in a position of similar power. Why does prison, even a simulated prison, affect these people despite their other roles and responsibilities, even in an experiment.
I would wager that the greater degree of control allowed over the individual, the greater the dehumanization, and the greater that the individuals see it as acceptable to dehumanize them. The study chalks the behaviors of the prisoners up to pathology, and the guards' behavior to sadism. The good guards stood by and did nothing, another saying has that as a source of great evil too. Consider Abu Ghraib, giving the guards absolute authority coupled with the idea that they can save the lives of their nation's people. How could anything be good and right if it's saving the lives of your friends and family? The answer is deciding that the ends don't justify the means and making certain that everyone understands that. How could the road to heaven be built on blood and bone?
What would have happened if some, if one of the good guards had stepped up and said that was unacceptable behavior? No, this is not okay, even if it wasn't out in the open where the prisoners could see. Could that curb the behavior, this is almost what needs to be tested, but since the experiment shouldn't be repeated I am not certain how this would be checked. No experiment even tangentially recognizable as a brother of the Stanford experiment will ever be passed and with good reason looking over the reports.
This is the behavior, from authority figures nonetheless, that contributes to violent prison environments. We need to watch the watchers, the guards with just as much scrutiny as the prisoners themselves. With greater authority and power should come greater accountability.
Terms:
Emasculation
Authority
Dehumanization
Sadism
Role
Archetype
The Stanford Prison Experiment is an infamous social psychology experiment which focuses on life in prison and prisonization. During my introduction to a psychology course in high school, the Stanford Prison Experiment caught my eye and was part of the reason I became intrigued by psychology. The experiment shows the power of how a situation can greatly affect and change a person’s characteristic behavior based on circumstance. Like many, I knew a brief background of the Stanford Prison Experiment, how it was conducted, what the experiment was about and the impact of the results; however, I never knew the extent to which the experiment was detailed and how involved everyone, including Zimbardo, became in the experiment.
I was surprised at how Philip Zimbardo became entrenched in the experiment and began to blend the reality of being a psychologist conducting an experiment with the idea that he truly was in a prison. Zimbardo appointed himself as the superintendant in order to ensure that the experiment would be conducted properly and that the participants were being treated well. However, over the period of the 6 days in which the experiment was being conducted, Zimbardo like the other participants, became consumed by the role of superintendant and the prison life became reality. Zimbardo explains how his involvement in the experiment allowed the psychological harm and humiliation to go on as long as it did due to his disconnection with reality. He describes that when the rumor of an escape arises he does not think about the psychology behind why the rumors may have started or to record the data of that day, rather he feared for the security and stability of his “prison”. He also discusses that when the parents come to visit, he did not think about recording the data but only thought about putting on a good show for the parents in order to ensure his prison would not be closed down. Zimbardo describes in the slide show how disconnected he became and that it took outside people, such as another professor, to make him realize that the experiment was going too far and needed to be ended. I believe that this shows how powerful the idea of conformity can be and how being put into a situation, such as prison, can make a person do things they would not normally do.
I was also surprised that the ex-convict that Zimbardo and his team were utilizing for information about the prison system also became disconnected from the outside world and fell right back into the role of being in prison. The consultant played the role of the head of the parole board at the end of the experiment. The consultant had been in prison for 17 years and had been denied parole for 16, however, when placed in the power role, the consultant treated the “prisoners” the same way that he had been treated. He was mean, cruel, and aggressive towards the men and in many cases denied them parole. Although the consultant knew how it felt to be denied parole, being given the title of head of the parole board gave him a sense of power which he abused. His title, although fake, made him conform into what he believed a parole board member would be like and he became entrenched in this identity.
I was intrigued by how in-depth the experiment was and how far Zimbardo was willing to go in order to make the experiment authentic. I was mostly shocked at the fact that Zimbardo had a priest come to the “prison” in order to discuss with each of the participants about their crime they committed. It was surprising to find out that after the priest had visited with each participant and recommended legal aid to a few, the priest actually called the parents about getting a lawyer. I found it fascinating that Zimbardo would put so much effort into making an extravagant and realistic setting for his experiment. I believe that if this much detail would not have been put into the experiment that it would not have had the impact that it has had.
