Stanford Prison Experiment

I viewed the Stanford Prison Experiment slideshow and definitely learned a lot. I found it interesting that they had to end the experiment after only six days. As I read this, I also related it a lot to some psychological aspects of prison discussed in the book, especially prizonization. It also helped me to learn about the six general ways scholars say that prison life differs from the outside world, and I could clearly see all of them demonstrated in the experiment.

The first way prison life differs is the banishment and separation. The book states that “most inmates lose contact with all but the most devoted friends and family members.” We can see this in the experiment by how the inmates’ time with their loved ones during visiting hours was very restricted (limited time, supervised by a guard, etc.). This really surprised me, because by then, it seemed like the experiment was getting out of control. The rules the experimenters imposed really isolated the mock inmates from the outside world, thus psychologically affecting them by making them think they were truly real inmates.

Secondly, prison life means inmates cannot make any decisions about certain aspects of their lives. This can be seen in the Stanford Prison Experiment as guards strictly controlled when inmates ate, used the bathroom, and slept (waking them up in the middle of the night for headcounts). I feel like this type of control not only contributed to them feeling like they were true inmates, but it also truly showed them that they have lost all decision making in their lives. On the other side of this, I feel like this extreme control also affected the guards, by showing them just how much power they hold. This obviously affected them psychologically, because their personalities became more aggressive and domineering.

The third way prison differs from the outside world is the physical environment. This is shown in the slideshow as it describes how the basement was converted into a mock prison. The cells were plain and simple, with little visual stimulation for inmates. Furthermore, the mock prison featured an isolation room that was dark and very confined. The book talked about the psychological issues a room like this can cause for inmates, including mental illness.

Fourth is the lack of privacy. I believe this relates a lot to the book’s discussion on public shaming. The guards showed dominance over inmates by forcing them to remove their clothes, urinate and defecate in buckets, and supervising them at all times. As you can see, this can be considered a form of public shaming. Going further, the inmates didn’t have to own cells, so this also contributes to lack of privacy.

The fifth way prison life differs from the outside world involves the constant threat of violence. Now this isn’t seen as much in the Stanford Experiment, but I still feel like the sticks carried by the guards constantly reminded the inmates that violence could occur. I also noticed hostility among the inmates when the slideshow discussed rewarding inmates who participated less in the rebellion, and punishing the ringleaders. If this were a real prison situation, the “rewarded” inmates would definitely be in danger of violence for their fellow prisoners.

Lastly, the mere boring routine of prison has a psychological effect on inmates. Just thinking about the mock prisoners in the Stanford Experiment, I was wondering what they did all day. There is no stimulation besides the boring routines created by the guards that you must obey. These routines even included the basics, like eating and using the bathroom. I feel like being bored all day, every day, could have a very strong psychological toll on people.

This experiment was definitely interesting to read about, but I’m glad I was never a part of it, either as an inmate or guard. It would be interesting to see how these people have coped since the experiment ended. I feel like psychology played a big part in the failure of this.

This webpage talks all about the Stanford Prison Experiment. Although I have previously learned about the experiment in other classes, it was good to refresh and look at the experiment from a different perspective.

The experiment was designed to discover human nature, and behavioral traits. It wanted to measure how a person’s behavior and actions would change if they were put in a state of authority. They randomly assigned the participants to act as a guard or a prisoner and they screened every participant for no mental illness. The researchers also made sure to distribute and have the participants fill out consent forms, and paid the participants $15 a day. Even though the correctly randomly assigned the groups and they properly created the experiment, other researchers and people were shocked by the results.

Just within a few days the calm volunteers for a research experiment changed into completely different people. The people who were assigned guards became bossy, demanding and harmed the prisoners physically and emotionally. The prisoners became fearful of the guards; many of them had mental breakdowns and quit the experiment. The results were turning out to be so bad that they ended the experiment early. I found it interesting how even though the prisoners knew they could leave the experiment at any time, they neglected to remember that and stayed the rest of the experiment. However, after the experiment was over they found that none of the participants had any negative long term effects from the experiment.

This experiment showed how if you put an average person who would not score high on authoritarianism or Machiavellianism in a situation in which they would have authority without any training or specific instructions they can change into a “evil person”. In other words they completely transform from a person who would not even think they would harm others, to a fearful person who causes distress to others. Even if they are a humane and good person, if they are put in a situation this experiment really showed how they will change. It does not matter what their personality is like, they still can become evil if the situation allows.
Even though this is a very shocking result from the experiment, it shows how we are not all completely humane, good people. We adapt to the environment and the situation around us. Psychology was strictly involved in this experiment because it dealt with a person’s personality and how we can change our behavior depending on the situation.

Even though I had heard of this experiment before, it was a good review to read and learn about it again. In my opinion, evil triumphs over humanity. This experiment like the Milgram experiment showed the true reality of human behavior in the fact that we adapt our behavior to the surroundings and situation around us.

"If you want total security, go to prison. There you're fed, clothed, given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking... is freedom."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Review the website- The Stanford Prison Experiment

The website was about an Experiment conducted by Philip G. Zimbardo. It was a small slide show of the experiment conducted in the early 1970’s at Stanford University. There were eight components of the website from the prelude, setting up, arrival, guards, rebellion, grievances, escape and conclusion.

What most interested/surprised you?

There were so many things that interested me about the Stanford Prison Experiment but for sure it had to be that this experiment was done in the basement of the Psychology department of Stanford University. That part in itself was very surprising and as well why would the university allow such psychological effects be administrated by the staff, as well as the researchers had to be the students. I was also surprised by the way the participants were found which was through an ad in the paper. Yet, the ones selected were all from around the area. I also found it interesting to find out that all the participants were all interviewed to make sure that there was nothing psychological wrong with any of them before the experiment. And even after all that – the participants were told the details of the experiment and still signed up. I wonder if they really knew the severity of treatment or if that was not revealed to them. Another very surprising aspect what how after a couple of days or somewhere along the lines that the experiment get out of control. The prisoners begin to really rebel and the guards begin to use more forceful tactics to show their power. Even more surprising than that was how even the facilitator became psychologically affected by the experiment because he did not realize how bad it was affecting the participants and how they were really becoming ill and how by not calling off the experiment sooner things did in fact get out of control.

What did you learn?

I learned that even in an experiment certain psychologically attributes are bound to be revealed as shown through the Stanford experiment. I also learned that the psychologically effects of prison really do affect different people in different ways. And that is if they are normal people without any behavioral issues and we all know that people in prison definitely have some type of behavioral problem, right? If the participants in the experiment couldn’t take prison life or how they were being treated – I learned that it truly must be ten time worse for the real prisoners who have to remain in prison for years.

I definitely learned how some people let superior roles affect them in negative ways as the experiment revealed about the guards who were going overboard in being abusive to the prisoners. By that revelation, one has to conclude that experiments have to be taken very seriously and there should be many precautions. I learned that even stimulations can go wrong. I also learned how psychologically anyone can be conditioned to feel unworthy through this experiment alone.

How does psychology relate?

