Ethical Implications: The Stanford Prison Experiment

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The ethical implications within certain psychological studies are huge. The Stanford Prison experiment received many ethical criticisms, including lack of fully informed consent by participants as Zimbardo himself did not know what would happen in the experiment. He also assumed the role of prison warden and parole board officer, so some would argue he wasn’t acting objectively as he was involved in the experiment. The participants acting as prisoner were deceived in the first instance as they were not informed they would be arrested and taken to the experiment. This was a breach of the ethics of the contract the participants had signed. The biggest ethical implication of this study was that the participants weren’t protected from harm, distress

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