This experiment, I believe, does an excellent job of depicting both conformity and prisonization. Each of the participants were randomly assigned to a role of either guard or prisoner and then expected to take on that role. Having a realistic prison setting and making the process of being arrested and being in prison authentic allows the participants to become their roles. Zimbardo describes how in the first day all the participants were feeling out their roles and jobs and deciding how far the other men were going to take their roles. This is also the beginning of prisonization, in which new prisoners must decipher how a prison is run and the other inmate’s personalities. After days passed in the experiment, the participants did not hesitate to play their roles because it had become the norm to them and they had conformed to the prison lifestyle. Each participant took on characteristics they believed to be true of the role they were playing and allowed it to consume them and become their reality. This is the next step of prisonization, in which prisoners forget about the outside world and change themselves in order to survive in their current situation. The Stanford Prison Experiment is an example of how prison can dehumanize a person and cause them to change so drastically that they forget who they were and what their lives were like before they were in prison.
Although this experiment is highly unethical and would not be deemed appropriate by today’s standards, I believe it is vital in understanding human nature. Being able to understand how a person can change due to negative circumstances has many implications and can allow us to analyze real world scenarios. The Stanford Prison Experiment allows us to begin to understand how Nazi soldiers became consumed by their fear of Hitler and power or how United States soldiers abused their power by degrading prisoners of war. Even though it is hard to believe that someone could become overwhelmed by “evil” and forget their beliefs and morals to become a completely different person, there are several controlled and real world examples that provide evidence that this does occur. If we can find a way of controlling or managing this behavior, then war, mental health and other similar situations would be viewed in a different way and could be changed for the better.
Terms: social psychology, prisonization, conformity, dehumanize, guards, prisoners, mental health
I had learned about the Stanford Prison Experiment in my other classes and have seen some video clips of what happened, and it was shocking to see how just a set up situation, that was not a real prison, could have such a substantial effect on an individuals personality and behavior. Before taking a look around the website I knew that I would learn even more because this experiment was so interesting, and resulted in an early ending because of the severity in harm that was occurring to the volunteers. The fact that the experiment was set up for two week, but did not even last one, six days to be exact, was one of the most shocking things that I learned. The fact that human behavior can change so drastically in such a short amount of time was very intriguing. Not only did the experiment have to end eight days early, but it was interesting that personality changes occurred within just a few days. Another shocking result of the experiment was the numerous mental breakdowns that occurred, as well as the huger strike that broke out. The idea that even though these volunteers knew that they were not real prison guards or real prisoners, their behaviors adapted to like behaviors in real prisons. Even though they were consciously aware that they were not being held in a real prison, and that it was simply an experiment it did not relieve them of the stress that happens in real prisons. I learned how power can change a person’s behavior, as seen when the guards became sadistic in the way that they treated the prisoners. I was also interested in the fact that I learned how far a person would go in a different situation, or that humans can take it to a level they would not have thought as one guard stated in an interview forty years after the experiment took place. The last thing that was new to me was that controversy that has occurred over the last forty years over the question of if the experiment was “ethically wrong” or not. Those that believe that the experiment was ethically wrong stated that the harm done to the volunteers and the fact that there was not true scientific basis to the experiment made it so. However, the administrator of the experiment, Professor Zimbardo said that his work was very important to psychology, and can give a better idea as to why abuse occurs in the prison system, or situations where there are prisoners and captives.
This experiment has many aspects of psychology involved. First and foremost, social psychology has one of the most important factors in terms of this experiment. Social psychology is portrayed in how the environment the volunteers were put in changed their behavior. The fact that guards had power and control over prisoners showed that the social situation can explain human behavior, and that levels of control in that social setting can help to understand why certain behaviors occur. It also showed how humans are prone to conform into social roles when they are expected to behave in that particular role. Behavioral psychology is also seen throughout the experiment, the situation and environment these volunteers were put into had a dramatic change to their behaviors. The experiment also portrayed that human behavior can turn more animalistic, in terms of power and dominance, due to the environment. Lastly, cognitive psychology was tested in terms of the mental processes of the volunteers. It was obvious that this changed quickly due to their roles, whether guard or prisoner. The ‘prison’ environment changed the volunteers’ way of processing information, think, and perceive the situation that allowed them to conform easily to the prison way of life. This included how the prisoners would identify themselves by their number instead of their name, or how they would obey the guard’s commands that they would most likely not have obeyed in a different situation. Similarly, guards would probably not have commanded such things from the prisoners if given a different situation, where they were not expected to act that was for a certain amount of time which altered their was of thinking, in turn, altering the was they behaved.