Psychology was the basis of the experiment and that concept was related to how people would be affected by such a drastic way of life which was being incarcerated. And how a person can be torn down even in an experiment was revealed as well as how the guards felt a superiority over the prisoners yet they were all participants and that’s the psychology right there. I mean if the study of human behavior is what psychology is all about and how people can be persuaded or unintentionally persuaded to do what you want or expect them to do is a part of behavior modification which is a large aspect of psychology then you have a relationship. Once again, if Psychology is the study of human behavior and this experiment was clearly about how people behave from the prisoners to the guards then that is how right there is how it is all related.

Terms: psychology, prisoners, escape, psychologically, conditioned, negative, prisons, freedom, behavior modification, experiment, incarcerated, participants, human behavior, prison, and stimulations.

The Stanford prison experiment is a classic example of an extremely influential psychological and sociological study of the drastic roles of leadership attributes, blindly following figures of authority, and although a well-planned study in terms of the scientific method and the research process raises questions about the studies ethics. The study itself somewhat reminded me of another study which took place in the past known as the Milgram experiment in which the roles of “learner” and “teacher” were given to participants. In this case, the experiment was rigged as that the person being shocked was always the same person and the shocks were fake. In this particular case a study of individual’s willingness to listen to authority figures was demonstrated as that the “teacher” role was to give a small electrical shock for every incorrect response during the study. I won’t spend much more time on this study however; I think it deserved some recognition in correlation with the Stanford prison experiment as that they both were controversial while at the same time beneficial in describing a blind following of authority figures, which can and indeed cause harsh conditions.
As stated the study did a fine job portraying and following the guidelines and criteria needed to conduct a valid and legitimate study. The ones conducting the experiment limited outside forces, which could have negatively influenced the study, observed in a covert rather than overt manner (somewhat) as that they did involve themselves when they heard of the planned escape, and even made the study “blind” as that they randomly selected guards, and prison roles while at the same time going as far as commissioning a real police car to pick up the accused who would play the prisoners as to not take away from the role and shock factor of the study. The case then could indeed be made that the research study that was conducted in this case indeed was feasible, and socially important although was questionable whether or not it was ethical. Consequently, although studies of this nature are beneficial usually they do not get approved in our present time as that they don’t follow ethical guidelines and harm to participants may be a negative result, regardless however the study did provide very beneficial results even if past practices in terms of ethical behavior were questionable.
Because the study was setup in such a meticulous manner causality of the independent variable can be claimed. That is to say the reason for the experiment, which was to observe the relationship of guard to prisoner, can easily be seen and because the criteria for causality were followed in there experimental design they could conclude a positive correlation between the variables they were studying. As stated they eliminated (as best they could without personal bias) outside variables, so the study could be stated to take into account non-spuriousness or that an outside influence could have influenced in any way the behavior, and relationship between guard and prisoner. For example, during the study it was stated “guards were given no instructions in how to perform or punish.” In this manner then outside third variables were taken into account and so, the conclusions of the guards behavior can be stated as to not have been affected by outside process but rather by personal experience during the experiment as well as personal attributes and personality.
The largest conclusion then in this manner can consequently be made that blind following of authority figures is extremely detrimental. This conclusion was derived specifically by observing again as stated in a covert manner by observing what the guards did to the prisoners and vice versa. The authoritarian nature of the guards then leads to negative influences of groupthink. That is to say a few select guards with a harsh punishment ideal could have influenced other guards to go along with their behavior. Further, some influential psychological processes were obviously present during the experiment the largest of which involved operant, and classical conditioning as a means to degrade and humiliate the “prisoners.” This was observed as that in the early stages of the experiment push-ups were used as a means of punishment, however they transformed into something routine. As a result through conditioning the “prisoners” began to take on new roles, which they used to explain their surroundings which lead to a new evaluation of one’s self, as well as taking on of new social roles.
I have studied this particular study before in different classes, and probably will do so again before my college career is over but that’s because it’s so influential. It describes how anyone can succumb to the conditions around us due to our locus of control, as well as are blind following of authority figures, and transformation of roles through conditioning. Historically, outside this experiment within the real world this very real negative phenomenon has been witnessed as that it must be remembered Hitler was elected, and the atrocities that followed were evil, a result of his newly found power. Although this is a very extreme representation of power influence, it is accurate in terms of the study as well as that it was observed that once guards took on their role, they became more and more sadistic in there punishment. (Leading to a forced stop of the study)Another extreme real life historical example of another process that the experiment observed also should be addressed. In this case the detrimental influence of an unethical leader in terms of operant and classical conditioning processes must be addressed. In this case an altercation of surroundings, settings and a control of people’s time and behavior at Jonestown must be remembered. In this horrible case Jim Jones killed 909 people after essentially brain washing them through conditioning and controlling there settings, convincing them the only left protection from the outside world was to “drink kool-aid” that was poisoned.
As a result psychology directly relates to the study, and although the study was shocking it must be remembered that historically real things on a greater scale of this nature have occurred. As a result a question as to whether or not people should blindly follow authority figures must be raised. Although it is shocking, through psychological explanations these lab-created events demonstrated in this particular experiment are very real.

One of the things that surprised me the most about the Stanford Prison Experiment is when the prisoners were allowed to visit their families and the priest. They made each person go through real things that visitors have to do when visiting a prison. It was interesting that the parents of the boys were concerned about their appearances and how they were acting, and when they brought it up to the prison officials they turned it around on them. The officials made it seem like there was something wrong with the boys and the parents just took them for their word. Or when the priest talked to the boys that they all said that it was real, that they had no way out or prison. They had forgotten that they were doing a voluntary experiment and truly felt as if there was no way out. They even asked the priest for lawyers, which is crazy to think about while knowing it was just a psychological experiment. The breakdown of their civil rights and mental states was fascinating and scary. The power that the guards had over the prisoners was so huge that they became power-hungry and wanted more of it, breaking their own rules.
This relates to psychology because it talks about how people react and live in prisons, just as we learned from the textbook. The prisoners were broken down and turned into numbers, just as they are in real prisons. Doing this makes them less of an individual and possibly harder for them to rebel. If they are humiliated and feel that they have nothing, not even a name, then they are easier to manipulate and to control for the guards. When they rebelled the guards came up with harsher punishments. The harsher punishments were clever and were done to psychologically manipulate the prisoners and to confuse them. They began to be wary of each other and it created a breakdown of the comradery that might have formed between the prisoners. They eventually believed that they had no way out of the “prison.” They were hopeless. One prisoner became severely depressed and ill, sobbing uncontrollably. This happened to another prisoner near the end of the experiment, crying and crying until he was removed. And, when he was removed the guards forced the other prisoners to say a chant that he was a bad prisoner for having to be removed. This made him cry uncontrollably and say that he could not leave because he had to prove that he was not bad. Other things, like the guards only allowing the men to go to the restroom sometimes and not others or to use a bucket was degrading and beat down on the prisoners. The prison did not have windows or any clocks; this disoriented the prisoners and made it hard for them to know what time of day it was. This, and the solitary confinement hole, drove the prisoners to different mental states. This is one of the reasons that the prisoners started to believe that they had no way out, that they would never be able to leave the prison.
I learned that a lot of prisons do these kinds of tactics to break down prisoners. I now see how that is a good and a bad thing. These people, in real life, are criminals and are in prison for a reason. It is not anyone else’s fault that they are in prison and do not get the luxuries of everyday life anymore. I do not agree with treating a prisoner like a subhuman, though. They should be treated like humans and have sentences that fit their crimes but they do need to assimilate to the prison life. Unfortunately, as learned through the textbook earlier this week, assimilation can take negative forms and have violent consequences, like gang involvement. This experiment did not have any of that because it was a small sample and they were constantly supervised. It is amazing how this experiment worked out and how it had to be ended early because of how the prisoners and the guards evolved.

