Stanford Prison Experiment

Ethics vs. Production of Knowledge

• Does the end ever justify the means?
• Ethics aid in quality control
• What if the perfect experiment was conducted?
• Results were thanks to the unethical nature.

WHAT IS IT?

DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT

OUTCOME AND CONTROVERSIES

• Psychological experiment conducted by Philip Zimbardo in 1971 in the basement of the Stanford University.
• 24 male college students
• Guards or Prisoner
• Power difference, position of control
• How norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectation develop in prison experiment.

• Violated many principles.
• Outcomes: abuse of authority and experience stress and depression.
• A two week experiment turned to a six day experiment.
• No rules or restrictions given to the guards except for physical harm.
• Change in behaviours, put the experiment to an end.

• Public arrest of participants.
• Basement of the Stanford University.
• Two groups: guards and prisoners.
• Hidden microphones and cameras for the experimenters to observe from.
• Aggressive behaviour of the guards.
• Prisoners showing signs of stress.
• Finally put to an end by the "whistle-blower".

ARE THERE VALUES TO THE SPE?

• A better understanding of the psychological community.
• Better understanding of the occurrence of evil behaviour.
• People's behaviour occurs based on the situation, not relating to their everyday behaviour.
• Experiment helps understand morality and justice.

Connecting RLS 1: Mari's Abramovic's "Look but Don't touch"

• Performance art piece exihbited at MoMA in 2010
• Commentary on society's perspective on nudity
• Pushes bounderies of what is deemed ethically acceptable
• Symbiosis
• Ethical controversy strengthened the statement

Partition of British India

• Between India and Pakistan in 1947
• Different religions of Hinduism and Islamism
• Suicide bombing on February 14th of 2019
• Ethics does limit production of knowledge

KNOWLEDGE QUESTION:

Bibliography

What are ethically acceptable criteria?

• Ethically sound on personal, institutional, even federal levels.
• Society as determination
• Not always reliable
• APA ethics code

"ACCEPTABLE"

How ethical criteria is formed in individuals

Moral Code: Share knowledge

• Intuition leads to moral foundation of our society
• 'Toward a True Kinship of Faiths: How the World's Religions Can Come Together'
• Religion is a form of compassion or empathy
• Unitarian belief of a common thread of compassion provides proof that moral behavior is built into us.
• Those who ignore their moral code as a product of choice or upbringing, or those social outsiders or sufferers of mental illness who lack this ‘universal empathetic nature’ in the first place.

• Standard of "good"
• Logic and reason
• Emotions
• Parallel to basic moral principles

• Is the experiment ethically acceptable?

• Specifically important to the human sciences

• Question: How does the ethical acceptability of an experiment limit the effectiveness of the experiment’s results?

ETHICAL OUTCOMES OF SPE

• Unethical, fails to meet standards of the ethics code of the American Psychological Association
• Prisoner #8612
• Participants were not protected
• Implementation of new rules
• Benefit vs. Potential risk?

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwibkuL3g5XgAhWiIDQIHYzMA7wQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordprisonexperimentproject.wordpress.com%2F2017%2F11%2F28%2Fanother-blog-post%2F&psig=AOvVaw3wkDWet9FKZyEFw5jka15U&ust=1548921378920989

To what extent is the production of knowledge limited by conformity to ethically acceptable criteria?

• Stanford Experiment:

- https://www.verywellmind.com/the-stanford-prison-experiment-2794995

- https://www.simplypsychology.org/zimbardo.html

- https://www.verywellmind.com/philip-zimbardo-biography-2795529

- https://www.britannica.com/story/what-the-stanford-prison-experiment-taught-us

- https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/6/28/17509470/stanford-prison-experiment-zimbardo-interview

• Abu Ghraib:

- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2004/05/10/torture-at-abu-ghraib

- https://www.psychliverpool.co.uk/psychology-news/social/abu-ghraib-real-stanford-prison-experiment/

• Milgram Experiment:

- https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html

• Little Albert:
• - https://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html

In what ways can ethics limit knowledge?

• If ethics was not considered at all in experimentation (Human sciences) would it provide an opportunity to learn more?
• Limits the methods available
• Paradox of want to do good for society
• Adherence restricts experimental effectiveness

In relations to... SPE!

Criticisms

• Small unrepresentative sample s
• Population validity
• Generalizability
• Selection bias: Advertisement used
• Demand characteristics
• "John Wayne"
• Observer's effect
• Coaching of Guards
• Ecological validity
• Role of experimenter

CONCLUSION

The production of knowledge is limited by the criteria needed to make it ethically acceptable. By adhering to moral principles and staying within ethical boundaries, we are rejecting the opportunity to generate more knowledge, as well as restricting the ability of a method of knowledge production, such as experimentation, to more effectively generate knowledge.

Proudction of knowledge is limited, but ethical considerations and moral principles still triumphs because of "shared knowledge" aspect(moral code).This makes ethical considerations more important as it deals with the now, rather than a hypothetical future. Even though it limits production of knowledge from one angle, but it also encourage innovation and problem solving skills by encouraging non-invasive techniques to be built around ethical considerations.