Overall, this experiment opened my eyes in terms of how drastically nehaviors can change when put in a stressful situation. It made me think about how personalities could also affect the amount of time it would take for these changes in behavior to occur, however after taking a look at the Stanford experiment, it is apparent that it does not take long for any one to change into the social role that they are expected to play.
Terms: Stanford Prison Experiment, Zimbardo, ethically wrong, social psychology, behavioral psychology, cognitive psychology
I have literally just heard of the title "Stanford Prison Experiment." I didn't know what this experiment all entailed until now. In the beginning when you learn that this whole thing was a set up, a mock prison (that wasn't even in a prison but a education building) etc you don't really believe that there will be any effects. I have watched the "Beyond Scared Straight" TV show before and I kind of compared the two. The TV show actually takes place in a real prison with real inmates.
Learning right away that the experiment didn't even last the full 2 week blew my mind. The psychological effects they had been looking for were already taking pace within that first week and were getting way to serious to continue.
As you hear about any prison, you as an inmate literally lose everything: privacy, identity, etc. From the second you enter most prison's you are stripped of your clothing, searched, sprayed with a shower like an animal and given the same uniform as every other single inmate. Being stripped naked was used to make them feel embarrassed and that they had no control over what was being asked of them. They were not in control of their life anymore. The term the slideshow used was "emasculated." This literally means to make a person feel lesser or weaker. In this sense, depriving a male of his role of identity.
What interested me the most is that the guards basically had no rules or guidelines. They could act in any way they thought was necessary to enforce the rules. I feel like this is why the psychological effects may have taken place so quickly and were very dramatic. You always hear of authority that may have gone to far in their actions that they become unethical etc and you wonder how often it really happens, even in a prison.
The fact that the entire public, family, friends, and even those involved know that this is just an experiment (due to the newspaper article) would make you question why people really bought into it. Showing how quickly everyone conforms and takes on their new identity was crazy.
I think for any individual that became just a number, stripped of their identity, lost eating and bathroom privileges at times, became labeled as good or bad would have lasting psychological effects. You are literally dehumanized.
I have heard of the Stanford Prison Experiment but never got this much into it with the information about what happened. I knew the basics of the experiment but reading this website really opened my eyes to everything that went on in the Stanford Psychology basement.
I think that the events that took place during the Stanford Prison Experiment were both amazing but also really scary. It is incredible to see the effects an environment can have on regular people but also creepy to see how someone can change so fast. It was interesting to see that the experiment was supposed to last 14 days and it only lasted six because of how involved everyone became in their roles. It was also interesting to see how quickly everyone changed. While reading the slideshow on the website, it seemed like these personality changes would have taken place over a couple days when in fact they were just a couple hours.
In some ways, what happened to these boys during this experiment seems illegal because of the harsh conditions they were put in and what they went through. This whole experiment took a huge psychological toll on both the prisoners and guards. This is because of the way the prison was run. The prisoners actually started feeling like real prisoners because of the way they were treated. They were given lots of punishment for their actions and not much reinforcement. As we learned in class, punishment usually doesn’t have a good effect on people, but in this case it had a drastic effect. The demeaning punishment the prisoners were given and the embarrassment they had to go through in certain situations made these prisoners feel helpless.
The social psychology that took place in this experiment is so amazingly strange. The way the boys in the experiment reacted to their stimulus was what was expected, except much more drastic. They full out took on their rolls in this make-believe prison. The guards made the prisoners do shameful activities and the prisoners accepted and did what was asked. There was no difference between the boys who became guards in this experiment and the ones who became prisoners when this started, but a line was definitely drawn during it.
Even when the prisoners were asking for parole, instead of asking just to leave, they sat quietly back in their cells hoping for a good answer. They acted like a good little prisoner that didn’t want to be punished. It makes me wonder what would happen if I was put in that situation.