I had previously seen the video of the Stanford prison experiment and I thought it was taken way too far. The things that most surprised me is that the prisoners during the first role call were being individuals and still defying the guards because they knew that there was truly no different except for the role they were assigned for the experiment. Through the experiment however their individuality disappeared, they truly thought that they were their number. They thought that their name had disappeared and that the person who got them in “prison” in the first place did not exist anymore.

Another thing that surprised me was that the prisoners were so defiant in the beginning of the experiment in trying to plot escapes and putting their beds up against the doors in rebellion to the guards to show they were somewhat in charge of themselves. Throughout the experiment the guards increased their severity of discipline and the prisoners complied. They were more then welcome to leave the experiment if they wished, but they truly believed that they could not. The experiment showed that isolation truly does mess with a person and make them be depressed and feel as if they cannot escape even if they wanted to. This is the kind of stuff that makes prisoners go back into society and repeat crime.

When they interviewed a real criminal after he came out of solitary confinement it was similar to what the prisoner 416 said after spending a good amount of time in the small room that the experiment set up. The real criminal did however state that he no longer wanted to be a thief, but he had so much anger towards the guards that all he could think about was killing. The dehumanization going on in prisons is not the way to make prisoners be punished for what they have done because it is having the opposite affect and making prisoners even more pissed off.

It surprised me how angry the guards came when it was a simulated experiment and the stories that it told about real guards in real prisons and how they treated their prisoners. The abuse of the Iraqi prisoners was immoral and wrong; people are not toys and shouldn’t be treated as such even if they are in prison.

I learned that the prison life, whether it is an experiment or real life definitely takes a toll on people’s psychological mentality. They are in a state of fear all the time and they are isolated and dehumanized just because they committed crime. They are still persons and still should still have some of the same rights as we do even though they are separated from society. If they are treated completely different rehabilitation is going to be unsuccessful.

This relates to psychology in how you can persuade people when they are dehumanized. They will do anything and think anything; just how the prisoners really felt the experiment was turning into a real prison. There was a few times that Zimbardo even had to remind himself that it was just an experiment and things were getting out of control. Isolation plays a big part in the prison experience and is what has the most psychological effects on the prisoners. I believe the prison system needs to change and then there will be higher success with keeping people out of the system.

I remember my AP psychology teacher mentioning the Stanford prison study briefly back in high school, but I had no idea how extreme it became or that they had to end it early. It is crazy how realistic the psychologists were able to make this study. So real, in fact, that they were very involved in their own roles as well. They found their test subjects by putting out an ad and then weeding through the prospective participants and conducting interviews. They found the most normal and psychologically stable subjects possible, no one on medication or having a criminal background. The first thing I learned about from the slide was how much the prisoners' identities were taken away from them. The were stripped down, sprayed for lice, and had a stocking put over their heads to simulate head shaving. The men were also put in a dress with nothing underneath. I found it very interesting that the reason why they used dresses on the men was to make them feel as far from masculine as possible at a quicker rate, since they only had two weeks. The prisoners were also made to feel anonymous by wearing an ID number and only being referred to by that number. This type of prisonization is mentioned in the textbook. It is basically throwing the prisoners into the norms of the prison. The prisoners are already being closed off from the community, their families, and friends, and then to have the only thing they have left stripped from them (their identity) is only the beginning of retribution. The guards were a different story. I found it interesting that they allowed the guards to wear sunglasses, as this seems a little unrealistic and more in movies to me. However, the sunglasses served the purpose of the guards hiding emotion from the prisoners and seeming even more of a threat. The guards were pretty much given free reign, and the power seemed to go to their heads almost immediately. They would do things like demand the prisoners to do push ups for punishment while putting extra weight on their backs. Little did the psychologists know that this was a technique used in concentration camps, which is just insane. It really makes you think. The guards especially punished the prisoners after they first tried to rebel. They used fire extinguishers on them. It seemed as though through physical and mental punishment, the guards conditioned the prisoners to obey. After a while, the prisoners would do whatever they could to avoid punishment. The guards would also reward some of the prisoners who weren't as involved in the rebellions or who had good behavior. This is also contributing to the conditioning process. The reward system also broke up morale among the prisoners, as they began losing trust in one another. Only after three days in, the prison study was already too much for some of the prisoners. One was released very early on do to his emotional and physical state. Some were having panic attacks, while others were developing skin rashes from stress. These "prisoners" truly began believing they were in a prison setting and were convinced that they could not leave. The boys' parents were also getting concerned, as some had never seen their sons in a worse state physically or mentally. In the end, this study makes me ask a lot of questions. After reading the textbook, I too am a little skeptical of the guards' behavior. Although different settings and situations definitely impact what type of behavior comes out for mankind, I personally think their behaviors were a little theatrical. I think that their harsher attitudes had a direct effect on how poor of states the prisoners were in. This also really makes me wonder if some prisons are really like this, and if these boys couldn't even last two weeks, then how do some people go a lifetime in prison? I do think our prisoner's rights have come a long way since the 70's, but there is still a long way to go. It really depends on the type of personality a prisoner has, and if the prison guards are able to overcome the struggle between doing what is right and the power that may go the their heads.

