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The Stanford Prison Experiment.
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The Stanford Prison Experiment.
By: Olivia KistuleNUTZ, Olivia Weiss, and Lydia Cole
Ethical Flaws in Study
Zimbardo did not know himself what would happen in the experiment. Participants were not protected from psychological harm which violates ethical guideline two, which deals with the fact that there can’t be any danger (physical or mental) during the experiment.
Who, When, and Where?
Independent and Dependent Variables
Objective of Study
- Independent: the random assignment of roles as either prisoner or prison gaurd
- Dependent: the participants resulting behavior
"The purpose [of the experiment] was to understand the development of norms and the effects of roles, labels, and social expectations in a simulated prison environment."
-Philip Zimbardo
- The experiment was led by Professor Philip Zimbardo
- It was conducted from the 14th of April to the 20th of April in the year 1971
- Experiment only lasted a total of 6 days when it was supposed to go on for 2 weeks
- It was conducted at Stanford University
- The experiment was only conducted once
Reasons for Error
the prison guards were escalating their abuse towards the prisoners in the middle of the night when they thought no researchers were watching.
There was psychological harm.
Conclusion
Summary of the Experiment
People will readily conform to the social roles they are expected to play, especially if the roles are as strongly stereotyped as those of the prison guards. The “prison” environment was an important factor in creating the guards’ brutal behavior. None of the participants who acted as guards showed these tendencies before the study. So we can conclude that the findings support the situational explanation of behavior rather than the dispositional one.
Subjects were randomly assigned to play the role of "prisoner" or "guard". Those assigned to play the role of guard were given sticks and sunglasses. The other students played the prisoner role and were arrested by the Palo Alto police department, forced to wear chains and prison garments, and moved to the basement of the Stanford psychology department, which had been converted into a makeshift jail.