I think this experiment was good to see what the conditions of prisons are like, in both a physical and psychological sense. I think many people could benefit from looking at this experiment in order to create better living conditions at their own prisons. As we know, prisons don’t always work as well as they should and maybe if changes took place, we could cut down on the amount of people in them that are scarred from their experience there and ultimately changing the way they acted outside of prison.
I found it interesting that there was no information about the long-term effects the Stanford Prison Experiment had on its subjects. I am wondering if the changes to their personality that took place during the experiment held for a while afterwards, or even a long time afterwards. It would be a fun thing to look up and learn more about.
Terms: environment, personality, prison, guards, prisoners, punishment, parole, social psychology
The Stanford prison experiment was discussed in my Introduction to Psychology course, but I did not realize that the experiment only lasted six days! I was shocked at how quickly the prisoners and the guards fell into, and became, their roles. I was thoroughly surprised that the guards dehumanized the prisoners, and that the prisoners felt helpless and did not ask to leave the experiment. Another shocking thing that I do not understand is how the parents seemed to fall into roles immediately even though they had not undergone the psychological trauma that the students were undergoing.
Perhaps the most disturbing portion of this experiment is that the experimenter succumbed to the mental game of his own experiment. The experimenter was extremely reckless by allowing himself to be an active participant.
Reading about this experiment definitely taught me several things about cognitive, social, and behavioral psychology. Prior to the experiment, all of the participants were classified as “healthy” and “intelligent”. I learned that anyone can fall into the trap of becoming cruel or victimized when cognitive or social pressures are applied.
I also learned that our ability to express ourselves through things like hairstyle, clothes, and names plays an important role in our mental fortitude. I thought that shaving the heads of prisoners was simply to prevent them from injuring each other by pulling hair or a practicality for cleanliness. However, this experiment showed how forcibly altering a person’s identity can be mentally devastated.
In regards to cognitive psychology, I learned that telling a person that he or she has the upper hand over another person deeply affects their behaviors towards that person. The guards took their power seriously and tried to control the prisoners through physical and mental hardships. Cognitive psychology is inseparably intertwined with behavioral and social psychology.
Most importantly, I learned how strongly persons can and will be changed when pushed into physically and emotionally straining situations. Additionally, I learned that simulations can quickly become reality to those involved. This is perhaps why video games and other fun simulations can become addicting and why the prisoners and guards were so deeply affected by the experiment. By suppressing the individuality of the prisoners, controlling the prisoners’ behaviors, and socially lowering the prisoners, they guards and experimenters destroyed the mental health of these persons. By placing the guards over the prisoners and allowing them to harm the prisoners, the guards became cruel and controlling. Not only did these changes happen, but these changes happened very quickly. Some prisoners had developed serious mental health problems by the third day. By the sixth day, every prisoner was breaking from the experiment.
Dehumanization; cognitive, social and behavioral psychology; cruelty, power, simulation, mental health, pressure, individuality, authority
I found this site really interesting because I had heard the name of the experiment but never really learned about the experiment in detail. I was surprised by almost the whole study to be honest. The fact that none of the participants were guided as to what they had to do, just simply told what their role was in the experiment.
The actions of the guards is what surprised me most. The fact that they were not instructed on how to deal with anything that could come up definitely caught my attention. The participants that were assigned to be guards based everything they did on assumptions on how they were supposed to react to stimuli. They were so caught up in their role and with the power associated with that, they forgot it was just an experiment which really appalled me.
The prisoners actions also surprised me but not to the extent to which the guards did. I would expect the prisoners to realize throughout the study that it was just an experiment as well but they did not. They took everything that was pitted against them to heart. When the one participant had to leave because of the mental toll it was taking on him, I literally couldn't believe how much of an effect it had on the prisoners.
I learned that when someone is labeled, they obviously take that seriously and fulfill that label, but the extent to which the participants participated in that label was extremely surprising!
The thing that most stood out to me was how much being in an actual prison could affect a persons entire life. Being in prison messes with that persons perspective on life completely as well. In prison, it's almost like every right that they previously were entitled to has been stripped away and that takes away all sense of freedom. I know that would mess with my mental state too! I just can't believe how much it affected the participants in the study and how many issues they had after the study was shut down.