I remember learning a little bit about this experiment while I was in highschool. So the experiment was set up using 24 psychologically healthy individuals. 9 of them were chosen to be guards running in a 3 man group or 8 hour shifts. Then there were 9 prisoners that were 3 to a room with 3 rooms total. All the prisoners were actually arrested and made to go through the treatment as if it was an actual arrest. An interesting thing to note is that a lot of their neighbors saw this that can have a psychological effect on the prisoners as they would now have the stigma around their neighborhood for being a criminal. To create the actual prison all they did was set up a prison like area in a corridor with 3 rooms in it. The corridor itself was the “yard” that they would do their exercise and walk to the bathroom if available. When they arrived they were stripped down so they could be deloused, they were made to wear caps on their heads to represent a hair cut. Then they were assigned their stalls. They were given dresses as a way to emasculate them as is done in prison. They then had chains around their feet so that at all times they understood that they were in prison. I do think a lot of this is a bit extreme compared to most prisons however back in the time period probably not. How they didn’t forsee that this would mess up the prisoners is beyond me though. Another reason they do this is so they will begin to obey the rules despite how meaningless and dumb they might be. Both prisons and military do this as a way of discipline. Also the guards for the most part could do within reason anything to get the prisoners to obey and respect them. I think there should have been a limit or a study as far as what should have been allowed in this situation as that gives way to much freedom to one person hence the changes they endured. In a real prison system there are rules and regulations to what a prison guard can or cannot do. Now not everyone follows that but when there are rules more people tend to follow them. So over the next couple days the guards would continue to demand more control and more sadistic. At the same time the prisoners would start to experience more and more signs of psychological and physical stress. Some people had to leave the study because they were having major psychological issues. One thing the guards did was basically made them feel like prisoners through the punishment they gave. The prisoners all said they believed it would never end and they were stuck like that. After that they usually gave up on ideals of rebellion. The study ended up ending after 6 days instead of 2 weeks because of the sever amount of stress it put on both prisoners and guards. People later figured out that this was probably not an ethical study.
Most of the slides had questions to consider so I ill try to answer most of those
1. Consider why they most guards, or the national guard members wore sunglasses. They wear sunglasses so 1. The guards themselves don’t have to look in your eyes, which im sure most of them don’t. 2. So the prisoners cant see the emotion on their faces. 3. So all guards look in uniform and is a way for them to look in charge and tough.
2. What effects of having no clocks, no outside stimulation or views of the outside world have on people. As the story indicated a lot of them lost track of time In a general sense. It would be very psychologically troubling not knowing what day it is, because if you cant talk your thoughts are the only thing you have and if you have a disorientated sense of time and space you cant get your thoughts together very well. Overall I don’t think this simulates most prison environments though because they can go outside, and they know what time all their wakeups are and when meals are.
3. What are the psychological effects of delousing stripping etc. Since im in the military I can understand this psychological effect greatly. It basically is designed to strip you of your identity. It makes you less of a person and more of an object. Obviously when in basic I had my head shaved, but there were numerous times that we would be stripped down and made to stand there in a formation like area for them to inspect us on various things (tattoos, scars, any deformities, etc.) and it can be quite unsettling for people.
4. At first the pushups weren’t a really bad punishment, however towards the end of the study they would become so. This one I can also testify to because of the military. The military will basically make you do random exercises in an attempt to break you down and not want to do the actions again. At first your like eh pushups those are easy. But after several hours of exercise a simple punishment can turn into a very bad one. At first im sure the pushups they did weren’t that many in comparison to later amounts of them.
5. One of the ways they controlled the rebellions were they gave certain prisoners incentives for being good, better meals etc. While the ones who got punished had to sit and watch that. It asks what we would do in that situation. I hate to use the idk until I have been there but that basically is what im going to say. Because unless you are under those circumstances you have no idea what you would do.
6. Most prisoners believed they were chosen as prisoners because they were smaller. Yet they were the same height as the guards. Why would this perception happen. The whole point of emasculating them and stripping them down is to make them feel smaller and embarrassed. When you see someone as in charge of you, you tend to think of them in a bigger sense all around. So they thought the guards were taller and bigger because the prisoners were constantly being humiliated.
7. The main person doing this experiment made themselves a part of the experiment. We know that now adays that’s not a good thing to do. They could have easily manipulated the information they were gathering at any point during the experiment. Not only that but because at their core they understood it was an experiment their choices could ultimately throw off the data as well.
8. Now one part of this experimented can be very similar to Abu Gharib. The fact that people who are in control of someone such as a prisoner might find themselves becoming more and more sadistic. In the case of the army and what happened is they were given a certain amount of power. And because of previous biased towards the enemy they probably took advantage of that power and exerted more punishments and humiliation on the enemy than was needed. Same thing happened with the experiment in several ways.
9. Lastly after the experiment was over all the prisoners were glad the experiment was over, however, the guards were a little upset about it. The reason for this is for the prisoners what they had to endure was a major psychologically damaging event. While the guards had every leisure, they were getting payed they could go home and eat normal meals etc.
Overall this was a hugely interesting, albeit unethical and morally wrong, experiment. It shows us how quickly people can get assimilated into a situation that they are forced into. Even these guys volunteered but quickly came under check. Behavioral, social, cognitive psychology and probably even psychoanalytical a bit could come into play with this experiment depending on the focus you face. The prisoners became very compliant very quickly because they knew they would be punished if they didn’t. And punishing people is one of the best deterrents to bad behavior. From what we talked about on Tuesday in our blogs most people don’t become rehibilitized. They come to the conclusion that such actions aren’t worth the punishment however. The guards themselves slowly went into more sadistic measures which could be just a power thing or it could be said that everyone would get to that point if given the right amount of power. That being said is it safe to give anyone a huge amount of power for the fear that they will abuse it?

The Stanford Prison experiment was very interesting. What made the experiment interesting were the results of putting people in the positions that they did. The thing that I found amazing was that they got the people for the experiments by saying that they would pay them $15 dollars per day of service. A lot of people signed up for the study and they selected a couple individuals to be a part of it. What I personally found interesting was the fact that these were normal people who were taking part in the experiment. They were all college level adults who were willing to take part in the experiment. As we saw by looking over the website, the same college level adults were the ones who were putting the “prisoners” through such hardship. These hardships included not being allowed to use the restroom, being put in solitary confinement, and being forced to do degrading things. When I was reading about how the prisoners were forced to be naked and forced to do pushups, I honestly couldn’t believe what I was reading. How was it that good people could do such bad things to others? I really enjoyed the fact that it made correlations between what the men/women were doing to prisoners of war in Iraq and in Nazi Germany. A lot of the times when we talk about these events, people can’t believe that good people could commit such bad things. However, this experiment showed us that if you put people into a position where they are in power over another, they can abuse that power. That was another thing that I found interesting about the experiment. It was the fact that the people in power actually began to view the prisoners as below them. I found this interesting because of the fact that it deals with psychology in a way. It deals with psychology in the fact that if people are told that they have the power over someone; good people can sometimes abuse that power. It also relates back to psychology in the fact that even though all the people in the experiment knew it was an experiment; they still ended up doing the horrible things that they did. Now how can that be? The answer to that is that I believe that everyone in this experiment was a good person, however, they began to believe that they were actually living the roles that they were assigned. Take for example the prisoners began to introduce themselves by their numbers instead of their names. I personally would think that I would be willing to still at least call myself by my first name, however, I haven’t been put into a situation where I was forced to dress a certain way or act a certain way. Another example of this is when the prisoners started to actually believe that they were in prison. This deals with psychology in the fact that the individuals actually believed that they had committed the crime they did and that the only way to get out of the prison was to go along with the guards plan. Another thing that deals with psychology in the case of the prison experiment is the fact that the power that the guards had went to their heads. I believe that good individuals actually believed that they were in a position of power and that the prisoners were a level lower than them. The reason that I say this is the fact that some of the guards acted so violently, the prisoners actually came up with nicknames for them. The nickname of the guard that was the harshest was John Wayne. How this deals with psychology is the fact that I believe that the mental state of both prisoner and guard had changed so that they actually started believing and living their situation. What I mean by that statement is the fact that I believe that they started to mentally believe that they were actually the guards and they were actually the prisoners; they believed that they had power to do whatever they wanted to the prisoners. An example of this is when the guards put a new prisoner in solitary for three hours. The max amount of hours that the guards were allowed to do was one hour. How do we explain this? Given the certain situational factors such as the prisoners wearing certain clothing, the guards in certain clothing, controlling someone to the point it actually dehumanized them, all led to the abuse of power from the guards and submission to power from the inmates. The dehumanization was another psychological effect that took place in the prison. When the guards stopped viewing the inmates as equals; they stopped viewing them as human beings. What I mean by that is that they didn’t see them as a person with a name or history, they viewed them as prisoner number 1352 and that he had done something wrong and I have all the power in the world to punish him. This is something that we have talked a lot about in my religion and ethics class; the fact that when you no longer view someone as human, it makes it a lot easier to abuse the power that you have over them. I honestly believe that the hours of mental abuse that the prisoners took, and humiliation that they had, all led to them believing that they were actually prisoners in an actual prison. I mean, the fact that some of them wanted the priest to call a lawyer for them to get out of the prison just doesn’t seem right for me. These were all things that I found surprising and interesting. However, the thing that I found most surprising was the amount of dehumanization that took place during the experiment. I believe that the guards no longer viewed the inmates as people and that is what allowed them to abuse the power over them. It was the same psychological factor that caused many German’s to kill millions of Jews during the holocaust. Psychology relates to this experiment in the fact that we see how putting people in situations where one person has power over the other person allows for people to sometimes abuse the power that they are given. The reason that people sometime abuse this power is the fact that they forget that the other person is a person or the psychologically think that they are the prison that they are pretending to be. The thing that I have learned from this experiment is the fact that people, even good people can sometimes abuse power that is given to them, if they are put into a situation where one person has power over the other. Also, I learned what possibly could have led to the German officers committing such awful crimes during the holocaust. Overall, this was a very interesting assignment.

