The Stanford Prison Experiment: Philip Zimbardo

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Recommended: The controversial side of stanford prison experiment

You’re sitting at your house, you hear a knock at the door. You go and open it and to your surprise it’s the police. They’re turning you around and placing cold metal handcuffs on you while you’re getting read your miranda rights and spread eagle against the cop car while you’re searched. You’re being slung into the back of a cop car and driven to the police station, sirens wailing. When you arrive you get your picture taken, but you don’t smile. They take your finger and dip it in ink, then push it down hard on a piece of paper. They then put you back into the police car and drive you to another location. You’re still handcuffed, and you’re taken in. They put you in a dress, they put cold, heavy, loud shackles on your ankles. They make you put pantyhose on your head, and put rubber shoes on your feet. Then, last but not least, they place you in a small room with a bed thats nailed to the floor and a metal toilet which is also nailed to the floor. They close the metal bars behind you and it’s loud. Then all you can hear are the chains of your neighbors. All of this, and you're innocent. These are the events that happened to twenty four college males who participated in the Stanford Prison Experiment. This is just one example of many controversial psychological experiments. Certain psychological experiments suggest major controversy and their methods should be reconsidered.
The example above took place in 1971. Philip Zimbardo, the head administrator of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California conducted this experiment with the help of some other professors at the university, and twenty four male college students from the university. The initial purpose of the experiment was to examine the effect of roles. Zi...

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...ough for six days, and probably the rest of their lives, shouldn’t have been legal. There are large amounts of psychological experiments that are controversial and it’s apparent their methods should be reconsidered.

Works Cited

Cherry, K. (n.d.). The stanford prison experiment an experiment in the psychology of imprisonment. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/stanford-prison-experiment.htm

Gray, P. (October , 2013 19). Why zimbardo’s prison experiment isn’t in my textbook the results of the famous stanford prison experiment have a trivial explanation. Retrieved from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201310/why-zimbardo-s-prison-experiment-isn-t-in-my-textbook Zimbardo, P. (2014). A simulation study of the psychology of imprisonment conducted at stanford university. Retrieved from http://www.prisonexp.org/

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