I have heard of the Standford Prison Experiment before but I didn't the know extent to which they took this experiment.
There was a lot to this experiment which surprised me. One thing was how they came out one morning and arrested these college students as if they had done something wrong which none of them had. The put them through the entire arresting process and they practically had no idea what was going on. They wanted this experiment to act like an actual prison, but they did things that were worse than an actual prison. They humiliated them 100 times worse than they would in a prison and even the guards were told they could do whatever they wanted to the prisoners. Guards in actual prisons have rules, and even though they might not follow them at all times, they are still there for them to go by. These guards in this experiment had zero rules which should't have been allowed. Another thing was the fact that they had to clean up the prisoners and the prison in order for their parents to not get the wrong impression when they came to visit. I think overall what was surprising was just everything about this experiment and how wrong it was.
One of the things that I learned was how it was possible for these experiments to get away with everything they did. They humilated these prisoners and were able to get away with anything and everything they wanted and nobody was going to find out about it. The hid it so well from the parents to make it seem like everything was alright so they wouldn't get caught. The only moral thing that the experimenters did was letting those prisoners go home who were getting sick and having a really hard time dealing with the things that were happening to them. This experiment kind of reminded me of the Holocaust. Those prisoners had to get rid of all their clothes, shave their heads, and they all had to go by a number and not their name. I think it's cruel of these experimenters to purposefully reinact something so close as to what the Holocaust was and think it was okay.
One of the types of psychology in this experiment was Cognitive Psychology. One major point to this was how one of the guards said he forgot for a little bit while dealing with the idea of the inmates escaping that he thought of himself of an actual guard and was so mad that they had planned all day for an escape when one didn't happen. He forgot that he was an actual experimenter and that they wasted an entire day on observing for the experiment and were more worried about the escape. I think it shows how mentally manipulated they were because they got so into the idea of the prison and doing whatever they wanted they forgot the main reason they were there. Even with the prisoners. They came into this mentally stable and by the end of the the prisoners started losing their minds because of what was happening to them. Towards the end when the prisoner was ill, the inmates began calling him a bad inmate and instead of going to the doctor he wanted to stay because he didn't want to be a bad inmate to them. Also, some of the prisoners began calling themselves by their number as if they didn't have a name anymore. Another type of psychology was Social Psychology. During the first few days, the prisoners began to come together and in their cells they would put their beds up against the cell so the guards couldn't get in. They were all influence by each other because they were going through the same thing. Same with the guards; they were all influence by each other so when they would humilate the prisoners, all of the guards would. Some guards were however nice to the inmates and would help them out, but some guards were 100% with the humilation and doing whatever they wanted to the prisoners.
Terms used: Cognitive psycholgoy, experiment, prisoners, Holocaust, Social psychology
I was exactly surprised by much of this, as I think I’ve blogged on this for Intro to Psych, but there were a few things that I found especially intriguing that I had forgotten. First and foremost, I was shocked that they were allowed to strip the prisoners naked for a strip search and then again as a form of punishment. I can’t fathom the IRB letting this happen nowadays. I also feel like the participants should have specifically been told that would happen. I’m also kinda interested as to why and how that works as a form of punishment. Psychologically it would be interesting, but to find out some pretty disturbing and unethical research would have to be done, so I’m fine with not knowing.
Additionally, I forgot about the visits of the parents and how they complied with everything. Actually, the whole situation reminded me of Stanley Milgram’s study on obedience. The prisoners knew they were volunteers and that they could leave. Well, they knew it but it didn’t really sink in because of the power of the contrived prison. Additionally, some parallels can be drawn between the participants in Milgram’s study and the guards in Zimbardo’s experiment. The guards were under pressure to do some pretty awful things to the “prisoners” in the study just like the participants ended up shocking, well they thought they did, other participants for not answering a question correctly. The guards were under a slightly different pressure than Milgram’s participants in that there was no authority figure telling them to strip the guards or to have random “counts” in the middle of the night. There pressure was from each other and the societal norms. For example, when one person decided to adopt the social role of a prison guard in the experiment, it put pressure on the others’ to do so as well. The added pressure was that norms dictate that guards act, well, like guards. Additionally, the guards’ manner eventually became the group norm which put even more pressure on the guards to conform. I’m also curious to see how cognitive dissonance played a role here. I’m sure before the experiment few, if any, of the guards considered themselves sadistic, so upon removal from the environment where that type of behavior is appropriate, the participants would then see that they did indeed behave in a sadistic manner.