The Stanford Prison experiment has always fascinated me in the depths of just what a human being can succumb to. It is also the example of the proverb “Absolute Power, Corrupts Absolutely”. This can be seen of course in the behaviors of the guards. What started as an experiment soon degenerated into the abuse of the powers they had over the lives of their prisoners. It was especially shocking to see this happen with the Zimbardo the psychologist who was running the experiment. He used his role as the superintendent of the prison to make his observations, but even he would end up falling victim to his own perceived power over his inmates. It’s a week early but in Shawshank Redemption there is one quote that comes to mind when I think of this experiment. To avoid spoilers there’s a scene where Morgan Freeman’s character comments how they’re all institutionalized. How they have their roles of importance in the prison. Yet as soon as they would leave the prison, they would be washed up nobodies. That can be seen by all of the participants in this experiment.
It’s always astounding to see just what went on in the “prison” for those six days. In six days men lost all sense of freedom and had to learn how to act or face punishment. One thing I will say is that they were accurate with the treatment of prisoners. With exception to the arrest (I don’t think blindfolding criminals/suspects is really allowed there folks) they went through what would and could be considered standard processing. They started to break down their confidence and spirit through the strip searches and delousing showers. Then they separated them all into cells and then cut off any contact with friends and family members. What contact they did have was controlled and limited, which further enforced the fact that the prisoners had no freedom and were under control by the guards. This was further shown by the guards controlling when they could use the bathroom, when they would be fed and even their sleeping patterns by having random awakenings for head counts. This power would be what led to the guards becoming “corrupted”.
Another factor that was mentioned in the chapter on Tuesday was the violence in prison, which was often used to formulate a position of power. The only real violence I believe would be the perceived threat that the guards gave off by carrying the nightsticks. While the prisoners did rebel, it was shut down and those that started it were almost quarantined away from the other prisoners and made examples of. This also brings to mind the idea of snitches. They had one snitch who was reporting on the activities of the “rebellion”. If this would have been a normal prison the snitch would have been exposed at some point and most likely would not live much longer after that fact being found out.
A good deal of this experiment can fall down to social psychology and perceived rolls. None of the guards had any experience in being a prison guard. Yet they fell into that role with a disturbingly natural ease. One cannot really say how that happened, whether they had the “image” of how a guard should act or if maybe the absolute power that they had received went to their heads. The prisoners soon went from the men that they were on the outside to the stressed out inmates trying to avoid the fury of the guards. Even Zimbardo who knew this was an experiment and his role was to continue the cohesiveness of it all, still fell prey to filling his social roll. Overall I think this experiment while flawed is an excellent example of the effects on power and social rolls on society. Still there are consequences that these men had to deal with, and I for one would never want to go to such lengths to see the darkness of man.

I read through the slideshow presentation on the Stanford Prison Experiment website. I have discussed the topic of the Stanford Prison Experiment in many other classes, so I knew a lot already about how the experiment was conducted and how it ended. I still learned some new, more specific information by viewing this website though. One of the things that I didn’t recall from previous discussions is that the “prisoners” were blindfolded after being taken to the police stations. This surprised me because it isn’t part of the normal procedure, which the experiment seemed to be trying to simulate as accurately as possible. Although I remembered it being discussed previously, it still surprised me that they new prisoners were stripped naked and deloused when entering the prison. The slideshow explained that this was done in order to humiliate the prisoners and submit them to degradation. I imagine that this idea came from the experimenter’s talks with their consultant who was a former prisoner, in order to most accurately simulate what it felt like to be in this situation. This is also shown in the outfit that the prisoners were required to wear, which was a smock with no clothes underneath. They were also required to wear a stocking cap, which was intended to remove their individuality, and a heavy chain on their ankle, which was intended to remind them at all times that they were a prisoner.

All of the prison guards wore the same outfit in the experiment as well. The guard outfit included a pair of mirrored sunglasses, which the slideshow explains were intended to help promote anonymity of the guards, just like the prisoner’s number was. Having the prisoners in identical outfits as each other and the guards in their own identical outfits also helps draw more of a line between the two groups. Anonymity also helps both groups view each other less as people and more as the role that they were assigned in the experiment, further fostering a feeling of resentment between the two groups.

The next topic that the slideshow addressed were “counts”, in which the prisoners were brought out of their cells, addressed by their assigned numbers, and counted to assure that they were all accounted for. This process is explained as being intended to help the prisoners become accustomed to their new “name” and also to help the guards assert their new authority over the prisoners. Guards also required prisoners to do push-ups when they felt the prisoners were out of line, further asserting their authority and dominance over them.

On the morning of the second day of the experiment, the prisoners revolted and barricaded themselves in their cells. The guards responded by spraying a fire extinguisher through the bars of the cell to get the prisoners away from the door so that they could enter and remove the prisoners. The ringleaders of the rebellion were placed into solitary confinement and the guards intimidated and harassed the rest of the prisoners, likely to re-assert their dominance over them and force them to be compliant. One of the cells was deemed a special privilege cell and was designed to reduce solidarity between the prisoners by only giving some of them the special privileges, while the others were subjected to the same substandard circumstances as before. Later on in the experiment, one of the prisoners, #8612, began to suffer severe emotional distress and was interviewed by the prisoner consultant, who chided him about being weak. During the next count, this prisoner told the others “You can’t leave. You can’t quit.” This seemed to be the final nail in the coffin for the prisoners to realize that they were truly imprisoned and that the experiment was becoming more than a game.

Later on, the families of the prisoners were allowed to visit. In preparation for this, the guards fed the prisoners a big meal, cleaned them up, and did other things in order to display a more humane vision of the prison to the visiting family members. This only lasted until the family member left, after which things returned to normal. After this, there were rumors of an escape being plotted, which the guards worked against by placing an informant in the cells. The primary experimenter, Zimbardo, also tried requesting to the Palo Alto police that their prisoners be transferred to their cells in order to have better security. This showed that even Zimbardo and the other experimenters were subjected to the roles given by this experiment. The experiment continued to escalate as things went on, with things eventually becoming so extreme that the experiment had to be ended.

This experiment is a good display of how the power of a situation can influence the thinking and actions of a person, driving them to do things that they thought they would never do. The experiment best relates to the field of social psychology, as the primary focus is in the interactions between the guards and the prisoners participating. This experiment is also a good indication of why studies need to be put under strong ethical consideration before they are carried out. It was interesting as always to read about the Stanford Prison Experiment and I even learned a few new things about it.

I had heard about the Stanford Prison Experiment before, we talked about it my sociology class and I found the experiment very surprising. I never would have expected the transformation that these students went through during the experiment. I understand that prison systems back then were not great conditions, but today I believe prison systems have improved.
This experiment’s attention to detail was really good; to just to make sure the students got the full experience of being a criminal. Sending officers to their houses and actually arresting them interesting because everybody saw them get arrested adding to the humiliation. Being processed and stripped naked is ways to break the prisoners and show who has the power. Stripping a person and humiliating them takes away a person’s spirit and takes away their identity. Once issued a uniform and giving an I.D number they are now just a prisoner and property of the state. The drastic measures this experiment went through goes beyond what real prisons do. They wanted the prisoners to feel like they had no way out and they were trapped. By changing out the doors and adding chains to their feet forced the prisoners to feel how serious prison can be. Cutting off all connection to the outside world really made this feel like a real prison. Taking down clocks is great way to make the prisoners lose track of time, casinos do the same thing.
The study not only focused on the prisoners in the jail but the officer that were in control of the prison. Giving the guards pretty much unlimited power and letting them come up with their own rules, made them feel like they had control of a person life. They had no training and had not been giving any certain way of carrying out their job. They took on the roles that they’ve seen in movies and on T.V and even the experiment dressed them up like officer from movies.
Of course there were bond to be conflicts between the guards and the prisoners. Both sides were just getting use to their roles and once the prisoners started to rebel the guards knew they have to figure out something. If one group of prisoners starts to challenge the control and power of the guards, then of course the guards are going to go to extreme measures. The reward system was interesting way of taking control of people. Using the reward system as a way to get the prisoner to turn on each other was another form of psychological control. The pure abuse and isolation would break down anybody and force them into the actually role of a prisoner. Even visitation of the parents added to belief that the students were in jail and there was no way out. It scary how the guards saying, “you can’t leave, you can’t quit” effected the prisoners. The jail became their reality and everything outside of this experiment was not the norm.
It was interesting how everybody in the experiment even the people that were in charge of it. When prisoners started to feel that they were in a real jail and that there was no way out, they started to feel the hopelessness. When it comes to the guards you can really see how power over another person can corrupt somebody. I’ve learned in other classes that there are three basic types of prison guards, it interesting how the students took on the roles of these types. The experiment really give us inside look into human nature and how people adapt to stressful condition and taking on roles that they believe are correct.

Wow, just wow. This experiment sounds wildly fascinating to me, I was surprised with how well they depicted and replicated prison life. The scary part is that they did it well that even the principle experimenter fell into the game, and lost track of what he was really doing there. They even had real police officers come to the participant’s houses and arrest them according to all standard procedures, and then take them to an actual police station for booking before being blind folded and taken to their “prison” which was in reality a psychology office. I was most surprised by how quickly the prisoners referred to themselves only by number, and how even knowing that it was an experiment, they lost track of reality, and prison became their new reality.
When the prisoners met with the priest, already by day three or four they introduced themselves as their number, even in a safe environment without the consequences of punishment from the guards. To successfully dehumanize someone so quickly is a remarkable psychological feat. However, being as the goal was to put them in that mind set as quickly as possible because the experiment was only supposed to last two weeks, they took some extra measures. They made the prisoners wear gowns in order to emasculate and humiliate them. They also made them wear nylon over their heads to simulate a prisoner’s head being shaved when they first enter the prison to check for lice and other diseases that rely on body hair to live and thrive. This unifies the prisoners, and serves as a sort of weird uniform for them, and is also degrading and dehumanizing especially at the time of this experiment in the 70’s when hair was an all too important representation of a person’s personality or social views. They also placed a mental chain and padlock around the ankle of the prisoners so that they would understand and have a heightened sense of being stuck of trapped that real prisoners feel after weeks of routine. They also only allowed the prisoners to refer to each other and themselves by a number. This again dehumanizes and equalizes the prisoners, but also immediately puts them at a lower authority level than the guards who all retain their names, and even form nick names after a few days.
Another interesting factor is how quickly the guards became comfortable enforcing their rules, and doing so by any means possible. Even the researches were interested in this question while experimenting. Does power corrupt? Obviously, in this case it did, and very quickly! These young boys, who were the same age as all of the prisoners, after just one day had become very much like real prison guards, and were administering physical punishment such as push up, as well as beating and forcefully handling the prisoners, even if the situation did not necessarily call for it. These days it would be easy to blame the media, and claim that these young men were simply mimicking what they saw on television shows and in movies of how the prison guards acted. However, during the 70s it was a commodity to have a television, and the programming was of a much different style. In contrast to our sex and violence fueled public network shows that we can’t seem to escape today, then there would have been no television shows, and few movies that actually depicted a prison life. One possible explanation for this seemingly innate brutality, is that is in fact an inborn characteristic of humans. If this were the case, then any and all of the guards would have punished for the slightest infraction, however that wasn’t exactly the case. Some guards were strict but fair, while others were lenient and allowed special privileges to the prisoners who behaved well. This difference could be a difference in personality styles of the individual guards, or it could be a reflection of the level of brutality that they were shown by others in authority over them.
Psychology plays a lot into this who experiment, which should be fairly obvious as it’s a psychology experiment. However, it goes much deeper even than the experimenters imagined. For example, when we look at the head experimenter who decided that it would best to observe from within and made himself the Prison Superintendent in the experiment, found himself to be sucked into the plot of the prison break. He truly believed, in a matter of days, that his own experimental design had become real, and that he was truly facing the threat of a prison break. This goes to show just how well they simulated the prison environment, and also how quickly and effectively having every second of your day monitored and regulated can change your personality and truly dehumanize you.
The psychology of the prisoners and of the guards was what the experiment was supposed to be testing and observing. The prisoners is probably the most interesting, because many of the students in the experiment couldn’t handle the abuse and control of the lifestyle and had break downs, and needed to be treated for their severe stress levels after they were terminated from the experiment. Shockingly, when prisoner #819 was in solitary confinement and the others were chanting about how he was a bad prisoner, he was so sucked into the reality of the simulation that the experimenter had to pull him up away from the other prisoners to tell him that this all an experiment and that he wasn’t just a number, and had to verbally remind him of his own name, while he was still crying hysterically because he wanted to go back to prove to the other prisoners that he wasn’t a bad prisoner. It took him only a few moments after hearing his own name to come back to reality, stop crying and understand what was going on. However, the simulation was so powerful that even being reminded that it was just an experiment, didn’t help until he heard his own name again. This really shows how easy it is to lose yourself when everyone around you, including you is only referring to you as a number, and you lose all sense of who you really are until someone uses your name again and you remember that you are an individual and not just another prisoner.