The theory of cognitive dissonance could also be relevantly applied to the psychologists in the case, such as Zimbardo, for becoming involved with the study or the parents for leaving their children in a harmful environment, or, really, anyone involved with the case. I would like to, and will after finals (if I can find a copy), read a more comprehensive and indepth overview of the experiment to see more about the cognitive dissonance that had to be displayed.
Also, the concept of prisonization was particularly interesting. Much like socialization of children into society, the participants were “prisonized” into the society of the prison. So much so they began to believe it was more of an experiment and forget the actual society. AND all this was done in 6 days time!
The splintering of the prisoners’ solidarity can be looked at using various social psychological research on groups. What the guards did was destroy the group’s cohesiveness, or the solidarity, which made the group of prisoners more a collection of individual prisoners. It increased the likelihood of compliance, while simultaneously causing the prisoners to want to conform, yet without forming any cohesiveness. For example, it was particulary painful, especially in the case of Prisoner #816, to be ostracized from the group, even though the group was splintered.
Terms: prisonization, socialization, cognitive dissonance, group norms, cohesiveness, compliance, conformity, social roles, social norms, group norms,
I have heard about this experiment in my previous psychology classes but I have never learned very much detail about the experiment it was also just a brief explanation. On this website I went through the whole slide show explanation of how the experiment started and everything that went on throughout the experiment. There were a lot of things that I found interesting, pretty much the entire experiment. I was in shock when I read more into the experiment that the guards really got into their role and started to believe that it was real. It was interesting to see everyone really get into their roles and not even realize what they were doing.
I think the biggest impact on the prisoners was when the guards only called them by a number and they all had on white gowns and nylons to put on their heads to look liked it was shaved. They had no individuality at all. This definitely was difficult for the prisoners and took a toll on their mental state.
Another aspect of this experiment that was very interesting was when they allowed the parents to come visit the prisoners. They parents were able to see how serious this experiment was getting and some were getting worried. This study was becoming mental and it was crazy how short of time everyone’s behaviors had changed.
The study had to end early because they noticed how damaging it was to the prisoners and how involved the guards were getting in their roles. Also a lady told them that this experiment was inappropriate and morally wrong. After that they knew it was time to end the study.
It just amazes me how much this experiment took over these volunteers’ lives. Also how involved they got in their roles. When I first heard about this study I didn’t know that they had to end the study early but after reading more into the study it was very interesting that it only lasted 6 days when it was really supposed to last two weeks. The fact that this study changed the behaviors of these kids so quickly is unbelievable. I’m still in shock that this study made that much of an impact on these kids.
Many, if not all, of my psychology classes have at least mentioned if not gone into much detail on the Stanford Prison Experiment. There are so many elements in this experiment that relate to psychology and ethics in research.
The experiment is so interesting because by watching the videos and reading about it, you can see the progression of the roles that the men took on (either guard or prisoner) and how it effected them emotionally. One of the main points that distinguished the powerful from the powerless was the initial strip search and the sanitation of the prisoners. How unethical! Even though they were simulating a prison, it became real so very quickly.
The issued uniforms and the chains made the prisoners virtually the same person. No one was more important than another; not a name, only a number.
Although there was written consent, many didn't truly know what they were signing up for. The guards had to use their imagination in how to correct inmates. Some more aggressive than others, but it took a toll on all participants, which led to a rebellion.
The rebellion was interesting to me because it was taken quite literally. The conditions that everyone was placed under truly effected their emotions, even though it was "only" an experiment. The guards became aggressive and began to harass the inmates, who technically did nothing to become an inmate..just a twist of fate at the beginning of the experiment between in being assigned as a guard or an inmate.
It was also interesting to read the that guards knew to "confuse" the inmates by eventually placing the bad inmates in the good inmate cell and vice versa. Ex-convict consultants informed the researchers that this was a tactic that many real guards use to break alliances.
One prisoner developed an acute emotional disturbance after 36 hours and was pretty traumatized. It's unfortunate that this had to happen, as it was only an experiment, but a pretty vital one at that. Even the parents were acting as if this experiment was the real deal.