The Stanford Prison experiment is a very interesting study. It is one of my favorites and I have learned about this a couple of times in other Psych classes. This experiment focused on the mind set of people and how good people act when put into bad situations. When I put myself in their situation (the guards) I could never see myself being so abusive and aggressive toward these pretend prisoners. But I was not there during the experiment and I was not in the environment with the guards so I will never know. The whole experiment took place in the basement of a building at Stanford University. The psychology study was led by Philip Zimbardo and 24 men were selected out of 75. The participants agreed to take part in this experiment for 7 to 14 days and get paid $15 a day. The whole experiment was conducted like an actual prison. The prisoners were brought in, in a police car and arrested, and read their Miranda rights. The prisoners already have assumed the roles as "prisoners". During the experiment, the guards would humiliate the prisoners, torture them, and enforce the law. The guards made it clear that they were running the prison. Zimbardo did not expect what happened. He had no idea that the guards would take their role so seriously and take that authoritarian role. There was one "head guard" who took the role of the sheriff and did most of the punishment. The prisoners had been trapped inside the rooms or their "cells" for long enough where they actually thought they were in prison. Two of the people in the experiment got out of the experiment because it was too much for them, but they asked if they could leave and kept begging although it was just an experiment. Zimbardo would have let them leave regardless, but they really believed they were in prison. Being stripped away from their identities made the participants’ role as prisoners more real. When they had no sense of power or an identity, they probably felt like actual prisoners and had a sense of hopelessness. The role of the guards were affected negatively I think because they got out of hand with their authority. I realized after the experiment that power can make you mad. Once you have that power, it seems that you will abuse it. I never have realized that because I have not been in that position, but that is probably what happened with people like Stalin, or Hitler or other dictators. They gain that power and abuse it since people don't usually just get power handed to them.

The thing I thought was most interesting to me was that the guards displayed so much abuse towards these prisoners just because of the role that was given. I would never expect for that to happen. I learned that when you put good people in bad situations, that negative energy overcomes person goodness. This relates to psychology in every way. It has everything to do with your mind and the roles a person takes when put into different environments. It also shows how much environment has to do with a person’s behavior instead of their genes.

I found this experiment very interesting and the whole slide show was very cool. I always think that experiments are a great way to get more information and confirm theories, but sometimes they can be wrong and inhumane. (Kind of like the money experiments)
I learned that people need to feel like they are being cared for and everyone needs to feel wanted. When put into this scenario they were stripped of their identity. The prisoners were treated like animals and objects. They were given numbers and were no longer thought of as people. I was amazed that they had to quit the experiment only after just six days because of the degrading effect it was having on everyone. They all took to their roles very passionately, even the psychologists! This book kind of reminded me of my book report “Orange is the New Black” because the main character was placed into federal prison and was stripped of her identity also. She did not know how to survive and ended up relying on new relationships in her prison atmosphere to survive. Attachment is a major part of human survival.
Before going through the slideshow I didn’t see how the prisoners would have molded into their roles so strongly because they knew what they were getting themselves into. The prison culture is a lot different than normal society though they have their own rules, norms, power, hierarchy, rewards, and punishments. The process of prisonization is the assimilation of new inmates into the values, norms, and language of the prison. The guards also took their role very seriously too, even though they were all the same to start out with, they ended up thinking that the prisoners may be a threat to them. The guards treated them as if they were animals, only let them go to the bathroom at certain times, put chains around their ankles.. etc. They had completely free will with no rules. I felt bad for the prisoners because of the situation they were put in and the stress it caused them. Psychology weighed heavily on this experiment, it was revolved around it! Behavior modification played a very very big role in this, and they also used methods of positive and negative reinforcement. Social Psychology plays a role in this too and the situation of “Obedience to authority”.
Personally I thought that it was a good experiment and it was great to learn from, but while reading it I felt really bad for the volunteers. I don’t think that another experiment that has such an emotional and physical impact on people should be replicated again. I still think that its quite crazy how this was suppose to be a two week trial and it only lasted six days.

The Stanford Prison Experiment is a example of psychological and sociological effects on a person. This experiment tested and played with many psychological elements. The prisoners and the guards experienced a mixture of psychological and sociological stigmas like dominance, embarrassment, helplessness, power, confusion and time orientation loss, to only name a few.
Every step of the Stanford Prison Experiment was molded specifically to effect the psychology and mental state of the prisoners and the guards The arrival put these college kids through the normal criminal intake. Being swept up off the streets while their neighbors and friends watch was humiliating One of the largest psychological variables in the experiment was, in fact, humiliation. After being booked at the jail each prisoner was stripped naked and “sprayed” in order to clean them of germs. Being stripped naked in front of a bunch of strangers I'm sure was quite humiliating. This same degrading process can also be seen in the military and it's intake of soldiers. There goal is not to humiliate the new recruit, but to strip them of there identity and build a new one; a solider. In this experiment they were building a prisoner by shaving their hair and dressing them in uniform. The cloths also had a degrading effect on the prisoners. It was a female dress with no undergarments; this was to reduce masculinity and bestow humiliation. Both key psychological factors in this experiment.
I found this whole shocking and interesting. I have never fully been educated on the Stanford Prison Experiment until visiting this website. Granted, this was 1971 in American and the rules of research were a little lose. The brutality and dangerous of this study are huge. The psychological and mental fatigue and damage this study could have produced( and did produce in many instances) was very negative The effects of on the prisoners continued well after the experiment was over and they were released. I have taken research methods like many other students; there is no chance a study like this would make it off the ground in 2013. The amount of rules and regulations when conducting research have very much improved since 1971. After reading the full experiment, I was surprised and taken back that such a brutal experiment was allowed at an institution such as Stanford In my opinion, the psychological harm to the participants always out-ways the research findings.
Psychology really relates to this whole experiment. I learned that is is easy for individuals to fall into a certain roll given the situation. The guards, prisoners and even the instructor of the experiment fell into a prison roll only after a short day in the experiment. After the punishment of pushups given to the prisoners they fell into their roll; along with the guards accepting their power roll and dominance. Psychology and it's effects can be seen throughout this experiment. The families of the prisoners even became distressed and contacted lawyers in order to free their son's. The two main psychological changes I have taken from this experiment was the dominance roll and sadistic tendencies of the guard. Also, the submissive, powerless roll of the prisoners. These roll were all created by this experiment and eventually started to distort reality for the students involved. Over time both the prisoners and the guard started to lose the concept that this was an experiment and that the reality was they were in an actual prison. This belief was also psychologically created.

I had learned about Zombardo's Stanford Prison Experiment in prior classes, but not in this much detail. Many aspects of this study was designed to put a gap between two groups of people who had just a day earlier been just alike. Prisoners were arrested suddenly and humiliated by being stripped naked, deloused, and thrown into a room with no windows or clocks. They were deindividualized by being assigned a number and and stocking hat to simulate a shaved head. Most of their human rights were taken away as they were made to follow every rule and order of the guards, who only were separated from them by a coin toss.

Guards were also given uniforms and reflective sunglasses to make them seem anonymous. They were not told what to do and made up their own rules for dealing with prisoners, like mandatory counts and forcing prisoners to do push ups. After a failed rebellion, the guards shifted from physical punishment to more psychological tactics. They gave some prisoners special privelages and mixed them up so they didn't trust each other. Guards also forced prisoners to use buckets in their cells for bathrooms, which lead to less than humane conditions.

What most interested and surprised me was that they had visitation of parents and others. They tried to make the experiment look more appealing and I was surprised that no one really reacted negatively toward in when visiting. I also thought it was interesting when when of Zambordo was waiting on the breakout to happen and one of his friends asked him about the independent variable. That should have been a sign to himself as to how far into this role he was. From this I learned how important roles are to people and how strongly they hold on and act out their roles.

This experiment has a lot to do with social psychology and how people of different roles react and view each other. A group of people that had no difference between them at the beginning could be split up and look nothing alike at the end. Some of the prisoners thought the guards were chosen because they were bigger, which shows just how inferior the prisoners felt. People hold on to their roles in society and act them out according to what they have perceived others of that role doing. The scary thing is it doesn't take that long for this mental process to begin and escalate, as the experiment was dropped in just six days.

Stanford Prison Experiment
Where to begin, where to begin? To me this experiment was fascinating. It was fascinating because in just six short days regular college students who were assigned randomly to various roles of either guard or prisoner, who were of average to above average intelligence, who presented no signs of mental disorders after a preliminary screening, could succumb to a prisoner as well as authoritarian based ways of thinking to the point of presenting psychological reactions associated with degradation and positions of authority.
The experiment started off by simulating an actual arrest by having police officers go to the boy’s homes, arrest them outside in front of a real police car while neighbors watched and wondered what was happening. From there the boys were taken to a county jail where they were blindfolded and read their Miranda rights and told of the severity of their crimes. They were, from the county jail, picked up and taken to the facility that was set up to look like a prison. Awaiting them at the facility were guards who wore dark mirror sun glasses and khaki uniforms to simulate real guards. The “prisoners” were stripped naked, blindfolded again, given smocks and stocking caps to wear to simulate getting their heads shave and were assigned a number and a cell. The point to all of this was to make them feel degraded and emasculate them by wearing the smocks. Actual police procedures are very close to what these experimental procedures were. In all actuality real prisoners’ heads would have been shaved to eliminate any personal features so they are as dehumanized as possible. The prisoners also exposed to minimal sensory stimulation. This again deterred them from thinking that they were in control of anything. The guards in the experimental procedure were given no direction but were free to do what they felt was necessary based on their own discretions. It was interesting to find out that they had implemented some of the same punishments (multiple pushups) that Nazi’s would use to punish their prisoners. Also another similarity between the Nazis and the experimental guards that occurred naturally throughout the experiment was that some of the guards were given nicknames by the prisoners to exemplify how tough they were. One guard was nicknamed “Sarg” due to the fact that when he talked to the prisoners he sounded more like a military officer.
A few days into the experiment the prisoners exhibited a rebellion by pushing their beds up against the doors and barricading themselves in. The guard’s reactions this was really interesting to me because they had no direction at all in ways to handle what was happening. As a result they decided it would be best to call in the on call guards to come in to help with getting the prisoners out of their cells. They used fire extinguishers to get the inmates off of their beds and used force to pry open the doors. What happened next was really cool. The guards decided to use psychological tactics (reinforcement) to punish the inmates rather than the usual physical punishments. They rewarded the “good” inmates by letting them wash up, brush their teeth, gave them “good cells”, and let them eat good food while the “bad inmates” would watch this happen. This eventually caused the inmates to play against each creating a dissonance from what used to be an alliance. What was really interesting though was the fact that this happened without any direction from anyone and that this type of behavior matches up very closely with how prison life really works. Guards will typically racially separate the inmates to create conflicts within different groups in prison to direct attention off of them.
Psychological factors that largely play role in this type of experiment are internal causes as well as external causes for behavior. Internal causes such as a person’s personality played a role in how these boys reacted in certain situations during the experiment. While there were no underlying disorders or mental disabilities that played a role in why these boys reacted the way they did, one would have to assume it was due to personality differences. For instance during the experiment 3 different types of guards emerged: the good guys, tough but fair guys, and the hostile and arbitrary guys. Why these differences emerged is likely due to internal causes as well as external causes which were situations that they were placed in. The stability of the behaviors presented by the prisoners during the experiment were temporary. They really began to believe that they were actual prisoners after only 6 days. They displayed tantrums, refused to eat, became depressed and felt a huge sense of hopelessness. However as soon as they were reminded that this was an experiment they were able to return back to a normal state of functioning. The inmates also underwent the process of prisonization in that they underwent an adaptation to the values and norms of prison life. They became very compliant to the guards and eventually blindly obeyed what they were told to do. They also became used to defecating in their cells as well as whatever punishments were placed upon them. This powerful of a situation changed the prisoner’s individual differences to the point where most of them referred to themselves as their designated number and not their name.
Terms: degrade, desensitize, minimal sensory stimulation, reinforcement, powerful situation, individual differences, personality differences, punishments, authoritarian, prisonization, compliant, internal causes, external causes, emasculate, experiment, dissonance, depression, hopelessness.

After learning more detail about the experiment I found it odd but believable what the guards were doing. When they first came into the experiment it seemed as though they were unsure on how to act with the prisoners. Although, they quickly took on their roles and acted as though they were of higher power than the prisoners, even knowing it was just an experiment. I found it very interesting that Dr. Zimbardo got so deep into “character.” I figured it being his experiment and the fact that he’s the one who is doing the research he would be able to control himself when it came to the “role” that he was playing. I was not expecting the students’ parents to be brought into the experiment like they did. I think it was smart on their part to add this in. The fact that they got to see their parents gave them a little sense of hope but also shot it down so quickly due to the rules. They were only allowed ten minutes per visit, only two visitors per one prisoner and it had to be supervised by guard.
I believe in different situations that evil can triumph, but given the circumstances in this experiment, the participants may have thought that there weren’t any effects given it wasn’t actually “real.” I believe that in this experiment it’s giving a prime position where only evil can arise from any given participant. I don’t see how there can be room for anything but in an experiment that’s giving such power.
The chapter on imprisonment coincides really well with this. The book talked about how prison can change a person. Having to go through such degrading tasks like having to strip naked and wear dresses can belittle a person. Be so degraded can cause a person to feel they are not worthy of being treated like an equal nor are they respected. It can make them feel in adequate about themselves and their self-worth. There is a term we had recently learned called degradation. That is when the prisoners are humiliated in order to get them to listen and respect their superiors-the guards.
Psychologically, I believe that it was inevitable for them to rebel. During their little time there, they were humiliated right from the start and dehumanized by receiving numbers instead of using their given names. When the average person is belittled and humiliated, they feel as though they need to defend themselves. When they feel as though they have had enough, that is when they rebel. Given the damage done do their ego’s they have no shame in becoming violent or being embarrassed, they do what they feel is necessary to help them. The environment that they had been placed in had brought out a different side to these students they may not have known that had in side of them.
I was really glad that they put in the ending conclusion about the man who was kept in solitary confinement for an extended amount of time. It was almost 3 years, I believe, that he was inhumanely kept in confinement. He also shared that at times he would be stripped and kept in their naked and without a bed, a toilet, or any form of clothing or blankets to keep him warm.