The emotional stress this caused to both the guards and mainly the prisoners were unreal. Real prisons and correctional facilities are probably much worse than this, not to mention the harassment caused between inmates alone.
Prison is supposed to rid someone of their identity, their past, their belongings, etc. This experiment successfully did so to many, if not all of the inmates. Some said they felt like they were loosing their identity. The guards overused their powers the more the inmates fought to keep their identities.
Only lasting six days out of the scheduled two weeks, I can't imagine what it would be like to work in this type of environment for a living and to also be an inmate for two weeks, two months, five years, and more. Environmental factors have a huge impact on and shape many human beings physically, mentally, and without a doubt, emotionally.
I have had exposure to the stanford prison experiment in many of my other psych classes in one form or another. It is similar to Milgram's obedience experiment as yielded powerful and unexpected results, and also are somewhat questionable ethically. This is likely why these experiments are so popular in psychology classes.
This experiment in particular is a great example of the corrupting power of authority. Its really amazing to consider that the entire experiment lasted only six days out of the planned 2 weeks because the circumstances became too extreme.
It was very interesting to see the way that the two groups adapted to their different roles, as they were chosen at random to be either guards or prisoners. The prisoners were made to wear a smock similar to a hospital gown and a woman's stocking as a cap to simulate a shaved head, and a chain locked to their ankle as a constant reminder of their condition. Guards on the other hand had khaki uniforms, a whistle, billy clubs, and most interestingly, mirrored sunglasses. These served to prevent the prisoners from seeing the guard's eyes and reading any of their emotions and promoted anonymity.
After the guards began to assert their authority, they and the prisoners began to really clash. A rebellion broke out in which the prisoners barricaded the door and began to taunt and curse at the guards. The guards responded with anger and forced them away from the door by spraying them with a fire extinguisher. They then stripped the prisoners naked and put the leaders of the rebellion into solitary confinement (a dark small closet)
After this incident, the guards sought to maintain control over the prisoners through sadistic displays of force and power. Its interesting to think of their actions in terms of labeling. These individuals were told that they were now prison guards, and so they took on their roles in a very serious manner. The prisoners in the same light, felt very put-upon, and thoroughly resented the situation.
I had heard and learned about the Stanford Prison Experiment before, but not as in depth as the website had taught me. I knew that the prisoners and guards fell into their roles and it became their identity. What surprised and interested was that the people in charge of the experiments also fell into the roles that they were playing. Specifically Philip Zimbardo. He played the role of the prison superintendent. When asked about his experiment and the independent variable, he made him angry that he had to deal with answering that question when he was trying to deal with a "prison" break. What also surprised me was when they had other people come in. They also fell into their roles thinking it was a real prison. The priest and the lawyer both acted as though it were a real prison.
I learned that the the technique of shaving the heads of prisoners served a very important purpose. It took away the identity of the individual. It made everyone have the same look. I also learned that it is the same thing they do in the military. I also learned that the police use "humiliating" tactics to the people that they arrest. This helps the police gain control over their arrestees.
This relates to psychology by the emotional aspect. The prisoners were subjected to so much emotional adversity that it broke some of them down. From being humiliated to put in solitary confinement. Being humiliated brought down the morale of the prisoners. The guards also played a psychological game with the prisoners. They set up a privileged cell where there was more accommodations for the prisoners. If the prisoners were good, they were allowed to go there. But then the guards would turn the prisoners against each other by putting bad prisoners in the privileged cell. This would confuse the prisoners into thinking that some prisoners were informants and could not be trusted.
A big psychological phenomenon that I thought was prevalent was the self fulfilling prophecy. Everyone that was a part of the experiment, even the people conducting it. The prisoners started acting like hopeless prisoners because they were being treated like that. They were labeled as prisoners to begin with and they fell into that role and starting thinking it was an actual prison. The guards started to exert their new power that was bestowed upon them. They told the prisoners what to do, they humiliated them, and they even expressed their sense of power and control (when they gave the choice to let #416 out or keep him in there). Even Zimbardo fell into his role of prison superintendent. He became so concerned with a prison breakout, that he put his own experiment on the back burner.